Antonio's Gun and Delfino's Dream by Sam QuinonesSam Quinones's first book, True Tales From Another Mexico, was acclaimed for the way it peered into the corners of that country for its larger truths and complexities. Antonio's Gun and Delfino's Dream, Quinones's second collection of nonfiction tales, does the same for one of the most important issues of our times: the migration of Mexicans to the United States. Quinones has covered the world of Mexican immigrants for the last thirteen years--from Chicago to Oaxaca, Michoacan to southeast Los Angeles, Tijuana to Texas. Along the way, he has uncovered stories that help illuminate all that Mexicans seek when they come north, how they change their new country, and are changed by it. Here are the stories of the Henry Ford of velvet painting in Ciudad Juarez, the emergence of opera in Tijuana, the bizarre goings-on in the L.A. suburb of South Gate, and of the drug-addled colonies of Old World German Mennonites in Chihuahua. Through it all winds the tale of Delfino Juarez, a young construction worker, and modern-day Huckleberry Finn, who had to leave his village to change it. Sam Quinones is a border legend. For those in the know, his reportage has been cause for celebration. Now, with Antonio's Gun and Delfino's Dream he takes us behind the lines and undercover. He puts a human face on 'illegal immigration, ' and he gives us stunning stories of survival and dread. However, he accomplishes something more valuable than a mere parade of sensational set pieces--Quinones starts to put the complex issues in the light of understanding and hard-won wisdom.--Luis A. Urrea, author of The Devil's Highway and The Hummingbird's Daughter Antonio's Gun and Delfino's Dream isjournalism that doesn't replay or expand on the clich d or stereotyped stories of the exotic border, of mystical or threatening mejicanos. Genuinely original work, what great fiction and nonfiction aspire to be, these are stories that stop time and remind us how great reading is.--Dagoberto Gilb, author of Hecho en Tejas Quinones was recently interviewed on the Jim Lehrer News Hour on PBS. Read the transcript here: http: //www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/social_issues/july-dec07/quinones_07-25.html Download the podcast of Sam Quinones' interview on KSFR's Santa Fe Radio Caf at: http: //www.santaferadiocafe.org/podcasts/ Download the Arizona PBS show Horizonte featuring Sam Quinones at: http: //www.azpbs.org/horizonte/transcript06.asp?ID=465# Watch the interview with Sam Quinones on KPBS-TV in San Diego: http: //www.kpbs.org/tv/full_focus?id=8236
The Distance Between Us by Reyna GrandeFrom an award-winning novelist and sought-after public speaker, an eye-opening memoir about life before and after illegally emigrating from Mexico to the United States. Mago pointed to a spot on the dirt floor and reminded me that my umbilical cord was buried there. “That way,” Mami told the midwife, “no matter where life takes her, she won’t ever forget where she came from.” Then Mago touched my belly button . . . She said that my umbilical cord was like a ribbon that connected me to Mami. She said, “It doesn’t matter that there’s a distance btween us now. That cord is there forever.” When Reyna Grande’s father leaves his wife and three children behind in a village in Mexico to make the dangerous trek across the border to the United States, he promises he will soon return from “El Otro Lado” (The Other Side) with enough money to build them a dream house where they can all live together. His promises become harder to believe as months turn into years. When he summons his wife to join him, Reyna and her siblings are deposited in the already overburdened household of their stern, unsmiling grandmother. The three siblings are forced to look out for themselves; in childish games they find a way to forget the pain of abandonment and learn to solve very adult problems. When their mother at last returns, the reunion sets the stage for a dramatic new chapter in Reyna’s young life: her own journey to “El Otro Lado” to live with the man who has haunted her imagination for years, her long-absent father. In this extraordinary memoir, award-winning writer Reyna Grande vividly brings to life her tumultuous early years, capturing all the confusion and contradictions of childhood, especially one spent torn between two parents and two countries. Elated when she feels the glow of her father’s love and approval, Reyna knows that at any moment he might turn angry or violent. Only in books and music and her rich imaginary life does she find solace, a momentary refuge from a world in which every place feels like “El Otro Lado.” The Distance Between Us captures one girl’s passage from childhood to adolescence and beyond. A funny, heartbreaking, lyrical story, it reminds us that the joys and sorrows of childhood are always with us, invisible to the eye but imprinted on the heart, forever calling out to us of those places we first called home.
