In Impossible Subjects: Illegal Aliens and the Making of Modern America, Mae Ngai relegates the hospitable reception of immigrants to the United States into the realm of myth and fantasy. She successfully argues that the United States was much more selective with whom it permitted to enter the country. She indicates that most immigration historians focus on the periods of open immigration from Europe before 1924 or the era after the abolishment of the national origins quota system in 1965. Her book fills an important gap in the historiography of American immigration, from 1924 to 1965. Ngai contrasts the reception and socio-legal status of Chinese, Japanese, Mexicans, and Filipinos with white northwestern Europeans. She offers compelling arguments that as a result of the 1924 Johnson-Reed Act, race, the rise of the nation-state, and national origins were determinants of immigrants’ entrance into this country, and their potential acquisition of citizenship. I would respond that the presumption of race held by most Americans of the period was the prime determinant, that Americans inextricably linked whiteness to being an American, and that this racial construction permeated every facet of society, restricting or excluding the racialized “others.”
The first Europeans who eventually dominated what would become the United States were primarily from Britain and northwestern Europe. In the years of the early republic, England, France, and the Germanic regions of Europe culturally influenced these Americans of European descent. So as to distinguish themselves from Africans and Native Americans, they constructed an American identity as being racially white and Anglo-Saxon. This pseudosocial construction prevailed in America during the nin...
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...ment across the Mexican-American border existed. Moreover, many Americans increasingly viewed all Mexican-Americans with greater suspicion, unable to discern who was a legal or illegal alien. Finally, Filipinos were “nationals” prior to the 1930s and could immigrate to the United States without hindrance. However, as a nonwhite racialized group, the U.S. Congress granted the Philippines their independence and designated all Filipinos as Asians with the intent to exclude them from further immigration.
Impossible Subjects gives an excellent account of how the United States created illegal aliens, and how illegal aliens participated in the making of modern America. Yet, the prime determinant in both of these creations was race.
Works Cited
Ngai, Mae M. Impossible Subjects: Illegal Aliens and the Making of Modern America. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2004.
In the early 1830's, Mexican-Indians, seeking a better life in the "land of opportunity," crossed the border into America only to find themselves and all who followed forced to assimilate to a new culture. The white Americans pushed their food, their beliefs, their clothing style, and the English language upon these immigrants. Some of the seemingly brainwashed Mexican-Indians saw the American actions as signs of kindness and acceptance. Yet, fearful others considered being caught by the strict American border patrol a "fate worse than death" (490). Immigration officers warned "foreign-looking" people to carry citizenship identification at all times, and they "sneaked up on innocent dark-skinned people, and deported them," possibly also "mak[ing them] suffer unspeakable mortifications" (484, 486). Those legally able to reach America became subjected to American ideals and customs. The whites relocated those unwilling to live the "accepted American lifestyle" to specified areas. Aware of this law, Sancho cynically w...
The English immigrants are given a brief introduction as the first ethnic group to settle in America. The group has defined the culture and society throughout centuries of American history. The African Americans are viewed as a minority group that were introduced into the country as slaves. The author depicts the struggle endured by African Americans with special emphasis on the Civil War and the Civil Rights movement. The entry of Asian Americans evoked suspicion from other ethnic groups that started with the settlement of the Chinese. The Asian community faced several challenges such as the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, and the mistreatment of Americans of Japanese origin during World War II. The Chicanos were the largest group of Hispanic peoples to settle in the United States. They were perceived as a minority group. Initially they were inhabitants of Mexico, but after the Westward expansion found themselves being foreigners in their native land (...
“Columbia’s Unwelcome Guests”, by Frank Beard (February 7, 1885), displays how the unrestricted US policies that were implemented were causing more immigrants to emigrate from Europe. The new aliens are depicted as anarchist, socialist, and the Mafia arriving from the sewers of Italy, Russia, and Germany. In the late nineteenth century, the U.S. government was not only concerned with the racialization of the immigrants entering the country, but also
...y Burnett, “The Noncitizen National and the Law of American Empire” , “in Major Problems in American Immigration History, ed. Mae M Ngai and Jon Gjerde (Boston: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, 2013),278
Gonzalez, Juan. Harvest of Empire a History of Latinos in America. New York: Penguin Putnam Inc, 2000.
Ngai, Mae M. 2004 “Impossible Subjects: Illegal Aliens and the Making of Modern America” Publisher: Princeton University Press.
Immigration has always been a contentious issue in the United States. Benjamin Franklin thought that the influx in German immigration would flush out the predominately British culture in America at the time. (5) Furthermore, a continual wave of foreign cultures began pouring into the American metropolitan areas at the turn of the 20th century. The migration of Italians, Poles, and Jews across the Atlantic Ocean began a mass assimilation of cultural ideology and customs into the United States, yet many people thought that these migrants could not adapt. Today, the American society has become a melting pot of foreign influence; however, many cynics remain skeptical about the incorporation of Latin American people and their influences. Accordingly, these same critics are just as naïve as their previous counterparts, who refused to accept the many gifts and contributions these immigrants have to offer. We must ask ourselves: How long will it take to peacefully incorporate Spanish immigrants into American society? America was built on the movement of these cultures, and the current population of this country must set aside its non-democratic premonitions, and embrace the historical and positive aspect of Latin American immigration.
Crean, Tom, and Will Soto. "Immigration and the Class Struggle in the US." Socialist Alternative. Committee for a Workers' International, 1 Apr. 2007. Web. 20 Nov. 2013.
Portes, Alejandro, and Ruben G. Rumbaut. Immigrant America: A Portrait. N.p.: University of California Press, 2006.
Ngai, Mae M. Impossible Subjects: Illegal Aliens and the Making of Modern America. Princeton, N.J. [u.a.: Princeton Univ. Press, 2004. Print.
To say that immigrants in America have experienced discrimination would be an understatement. Ever since the country formed, they have been seen as inferior, such as African-Americans that were unwillingly brought to the 13 colonies in the 17th century with the intention to be used as slaves. However, post-1965, immigrants, mainly from Central and South America, came here by choice. Many came with their families, fleeing from their native land’s poverty; these immigrants were in search of new opportunities, and more importantly, a new life. They faced abuse and Cesar Chavez fought to help bring equality to minorities.
Labor and Legality by Ruth Gomberg-Munoz is an intense ethnography about the Lions, undocumented immigrants working in a Chicago restaurant as busboys. The ten undocumented men focused on in Gomberg-Munoz’s are from Leon, Mexico. Since they are from Leon, they are nicknamed the Lions in English. She describes why they are here. This includes explaining how they are here to make a better future for their family, if not only financially, but every other way possible. Also, Gomberg-Munoz focuses on how Americans see “illegal aliens”, and how the Lions generate social strategies, become financially stable, stay mentally healthy, and keep their self-esteem or even make it better. Gomberg-Munoz includes a little bit of history and background on “illegal”
Lee, Erika, and Judy Yung. Angel Island Immigrant Gateway to America. New York : Oxford University Press, 2012. Print.
...ol.” Debates on Immigration. Ed Judith Gans, Elaine M. Repogle, and Daniel J. Tichenor. Thousand Oaks, CA SAGE Reference, 2012: 144. Gale Virtual Library. Web. 22 Apr, 2014.
Haines, David W and Rosenblum, Karen E.: Illegal Immigration in America: A Reference Handbook. Westport, Conn: Greenwood Press. 1999. EBook. , Database: eBook Collection (EBSCOhost).