Impossible Subjects: Illegal Aliens and the Making of Modern America - Updated Edition Revised Edition Contributor(s): Ngai, Mae M. (Author), Ngai, Mae M. (Foreword by) |
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ISBN: 0691160821 ISBN-13: 9780691160825 Publisher: Princeton University Press OUR PRICE: $25.60 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: April 2014 |
Additional Information |
BISAC Categories: - History | United States - 20th Century - Social Science | Emigration & Immigration - Social Science | Ethnic Studies - General |
Dewey: 342.730 |
LCCN: 2013957460 |
Series: Politics and Society in Twentieth-Century America (Paperback) |
Physical Information: 1.2" H x 6" W x 9.2" (1.25 lbs) 416 pages |
Themes: - Chronological Period - 20th Century |
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
Publisher Description: This book traces the origins of the illegal alien in American law and society, explaining why and how illegal migration became the central problem in U.S. immigration policy--a process that profoundly shaped ideas and practices about citizenship, race, and state authority in the twentieth century. Mae Ngai offers a close reading of the legal regime of restriction that commenced in the 1920s--its statutory architecture, judicial genealogies, administrative enforcement, differential treatment of European and non-European migrants, and long-term effects. She shows that immigration restriction, particularly national-origin and numerical quotas, remapped America both by creating new categories of racial difference and by emphasizing as never before the nation's contiguous land borders and their patrol. |