Enrique's Journey by Sonia NazarioAn astonishing story that puts a human face on the ongoing debate about immigration reform in the United States, now updated with a new Epilogue and Afterword, photos of Enrique and his family, an author interview, and more--the definitive edition of a classic of contemporary America Based on the Los Angeles Times newspaper series that won two Pulitzer Prizes, one for feature writing and another for feature photography, this page-turner about the power of family is a popular text in classrooms and a touchstone for communities across the country to engage in meaningful discussions about this essential American subject. Enrique's Journey recounts the unforgettable quest of a Honduran boy looking for his mother, eleven years after she is forced to leave her starving family to find work in the United States. Braving unimaginable peril, often clinging to the sides and tops of freight trains, Enrique travels through hostile worlds full of thugs, bandits, and corrupt cops. But he pushes forward, relying on his wit, courage, hope, and the kindness of strangers. As Isabel Allende writes: "This is a twenty-first-century Odyssey. If you are going to read only one nonfiction book this year, it has to be this one." Look for special features inside. Join the Random House Reader's Circle for author chats and more. "Magnificent . . . Enrique's Journey is about love. It's about family. It's about home."--The Washington Post Book World "[A] searing report from the immigration frontlines . . . as harrowing as it is heartbreaking."--People (four stars) "Stunning . . . As an adventure narrative alone, Enrique's Journey is a worthy read. . . . Nazario's impressive piece of reporting [turns] the current immigration controversy from a political story into a personal one."--Entertainment Weekly "Gripping and harrowing . . . a story begging to be told."--The Christian Science Monitor "[A] prodigious feat of reporting . . . [Sonia Nazario is] amazingly thorough and intrepid."--Newsday
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American Immigration by David GerberAmericans have come from every corner of the globe, and they have been brought together by a variety of historical processes - conquest, colonialism, the slave trade, territorial acquisition, and voluntary immigration. A thoughtful look at immigration, anti-immigration sentiments, and themotivations and experiences of the migrants themselves, this book offers a compact but wide-ranging look at one of America's persistent hot-button issues. Historian David Gerber begins by examining the many legal efforts to curb immigration and to define who is and is not an American, ranging from the Naturalization Law of 1795 (which applied only to "free-born white persons") to the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, the Emergency Quota Act of 1921, andthe reform-minded Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, which opened the door to millions of newcomers, the vast majority from Asia and Latin America. The book also looks at immigration from the perspective of the migrant - farmers and industrial workers, mechanics and domestics, highly trainedprofessionals and small-business owners - who willingly pulled up stakes for the promise of a better life. Throughout, the book sheds light on the relationships between race and ethnicity in the life of these groups and in the formation of American society, and it stresses the marked continuitiesacross waves of immigration and across different racial and ethnic groups. A fascinating and even-handed historical account, this book puts into perspective the longer history of calls for stronger immigration laws and the on-going debates over the place of immigrants in American society.
Asylum Denied by David Ngaruri Kenney; Philip G. SchragAsylum Denied is the gripping story of political refugee David Ngaruri Kenney's harrowing odyssey through the world of immigration processing in the United States. Kenney, while living in his native Kenya, led a boycott to protest his government's treatment of his fellow farmers. He was subsequently arrested and taken into the forest to be executed. This book, told by Kenney and his lawyer Philip G. Schrag from Kenney's own perspective, tells of his near-murder, imprisonment, and torture in Kenya; his remarkable escape to the United States; and the obstacle course of ordeals and proceedings he faced as U.S. government agencies sought to deport him to Kenya. A story of courage, love, perseverance, and legal strategy, Asylum Denied brings to life the human costs associated with our immigration laws and suggests reforms that are desperately needed to help other victims of human rights violations.
