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"While vernacular discussion of the so-called 'illegal alien' in the United States has generally fixed on the alien side of the equation, Mae Ngai's luminous new book focuses rather on the illegal--the bureaucratic and ideological machinery within legislatures and the courts--that has created a very particular kind of pariah group. Impossible subjects is a beautifully executed and important contribution: judicious yet impassioned, crisply written, eye-opening, and at moments fully devastating. All of which is to say, brilliant. Would that such a story need not be told."
--Matthew Frye Jacobson, Yale University, author of Barbarian Virtues: the United states Encounters Foreign Peoples at Home and Abroad, 1876-1917"In
Impossible Subjects' Mae Ngai has written a stunning history of U.S. immigration policy and practice in that often forgotten period, 1924-1965. Employing rich archival evidence and case studies, Ngai marvelously shows how immigration law was used as a tool to fashion American racial policy particularly toward Asians and Mexicans though the differential employment of concepts such as "illegal aliens," "national origins," and "racial ineligibility to citizenship." For those weaned on the liberal rhetoric of an immigrant America this will be a most eye-opening read."
--Ramon A. Gutierrez, author, When Jesus Came, the Corn Mothers Went Away: Marriage, Sexuality and Power in New Mexico, 1500-1848."
Impossible Subjects' makes an outstanding contribution to U.S. histories of race and citizenship. Ngai's excellent discussions of the figure of the illegal alien, and laws regarding immigration and citizenship, demonstrate the history of U.S. citizenship as an institution that produces racial differences. This history explains why struggles over race, immigration, and citizenship continue today."
--Lisa Lowe, UC San Diego, author of Immigrant Acts: On Asian American Cultural Politics"At the cutting edge of the new interdisciplinary and global immigration history, Ngai unpacks the place of 'illegal aliens' in the construction of modern American society and nationality. Theoretically nuanced, empirically rich, and culturally sensitive, the book offers a powerful vista of how the core meaning of 'American' was shaped by those--Filipinos, Mexicans, Chinese, and Japanese--held in liminal status by the law."
--David Abraham, Professor of Law, University of Miami
List of contents
List of Figures and Illustrations xi List of Tables xiii Acknowledgments xv Note on Language and Terminology xix Foreword to the New Paperback Edition xxi Introduction: Illegal Aliens: A Problem of Law and History 1 PART I: THE REGIME OF QUOTAS AND PAPERS 15 1 The Johnson-Reed Act of 1924 and the Reconstruction of Race in Immigration Law 21 2 Deportation Policy and the Making and Unmaking of Illegal Aliens 56 PART II: MIGRANTS AT THE MARGINS OF LAW AND NATION 91 3 From Colonial Subject to Undesirable Alien: Filipino Migration in the Invisible Empire 96 4 Braceros, "Wetbacks," and the National Boundaries of Class 127 PART III: WAR, NATIONALISM, AND ALIEN CITIZENSHIP 167 5 The World War II Internment of Japanese Americans and the Citizenship Renunciation Cases 175 6 The Cold War Chinese Immigration Crisis and the Confession Cases 202 PART IV: PLURALISM AND NATIONALISM IN POST-WORLD WAR II IMMIGRATION REFORM 225 7 The Liberal Critique and Reform of Immigration Policy 227 Epilogue 265 Appendix 271 Notes 275 Archival and Other Primary Sources 357 Index 369
About the author
Mae M. Ngai
With a new foreword by the author
Summary
Traces the origins of the "illegal alien" in American law and society, explaining why and how illegal migration became the central problem in US immigration policy - a process that profoundly shaped ideas and practices about citizenship, race, and state authority in the twentieth century.
Additional text
"Mae Ngai's book . . . offers a fascinating reinterpretation and critique of the United States as a mythicized 'nation of immigrants.' Ngai demonstrates the critical role that colonialism, foreign policy considerations and racial politics played in shaping U.S. immigration and national identity. . . . Ngai's book is an extraordinary contribution to U.S. immigration history and a stimulating read."---Dr. Alison Pennington, Planck Yearbook of United Nations Law
