Immigration Books

Michael LeMay and Elliott Robert Barkan edit U.S. Immigration And Naturalization Laws And Issues, a fine collection which covers the foundations of immigration laws and their applications. From court cases to opinion pieces, this provides thorough understanding of all the issues involved.

I consider this compilation of essays and historical documents an essential addition to the library of persons interested in US-Mexico borderlands history. The strength is, in my opinion, in its collection of historical writings, which include the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo, the Plan of San Diego, and Juan Cortina's Proclamations. The reader is able to consider events and thoughts that occurred during the period between 1848 and 1915, rather than rely on commentary. However, the well-written essays compliment the documents (and I believe the text was designed with this in mind.) All together, a very nice collection.

Several books have been written about the movement of Nazi war criminals to Canada following WW II, and in particular about the events leading up to, and surrounding, the 1985 Deschenes Commission of Inquiry.

Whereas some of the other references have specific axes to grind, charging that Canada - either deliberately or unwittingly - became a safe haven for some of the worst criminals to emerge from the war - Mr. Margolian deals with the subject in a straightforward, unambiguous manner. So much so that it leaves no doubt that the war criminal "movement" was in no way a conspiracy but simply a manifestation of the times.

There was mass confusion in Europe at the time, with millions of displaced people in camps with either very little or no identification papers. With unrelenting political pressure from every special interest group in creation back home in Canada, the officers abroad were constantly being "encouraged" to speed up processing. Consequently, some bad actors were able to slip through.

As a primary Immigration Department witness before the Deschenes Commission, and after reading all of the other accounts published since then, I can say unequivocally that this is the most comprehensive and fairest of them all.

A collection of eight "politically incorrect" essays and one book review by one of the most incisive observers of the current American political scene.
Contents include: Political Correctness: America's Mental Incubus; Massive Immigration: The Genocide of a People and a Culture; Patrick Buchanan's Death of the West; Race Relations in America; The Martin Luther King Myth; Conceptual Issues in Prohibiting `Hate Speech'; A Critique of the Free Trade Theory.

I loved the speed at which I received this book! It was much appreciated as the local book store botched getting the book in a timely manner.

The book has some real valuable information about the various visas and how to go about obtaining one. It also covers cases where one needs to switch visa status. The topics are well divided into chapters and the book is written clearly with great case studies. (It is also available in Hebrew).

I believe this book is one of the best reading materials for anyone who wishes to legally stay in the USA, for whichever purpose. It is highly recommended, even if you have an attorney or about to get one.

Amazing quality. It is just as if it was brand new!

Our usual image of the Scandinavian immigrant is that of the Minnesota farmer. This isn't just because of Garrison Keillor. Most of the history books about Scandinavian Americans have been writtten at Lutheran colleges in the Midwest, and they focus almost entirely on the Midwestern experience. Yet as Jennifer Eastman Attebery points out in this book, by 1920 some 20% of Swedish Americans were living in the West. Even in the Pacific Northwest, where there is a major Scandinavian museum, there have been very few books written on the western Scandinavian experience, and there is basically nothing about Scandinavians in the Rocky Mountain states. Attebery, based at Idaho State University, has been working to fill this void, and this book is a major contribution. In the West Swedes took part in all the adventures of the frontier: prospecting and mining, building railroads, cutting timber, cowboying. Their stories are far more diverse and entertaining than those of Midwestern farmers. Attebery tells their stories through their letters. This is a scholarly book, so the opening discussion of methodology may be a bit abstract for the general reader. But then she offers chapters organized around different aspects of immigrant experience, such as work, religion, and community, chapters offering an interesting cast of characters and stories. A 70-page appendix offers the actual letters.

This book talks about a critical factor that shaped America - the large scale migrations of people from Europe in eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

The author starts with the causes of migrations - unemployement, famine, devastation of rural Europe, population pressure for arable land, etc., and moves to describe the ordeal of sea voyages of those times, the shock of the new land for survivors of the journey, settlement, lack of privacy and the shaping of the culture of migrants.

He narrates this history not like a historian narrating names and dates but as an able story teller. He is smart enough to weave causal explanations into a narrative mode. He does not name individual migrants, ships, dates of migration, quotes of Historians or cities of Europe and America. His history is not about individuals. It narrates the story of 'people' - that is migrants in a collective sense.

This book is written with a rare sensitivity. The descriptions of the ordeal of 'uprooting' and finding new roots are deeply moving. Some of most moving passages deal with the struggle to be able to afford a sea voyage; disease, starvation and death in over-crowded decks/cabins; and utter helplessness on landing in a new land.

I had to read this book for a course that I'm taking here in Berkeley, and I have to say that Professor Laguerre is a great teacher as well as a great writer. This book is very interesting as it talks about the inequality between non-Christians and the "mainstream" not by the usual problems of segmentation within the city or class or race, but it talks about how cultural differences affect the rhythms of daily life, and how the year runs on different tracks for different people, such as the Jews or the Muslims (who have their holiest times of the week on Saturday and Friday). Laguerre talks about how these temporal discrepancies affect New York specifically, and cities in general. If you are a Berkeley student, I definitely recommend Laguerre's American Studies 84 course.

The book, especially the first chapter, is very dense as you first learn about the idea of the chronopolis and diasporic temporalities, but once you get past these ideas, the anecdotal examples given within provide interesting and provoking ideas for you to think about. Also, some of the stories contained are kind of funny. I definitely recommend this book if you are into sociology, or if you are interested on the Jewish and Muslim cultures. If nothing else, this is a very nice read.