Dream Chasers by John TirmanIllegal immigration continues to roil American politics. The right-wing media stir up panic over "anchor babies," job stealing, welfare dependence, bilingualism, al-Qaeda terrorists disguised as Latinos, even a conspiracy by Latinos to "retake" the Southwest. State and local governments have passed more than 300 laws that attempt to restrict undocumented immigrants' access to hospitals, schools, food stamps, and driver's licenses. Federal immigration authorities stage factory raids that result in arrests, deportations, and broken families -- and leave owners scrambling to fill suddenly open jobs. The DREAM Act, which would grant permanent residency to high school graduates brought here as minors, is described as "amnesty." And yet polls show that a majority of Americans support some kind of path to citizenship for those here illegally. What is going on? In this book, John Tirman shows how the resistance to immigration in America is more cultural than political. Although cloaked in language about jobs and secure borders, the cultural resistance to immigration expresses a fear that immigrants are changing the dominant white, Protestant, "real American" culture.Tirman describes the "raid mentality" of our response to immigration, which seeks violent solutions for a social phenomenon. He considers the culture clash over Chicano ethnic studies in Tucson, examines the consequences of an immigration raid in New Bedford, and explores the civil rights activism of young "Dreamers." The current "round them up, deport them, militarize the border" approach, Tirman shows, solves nothing.
Encyclopedia of American Immigration by Carl L. Bankston; Salem Press StaffDesigned and written to be understood by high school students and college undergraduates, this set addresses questions about immigration that students might be expected to ask: where immigrants have come from; how they have adapted to their new homeland;
The Ethics of Immigration by Joseph CarensIn The Ethics of Immigration, Joseph Carens synthesizes a lifetime of work to explore and illuminates one of the most pressing issues of our time. Immigration poses practical problems for western democracies and also challenges the ways in which people in democracies think about citizenshipand belonging, about rights and responsibilities, and about freedom and equality. Carens begins by focusing on current immigration controversies in North America and Europe about access to citizenship, the integration of immigrants, temporary workers, irregular migrants and the admission of family members and refugees. Working within the moral framework provided by liberaldemocratic values, he argues that some of the practices of democratic states in these areas are morally defensible, while others need to be reformed. In the last part of the book he moves beyond the currently feasible to ask questions about immigration from a more fundamental perspective. He arguesthat democratic values of freedom and equality ultimately entail a commitment to open borders. Only in a world of open borders, he contends, will we live up to our most basic principles. Many will not agree with some of Carens' claims, especially his controversial conclusion, but none will be able to dismiss his views lightly. Powerfully argued by one of the world's leading political philosophers on the issue, The Ethics of Immigration is a landmark work on one of the most importantglobal social trends of our era.
Immigration by Thomas Cieslik; David Felsen; Akis KalaitzidisThe uncomfortable contemporary realities of immigration, enmeshed as they are in economic, human rights, and national security issues, have once again propelled foreign immigration to the United States toward the top of the list of U.S. domestic policy concerns. Three respected authorities on immigration and international affairs here present a carefully calibrated history of U.S. immigration in primary source documents, tracing the roots of the current debate in the history of our profoundly divided and surprisingly cyclical response to foreign immigration. This book documents this national ambivalence, identifying the major waves of immigration and clarifying the ways in which the existing social and political fabric conditioned both the response to the newcomers and their prospects of eventual integration into American society. Part I introduces the historical record: The early days of the Republic, when most immigrants arrived from northern Europe The most important wave of immigration to the United States in the country's history, over 1880-1920, when most immigrants arrived from Asia or from southern and eastern Europe Virulent post-World War I anti-immigration sentiment The World War II-era absorption of huge numbers of displaced persons fleeing the misery and devastation of Europe Transition from a quota system to a preference system Heightened debate in the 1980s and 1990s The immigration policy repercussions of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 Part II takes up special issues in the contemporary immigration debate, including the security debate and immigration, immigration and the U.S. judiciary, the immigration debate and the economy, and the spectrum of public opinion on immigration revealed during the 2008 presidential election campaign. The authors demonstrate that today's highly polarized immigration reform debate in many respects recapitulates the antagonisms and chaotic policies of the 1980s and 1990s, when Ronald Reagan's Republican administration implemented an amnesty program while the state of California adopted the punitive Proposition 187. Paramount in today's immigration debate, however, are the homeland security concerns rendered acute by the 2001 bombing of the World Trade Center in New York City. The controversial USA PATRIOT Act of 2001 and the Homeland Security Act of 2002 are among the documents surveyed in relation to the contemporary immigration debate."
