Americans in Waiting The Lost Story of Immigration and Citizenship in the United States

by Motomura, Hiroshi

• ISBN13: 9780195336085
• ISBN10: 0195336089
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2007-09-17
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Although America is unquestionably a nation of immigrants, its immigration policies have inspired more questions than consensus on who should be admitted and what the path to citizenship should be. In Americans in Waiting, Hiroshi Motomura looks to a forgotten part of our past to show how, for over 150 years, immigration was assumed to be a transition to citizenship, with immigrants essentially being treated as future citizens-Americans in waiting. Challenging current conceptions, the author deftly uncovers how this view, once so central to law and policy, has all but vanished. Motomura explains how America could create a more unified society by recovering this lost history and by giving immigrants more, but at the same time asking more of them. A timely, panoramic chronicle of immigration and citizenship in the United States, Americans in Waiting offers new ideas and a fresh perspective on current debates.

Author Biography

Hiroshi Motomura is Kenan Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of North Carolina School of Law. A nationally recognized expert on immigration and citizenship law, he co-authored the widely used law school casebook, Immigration and Citizenship: Process and Policy.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Immigrants in America	p. 3
Contract and Classical Immigration Law	p. 15
Promises, Promises	p. 38
All Persons Within the Territorial Jurisdiction	p. 63
Alienage and the Ties That Bind	p. 80
The Most Tender Connections	p. 96
The Lost Story of Americans in Waiting	p. 115
Transition at a Crossroads	p. 136
The Meaning of Transition	p. 151
Race, Belonging, and Transition	p. 168
Taking Transition Seriously	p. 189
Conclusion: The Idea of Americans in Waiting	p. 201
Notes	p. 205
Index	p. 243
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