Evaluating American Immigration Policy

Guarding the Golden Door: American Immigration Policy and Immigrants since 1882. By Roger Daniels. New York: Hill and Wang, 2004. xii + 328 pp. Tables, charts, notes, bibliography, and index. $30. 00.

Impossible Subjects: Illegal Aliens and the Making of Modern America. By Mae M. Ngai. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2004. xx + 377 pp. Figures, illustrations, tables, notes, bibliography, appendix, and index. $35.00.

Straddling the Border: Immigration Policy and the INS. By Lisa MagaËa. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press. 2003. vii + 120 pp. Figures, illustrations, tables, notes, bibliography, glossary, appendices, and index. $37.50 (cloth); $16.95 (paper).

Dorothee Schneider
University of Illinois

The history of immigration and immigration policy in particular has, in the past two decades or so, matured from a niche field to a central topic in the general survey of United States history. Recent developments and events have also pushed the themes related to immigration policies and their history into the center stage of public policy and public debate. Immigration historians therefore can bask in the limelight of their recognized importance for understanding the present—if they manage to attract public attention to their work. The three books reviewed here should be able to draw the attention of a broad array of scholars and general readers because they represent the best of the new scholarship on the social foundations of immigration law and policy. All three books share a solid base of research, are argued in a nuanced way and maintain a scholarly tone. But at the same time, the authors are not reluctant to reveal their opinion and to show where they stand. The prominence of well-argued opinions makes these volumes more cohesive and easier to read than many books in immigration history.