The Mayans among Us by Ann L. Sittig; Martha Florinda GonzálezWhen Ann L. Sittig made a quick stop at a secondhand shop in a small meatpacking town in Nebraska, she overheard a couple speaking Spanish with the unmistakable inflection of Mayan. When she inquired further, the couple confirmed that they were Mayans from Guatemala and indicated there were lots of Mayans living in the area. Soon afterward, Sittig met Martha Florinda Gonz#65533;lez, a Mayan community leader living in Nebraska, and together they began gathering the oral histories of contemporary Mayan women living in the state and working in meatpacking plants. In The Mayans Among Us, Sittig and Gonz#65533;lez focus on the unique experiences of the Central American indigenous immigrants who are often overlooked in media coverage of Latino and Latina migration to the Great Plains. Many of the Mayan immigrants are political refugees from repressive, war-torn countries and as such are distinct from Latin America's economic immigrants. Sittig and Gonz#65533;lez initiated group dialogues with Mayan women about the psychological, sociological, and economic wounds left by war, poverty, immigration, and residence in a new country. The Mayans share their concerns and hopes as they negotiate their new home, culture, language, and life in Nebraska in order to survive and send economic support back home for their children. Longtime Nebraskans share their perspectives on the immigrants as well. The Mayans Among Us poignantly explores how Mayan women in rural Nebraska meatpacking plants weave together their three distinct identities: Mayan, Central American, and American.
Refugee Children by Charles WattersThe late 20th and early 21st century have seen unprecedented numbers of children entering Western countries. This text offers a comprehensive overview to the problems facing refugee children in the industrialised world and the measures taken by nation states and intergovernmental bodies to address perceived problems.
The Refugee in International Society by Emma HaddadWith the unrelenting unrest in places such as Iraq, Afghanistan and the Sudan, the plight of refugees has become an increasingly discussed topic in international relations. Why do we have refugees? When did the refugee 'problem' emerge? How can the refugee ever be reconciled with an international system that rests on sovereignty? Looking at three key periods - the inter-war period, the Cold War and the present day - Emma Haddad demonstrates how a specific image has defined the refugee since the international states system arose in its modern form and that refugees have thus been qualitatively the same over the course of history. This historical and normative approach suggests new ways to understand refugees and to formulate responses to them. By examining the issue from an international society perspective, this book highlights how refugees are an inevitable, if unanticipated, result of erecting political borders.
Refugees and Forced Displacement by Edward Newman (Editor); Joanne Van Selm (Editor)Human displacement can be both a cause and a consequence of conflict within and among societies. As such, the management of refugee movements and the protection of displaced people should be an integral part of security policy and conflict management. Refugees and forcibly displaced people can also represent the starkest example of a tension between "human security"--where the primary focus is the individual and communities--and more conventional models of "national security" tied to the sovereign state. The authors apply this theme to a number of pressing problems covering international law, internally displaced persons, early warning of refugee flows, asylum, the actors and institutions involved in refugee protection, the return and reintegration of displaced people, gender and displacement, and ethical perspectives. The book demonstrates how many of the challenges of refugees, and the challenges posed by societies and governments to refugee protection, have been exacerbated by the terrorist attacks of September 2001. In seeking to address the conflict between security concerns and migratory flows, Refugees and Forced Displacement argues the need for reappraisal of the legal, political, normative, institutional, and conceptual frameworks through which the international community addresses refugees and displacement. Contributors include B.S.Chimni, Patricia Weiss Fagen, Mervyn Frost, Khalid Koser, Gil Loescher, William Maley, Peter Mares, Julie Mertus, Erin D. Mooney, Gregor Noll, Mark Raper, Susanne Schmeidl, Astri Suhrke, and Gary Troeller.
