A Nation by Design: Immigration Policy in the Fashioning of America (Russell Sage Foundation Books at Harvard University Press)

According to the national mythology, the United States has long opened its doors to people from across the globe, providing a port in a storm and opportunity for any who seek it. Yet the history of immigration to the United States is far different. Even before the xenophobic reaction against European and Asian immigrants in the late nineteenth century, social and economic interest groups worked to manipulate immigration policy to serve their needs. In A Nation by Design, Aristide Zolberg explores American immigration policy from the colonial period to the present, discussing how it has been used as a tool of nation building.

A Nation by Design argues that the engineering of immigration policy has been prevalent since early American history. However, it has gone largely unnoticed since it took place primarily on the local and state levels, owing to constitutional limits on federal power during the slavery era. Zolberg profiles the vacillating currents of opinion on immigration throughout American history, examining separately the roles played by business interests, labor unions, ethnic lobbies, and nativist ideologues in shaping policy. He then examines how three different types of migration–legal migration, illegal migration to fill low-wage jobs, and asylum-seeking–are shaping contemporary arguments over immigration to the United States.

A Nation by Design is a thorough, authoritative account of American immigration history and the political and social factors that brought it about. With rich detail and impeccable scholarship, Zolberg’s book shows how America has struggled to shape the immigration process to construct the kind of population it desires.

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Politicians in the US state of Florida are the latest to craft a bill modelled on a controversial law in Arizona, according to local media reports. The law, signed in April, gives broad powers to police to question people they suspect of being in the country illegally. Critics say it encourages racial profiling. Now politicians in at least six states have introduced bills similar to Arizona’s. But there may be economic consequences. Los Angeles and one town in Indiana have passed bans on doing business with Arizona companies. And at least five challenges have been filed against the Arizona law – mainly on civil rights grounds The Obama adminstration has also signalled it will take legal action soon. Al Jazeera’s Nick Spicer reports.

Doug Stanhope talking about immigration…
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