Immigrants Out! : The New Nativism and the Anti-Immigrant Impulse in the United States

by Perea, Juan F.

• ISBN13: 9780814766422
• ISBN10: 0814766420
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1997-01-01
• Publisher: New York University Press

Summary

Nativism--an intense opposition to immigrants and other non- native members of society--has been deeply imbedded in the American character from the earliest days of the nation. Correspondingly, nativism, overtly or covertly, has always permeated our national discourse. Dating from the Alien and Sedition controversy of 1798 to California's recent Proposition 187, nativism has long been a driving force in policy making, a particular irony in a country founded and populated by immigrants.This anthology of original essays is informed at its core by George Santayana's famous edict that those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. Examining the current surge in nativism in light of past waves of anti- immigrant sentiment, the volume takes an unflinchingly critical look at the realities and rhetoric of the new nativism. How can the imprisonment of Japanese-Americans during World War II illuminate our understanding of the English Only movement today? How has the symbolism of the Statue of Liberty evolved since its dedication and what can it tell us about the American disposition to immigration? What is the new nativism? What are the semantic and rhetorical similarities, if any, between the most shrill nativist voices of the present, such as Pat Buchanan's or Peter Brimelow's in his widely publicized bookAlien Nation, and National Socialist propaganda in 1930s Germany?Juan Perea has here assembled a truly interdisciplinary group of contributors to emphasize the changing relationship between citizens and immigrants, and the effects of economics, history, and demographics on that relationship.Immigrants Out!provides a needed antidote to the often poisonous attacks on America's most vulnerable.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Contributors
Introduction	p. 1
Old Poison in New Bottles: The Deep Roots of Modern Nativism	p. 13
The Statue of Liberty: Notes from Behind the Gilded Door	p. 44
Immigration Reform and Nativism: The Nationalist Response to the Transnationalist Challenge	p. 61
Official English as Nativist Backlash	p. 78
Nativism in the Mid-1990s: Why Now?	p. 105
Funding the Nativist Agenda	p. 119
The Tables Are Turned: Immigration, Poverty, and Social Conflict in California Communities	p. 136
The New Nativism: Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue	p. 165
Latinos in the United States: Invitation and Exile	p. 190
Who May Give Birth to Citizens? Reproduction, Eugenics, and Immigration	p. 205
The Social Construction of the U.S.-Mexico Border	p. 223
A Meditation on Borders	p. 244
Reconciling Rights in Collision: An International Human Rights Strategy	p. 254
"Nativism" the Concept: Some Reflections	p. 279
Dangerous Undertones of the New Nativism: Peter Brimelow and the Decline of the West	p. 300
Citizenship	p. 318
The Tightening Circle of Membership	p. 324
Index	p. 333
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