When Race and Policy Collide by Donathan L. Brown; Amardo J. RodriguezExamining actual policy to identify the facts, this book exposes how racially charged political and legal debates over immigration reform in the United States continue to inform our immigration policy. * Covers policies pertaining to immigrants and immigration reform and relates these policies to associated topics such as language, bilingual education, housing, borders, and voting rights * Provides immigration policy analyses that are engaging and accessible to a wide range of readers * Examines past policy actions as well as findings from recent case studies, allowing readers to grasp the specific racial dimensions intertwined in these controversial policies and debates
Books in the library
America the Ingenious by Kevin BakerHere are 76 of the most intriguing, important, and ingenious inventions realized in America, from the Panama Canal, the Hoover Dam, the Golden Gate Bridge, and Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater to the oil rig, the electric sewing machine, and the telephone. Who came up with these ideas? How long did they take to realize? What were the complications? How, exactly, do these things work? And how have they affected who we are today? This book will satisfy the curiosity of history and miscellany buffs alike. Readers will walk away with a new appreciation for these world-changing inventions, as well as a newfound understanding of what makes America the perfect breeding ground for ingenuity.
The Border Wall with Mexico by Martin Gitlin (Editor)To some, the idea of a border wall with Mexico represents a necessary and practical barrier to illegal immigration and the perceived host of ills that are associated with it. To others, it is both an unrealistic and inhumane effort that demonizes desperate individuals and families who are only seeking a better life. The debate is fierce and is bound up with competing notions of crime, ethnicity, opportunity, fairness, justice, and what America promises, offers, stands for, and represents. All sides of the debate are presented here, and each is given a fair and respectful hearing, allowing readers to sift through fact and opinion, evaluate the strength of arguments, and form an educated opinion on the issue.
Climate and Human Migration by Robert A. McLemanStudies warn that global warming and sea level rise will create hundreds of millions of environmental refugees. While climate change will undoubtedly affect future migration patterns and behavior, the potential outcomes are more complex than the environmental refugee scenario suggests. This book provides a comprehensive review of how physical and human processes interact to shape migration, using simple diagrams and models to guide the researcher, policy maker and advanced student through the climate-migration process. The book applies standard concepts and theories used in climate and migration scholarship to explain how events such as Hurricane Katrina, the Dust Bowl, African droughts, and floods in Bangladesh and China have triggered migrations that haven't always fit the environmental refugee storyline. Lessons from past migrations are used to predict how future migration patterns will unfold in the face of sea level rise, food insecurity, political instability, and to review options for policy makers.
Deporting Immigrants by Anne Cunningham (Editor)As immigration and naturalization processes continue to dominate U.S. news headlines and political rhetoric, the tangible fear of having one's family torn apart is only growing greater for those who flock to the United States for work, education, or refuge. This book looks at both legal and undocumented immigration and explores the challenges faced by local and federal government officials, by different types of workers, and by the children of green card or visa holders. This is a balanced overview of deportation, those it may involve, and how it works.
Immigration Bans by Elizabeth Schmermund (Editor)Recent world events have brought the issue of immigration to the forefront of media and journalism, cultural debates, and political campaigns. Calls for regulation are criticized as racist and xenophobic by some and deemed necessary by others. This resource addresses important questions surrounding the issue: How do immigration bans affect different groups? How can nations reconcile humanitarian and security concerns for refugees? How much of the nation's economy depends on immigrant labor? And finally, do increased border controls and deportations actually work?
