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

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Ngai, Mae M., author.

Series:

Politics and society in twentieth-century America.

Politics and Society in Twentieth-Century America

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Noncitizens--United States--History.

Noncitizens.

Emigration and immigration law--United States--History.

Emigration and immigration law.

Citizenship--United States--History.

Citizenship.

Illegal immigration.

Physical Description:

1 online resource

Edition:

New paperback edition / with a new forward by the author.

Place of Publication:

2014.

Princeton, New Jersey : Princeton University Press, 2014.

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 "as, 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.Some images inside the book are unavailable due to digital copyright restrictions.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Table of Contents

Figures and Illustrations

Tables

Acknowledgments

Note on Language and Terminology

Foreword to the New Paperback Edition

Introduction. Illegal Aliens: A Problem of Law and History

PART I: THE REGIME OF QUOTAS AND PAPERS

One. The Johnson-Reed Act of 1924 and the Reconstruction of Race in Immigration Law

Two Deportation Policy and the Making and Unmaking of Illegal Aliens

PART II: MIGRANTS AT THE MARGINS OF LAW AND NATION

Three. From Colonial Subject to Undesirable Alien: Filipino Migration in the Invisible Empire

Four. Braceros, "Wetbacks," and the National Boundaries of Class

PART III: WAR, NATIONALISM, AND ALIEN CITIZENSHIP

Five. The World War II Internment of Japanese Americans and the Citizenship Renunciation Cases

Six The Cold War Chinese Immigration Crisis and the Confession Cases

PART IV: PLURALISM AND NATIONALISM IN POST-WORLD WAR II IMMIGRATION REFORM

Seven. The Liberal Critique and Reform of Immigration Policy

Epilogue

Appendix

Notes

Archival and Other Primary Sources

Index

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

1-4008-5023-1

OCLC:

874097179