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Impossible subjects : illegal aliens and the making of modern America  Cover Image Book Book

Impossible subjects : illegal aliens and the making of modern America / Mae M. Ngai.

Ngai, Mae M. (Author).

Summary:

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 differences and by emphasizing as never before the nation's continguous land borders and their patrols.

Record details

  • ISBN: 9780691160825 (pbk. : acid-free paper)
  • ISBN: 0691160821 (pbk. : acid-free paper)
  • Physical Description: xxx, 377 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
  • Edition: New paperback edition / with a new forward by the author.
  • Publisher: Princeton, New Jersey : Princeton University Press, 2014.

Content descriptions

Bibliography, etc. Note:
Includes bibliographical references (pages [357]-368) and index.
Formatted Contents Note:
Introduction : Illegal aliens : a problem of law and history -- pt. 1. The regime of quotas and papers -- 1. The Johnson-Reed Act of 1924 and the reconstruction of race in immigration law -- 2. Deportation policy and the making and unmaking of illegal aliens -- pt. 2. Migrants at the margins of law and nation -- 3. From Colonial subject to undesirable alien : Filipino migration in the invisible empire -- 4. Braceros, "wetbacks," and the national boundaries of class -- pt. 3. War, nationalism, and alien citizenship -- 5. The World War II internment of Japanese Americans and the citizenship renunciation cases -- 6. The Cold War Chinese immigration crisis and the confession cases -- pt. 4. Pluralism and nationalism in post-World War II immigration reform -- 7. The liberal critique and reform of immigration policy -- Epilogue -- Appendix -- Notes -- Archival and other primary sources.
Subject: Illegal aliens > United States > History.
Emigration and immigration law > United States > History.
Citizenship > United States > History.
Genre: History.

Available copies

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  • 0 current holds with 1 total copy.
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Location Call Number / Copy Notes Barcode Shelving Location Status Due Date
Coldwater Branch 342.73 NGA (Text) 35401425002556 Non-Fiction Available -


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