Immigration Reform by Noël Merino; Greenhaven Press Staff (Contribution by)The At Issue series includes a wide range of opinion on a single controversial subject. Each volume includes primary and secondary sources from a variety of perspectives -- eyewitnesses, scientific journals, government officials and many others. Extensive bibliographies and annotated lists of relevant organizations to contact offer a gateway to future research. Features and Benefits *Greenhaven Press's At Issue series provides a wide range of opinions on individual social issues. * Enhancing critical thinking skills, each At Issue volume is an excellent research tool to help readers understand current social issues and prepare reports. * Extensive bibliographies and annotated lists of relevant organizations point to sources for further research.
The Line Becomes a River by Francisco CantúNAMED A TOP 10 BOOK OF 2018 BY NPR and THE WASHINGTON POST SHORTLISTED FOR THE ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDAL OF EXCELLENCE The instant New York Times bestseller, "A must-read for anyone who thinks 'build a wall' is the answer to anything." --Esquire For Francisco Cantú, the border is in the blood: his mother, a park ranger and daughter of a Mexican immigrant, raised him in the scrublands of the Southwest. Driven to understand the hard realities of the landscape he loves, Cantú joins the Border Patrol. He and his partners learn to track other humans under blistering sun and through frigid nights. They haul in the dead and deliver to detention those they find alive. Plagued by a growing awareness of his complicity in a dehumanizing enterprise, he abandons the Patrol for civilian life. But when an immigrant friend travels to Mexico to visit his dying mother and does not return, Cantú discovers that the border has migrated with him, and now he must know the full extent of the violence it wreaks, on both sides of the line.
The Making of a Dream by Laura Wides-Muñoz (Contribution by)A journalist chronicles the next chapter in civil rights--the story of a movement and a nation, witnessed through the poignant and inspiring experiences of five young undocumented activists who are transforming society's attitudes toward one of the most contentious political matters roiling America today: immigration. They are called the DREAMers: young people who were brought, or sent, to the United States as children and who have lived for years in America without legal status. Growing up, they often worked hard in school, planned for college, only to learn they were, in the eyes of the United States government and many citizens, "illegal aliens." Determined to take fate into their own hands, a group of these young undocumented immigrants risked their safety to "come out" about their status--sparking a transformative movement, engineering a seismic shift in public opinion on immigration, and inspiring other social movements across the country. Their quest for permanent legal protection under the so-called "Dream Act," stalled. But in 2012, the Obama administration issued a landmark, new immigration policy: Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, which has since protected more than half a million young immigrants from deportation even as efforts to install more expansive protections remain elusive. The Making of a Dream begins at the turn of the millennium, with the first of a series of "Dream Act" proposals; follows the efforts of policy makers, activists, and undocumented immigrants themselves, and concludes with the 2016 presidential election and the first months of the Trump presidency. The immigrants' coming of age stories intersect with the watershed political and economic events of the last two decades: 9/11, the recession, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Obama presidency, and the rebirth of the anti-immigrant right. In telling their story, Laura Wides-Muñoz forces us to rethink our definition of what it means to be American.
The Mayans among Us by Ann L. Sittig; Martha Florinda GonzálezWhen Ann L. Sittig made a quick stop at a secondhand shop in a small meatpacking town in Nebraska, she overheard a couple speaking Spanish with the unmistakable inflection of Mayan. When she inquired further, the couple confirmed that they were Mayans from Guatemala and indicated there were lots of Mayans living in the area. Soon afterward, Sittig met Martha Florinda Gonz#65533;lez, a Mayan community leader living in Nebraska, and together they began gathering the oral histories of contemporary Mayan women living in the state and working in meatpacking plants. In The Mayans Among Us, Sittig and Gonz#65533;lez focus on the unique experiences of the Central American indigenous immigrants who are often overlooked in media coverage of Latino and Latina migration to the Great Plains. Many of the Mayan immigrants are political refugees from repressive, war-torn countries and as such are distinct from Latin America's economic immigrants. Sittig and Gonz#65533;lez initiated group dialogues with Mayan women about the psychological, sociological, and economic wounds left by war, poverty, immigration, and residence in a new country. The Mayans share their concerns and hopes as they negotiate their new home, culture, language, and life in Nebraska in order to survive and send economic support back home for their children. Longtime Nebraskans share their perspectives on the immigrants as well. The Mayans Among Us poignantly explores how Mayan women in rural Nebraska meatpacking plants weave together their three distinct identities: Mayan, Central American, and American.
