Is it time for America -- a country founded and forged by immigrants -- to shut its doors? After decades of liberal policies that welcomed ever greater numbers of immigrants, America is seeing a surge in anti-immigration sentiment. Congressional debates, polls, incidents of violence, and the growing strength of anti-immigration groups all indicate a growing nativism. In Unwelcome Strangers, David M. Reimers enters into the emotionally charged immigration debate, looking at all sides of the argument. Who are the nativists, and are any of their views legitimate? This balanced investigation traces the history of American attitudes toward immigration and offers a new perspective on the current crisis.
The core of this book uncovers the heated arguments of the anti-immigration forces, from environmental groups that warn against the consequences of overpopulation, to economic concerns that immigrants take jobs away from Americans, to assimilationist fears that newcomers -- especially from Latin America, and Asia -- threaten American culture. Reimers questions these arguments while acknowledging that pro-immigration forces hurt their position by not considering whether the United States can actually absorb one million immigrants a year. Reimers sees potential solutions in English language instruction for newcomers, greater accountability of sponsors, and government intervention to counterbalance the negative economic impact some immigrants have on poor communities. Reimers outlines the many bureaucratic and practical challenges faced by the INS, from determining who gets political asylum to screening applicants for criminal records.
Reimers charts the history of U.S. immigration policy and public reaction to newcomers, from the Puritan colonists to World War II refugees. The rise of nativism that began in the 1880s culminated with the highly restrictive immigration policies of the 1920s. Reimers shows how immigrant groups have historically been targeted -- whether for ethnic, racial, or religious reasons. Quakers, Catholics, and Jews were the focus of anti-immigrant sentiment as were Germans, Irish, Italians, and Asians. This history of prejudice throws light on later developments in immigration history, such as the public response to the Cuban refugee crisis, the growing proportion of Third World immigrants, and the relationship between legal and illegal immigration, right up to the battles over California's proposition 187 -- which proposed to restrict public assistance for aliens and their children -- and major congressional legislation passed in 1996 to deal with immigration.

Unwelcome Strangers

History

Reimers, David

Americas

Columbia University Press

This popular reader uses both primary and secondary sources to explore social history topics and sharpen students' interpretive skills. Each chapter includes one secondary source essay and several related primary source documents. Chapter introductions tie the readings together and pose questions to consider.

The Way We Lived: Volume 1: 1492 - 1877

Binder, Frederick

Cengage Learning'

The Way We Lived: Essays and Documents in American Social History, Volume I: 1492-1877

Houghton/Mifflin

The Way We Lived: Essays and Documents in American Social History, Volume II: 1865 - Present

Wadsworth Publishing

Other Immigrants: The Global Origins of the American People

Blacks, Hispanics, and Asians represent three of every four immigrants who arrived in the United States after 1970. Yet despite their large numbers and long history of movement to America, non-Europeans are conspicuously absent from many books about immigration.In Other Immigrants, David M. Reimers offers the first comprehensive account of non-European immigration, chronicling the compelling and diverse stories of frequently overlooked Americans. Reimers traces the early history of Black, Hispanic, and Asian immigrants from the fifteenth century through World War II, when racial hostility led to the virtual exclusion of Asians and aggression towards Blacks and Hispanics. He then tells the story of post-1945 immigration, when these groups dominated the immigration statistics and began to reshape American society.The capstone to a lifetime of groundbreaking work on immigration, Reimers’s thoughtful history recognizes the ambiguity and subjectivity of race, noting that individuals often define themselves more complexly than census forms allow. However classified, record numbers of immigrants are streaming to the United States and creating the most diverse society in the world. Other Immigrants is a timely account of their arrival.

NYU Press

Blacks, Hispanics, and Asians represent three of every four immigrants who arrived in the United States after 1970. Yet despite their large numbers and long history of movement to America, non-Europeans are conspicuously absent from many books about immigration. In Other Immigrants, David M. Reimers offers the first comprehensive account of non-European immigration, chronicling the compelling and diverse stories of frequently overlooked Americans. Reimers traces the early history of Black, Hispanic, and Asian immigrants from the fifteenth century through World War II, when racial hostility led to the virtual exclusion of Asians and aggression towards Blacks and Hispanics. He then tells the story of post-1945 immigration, when these groups dominated the immigration statistics and began to reshape American society. The capstone to a lifetime of groundbreaking work on immigration, Reimers's thoughtful history recognizes the ambiguity and subjectivity of race, noting that individuals often define themselves more complexly than census forms allow. However classified, record numbers of immigrants are streaming to the United States and creating the most diverse society in the world. Other Immigrants is a timely account of their arrival.

This popular reader uses both primary and secondary sources to explore social history topics and sharpen your interpretive skills. Each chapter includes one secondary source essay and several related primary source documents. Chapter introductions tie the readings together and pose questions to consider.

Distant Islands: The Japanese American Community in New York City, 1876-1930s (Nikkei in the Americas)

Distant Islands is a modern narrative history of the Japanese American community in New York City between America's centennial year and the Great Depression of the 1930s. Often overshadowed in historical literature by the Japanese diaspora on the West Coast, this community, which dates back to the 1870s, has its own fascinating history.   The New York Japanese American community was a composite of several micro communities divided along status, class, geographic, and religious lines. Using a wealth of primary sources—oral histories, memoirs, newspapers, government documents, photographs, and more—Daniel H. Inouye tells the stories of the business and professional elites, mid-sized merchants, small business owners, working-class families, menial laborers, and students that made up these communities. The book presents new knowledge about the history of Japanese immigrants in the United States and makes a novel and persuasive argument about the primacy of class and status stratification and relatively weak ethnic cohesion and solidarity in New York City, compared to the pervading understanding of nikkei on the West Coast. While a few prior studies have identified social stratification in other nikkei communities, this book presents the first full exploration of the subject and additionally draws parallels to divisions in German American communities.  Distant Islands is a unique and nuanced historical account of an American ethnic community that reveals the common humanity of pioneering Japanese New Yorkers despite diverse socioeconomic backgrounds and life stories. It will be of interest to general readers, students, and scholars interested in Asian American studies, immigration and ethnic studies, sociology, and history.  

Inouye, Daniel H.

University Press of Colorado

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Reimers, David. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Reimers, David

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Reimers, David. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Unwelcome Strangers

The Way We Lived: Volume 1: 1492 - 1877

The Way We Lived: Essays and Documents in American Social History, Volume I: 1492-1877

The Way We Lived: Essays and Documents in American Social History, Volume II: 1865 - Present

Other Immigrants: The Global Origins of the American People

Other Immigrants: The Global Origins of the American People

The Way We Lived: Essays and Documents in American Social History, Volume I: 1492-1877

The Way We Lived: Essays and Documents in American Social History, Volume II: 1865 - Present

Distant Islands: The Japanese American Community in New York City, 1876-1930s (Nikkei in the Americas)