Migrants and Refugees by Chris Eboch (Editor)The images are shocking and upsetting: drowned children washing up on beaches, dozens of dead bodies being pulled out of tractor trailers, a mass of humanity penned up in detention camps and tent cities, anti-immigrant rallies characterized by fearful and hate-filled invective. Yet there are also images of refugees being embraced by ordinary citizens and welcomed into their countries, their communities, even their homes. What to do about a growing and endemic refugee crisis and migrant labor population in an age of globalization, terrorism, and income inequality is a question with no simple answers. This volume presents the widest possible range of opinions from reputable sources across the political spectrum and encouragers readers to consider all viewpoints before formulating their own reasoned and informed perspective.
A Nation of Nations by Tom GjeltenThe dramatic and compelling story of the transformation of America during the last fifty years, told through a handful of families in one suburban county in Virginia that has been utterly changed by recent immigration. In the fifty years since the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act, the foreign-born population of the United States has tripled. Significantly, these immigrants are not coming from Europe, as was the case before 1965, but from all corners of the globe. Today non-European immigration is ninety percent of the total immigration to the US. Americans today are vastly more diverse than ever. They look different, speak different languages, practice different religions, eat different foods, and enjoy different cultures. In 1950, Fairfax County, Virginia, was ninety percent white, ten percent African-American, with a little more than one hundred families who were “other.” Currently the African-American percentage of the population is about the same, but the Anglo white population is less than fifty percent, and there are families of Asian, African, Middle Eastern, and Latin American origin living all over the county. A Nation of Nations follows the lives of a few immigrants to Fairfax County over recent decades as they gradually “Americanize.” Hailing from Korea, Bolivia, and Libya, these families have stories that illustrate common immigrant themes: friction, between minorities, economic competition and entrepreneurship, and racial and cultural stereotyping. It’s been half a century since the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act changed the landscape of America, and no book has assessed the impact or importance of this law as this one does, with its brilliant combination of personal stories and larger demographic and political issues.
Sanctuary Cities by Marcia Amidon LüstedAs part of his crackdown on illegal immigration, President Trump's vow to defund sanctuary cities, cities and counties that protect low-priority immigrants from deportation, has stirred up a hornet's nest of controversy. Are sanctuary cities legal? Should the federal government infringe on states' rights? Why should illegal immigrants be protected? Do sanctuary cities threaten national security and community safety? Do they encourage illegal immigration? These are among the many complicated questions posed in this enlightening anthology, in which diverse viewpoints address the swirling issues of immigration, federal vs. states' rights, and America's moral responsibility as a democracy.
Whose Child Am I? by Susan J. TerrioIn 2014, the arrest and detention of thousands of desperate young migrants at the southwest border of the United States exposed the U.S. government's shadowy juvenile detention system, which had escaped public scrutiny for years. This book tells the story of six Central American and Mexican children who are driven from their homes by violence and deprivation, and who embark alone, risking their lives, on the perilous journey north. They suffer coercive arrests at the U.S. border, then land in detention, only to be caught up in the battle to obtain legal status. Whose Child Am I? looks inside a vast, labyrinthine system by documenting in detail the experiences of these youths, beginning with their arrest by immigration authorities, their subsequent placement in federal detention, followed by their appearance in deportation proceedings and release from custody, and, finally, ending with their struggle to build new lives in the United States. This book shows how the U.S. government got into the business of detaining children and what we can learn from this troubled history.
