Migration to the US

Pyong Min's Mass Migration to the United States reviews the vast influx of people from Mexico, Latin America, Asia, Russia and the Caribbean into the United States that has occurred since 1965. The book is a compilation of chapters written by different authors addressing different aspects of this new immigration. These chapters both discuss general issues related to immigration and the concerns of specific ethnicities and cultures that have immigrated. Such topics address the difference between this wave of immigrants and the last, anti-immigration sentiments, and the immigration of Jews and Asians. Particular attention is paid to the difference between the immigration period that began in 1880 and ended in 1930, and that which started in 1965 and continues today.

In chapter 1, Charles Jaret explores nativist sentiments that have accompanied the respective waves of immigration. He addresses both the concerns that immigrants will dilute the American way of life and American intelligence. He reaches two conclusions: that recent years "have seen anti-immigration attitudes and behavior undergo some significant realignment, reformulation, and diminution" and that "many of the core beliefs and fears that created and sustained anti-immigrant perspectives in the past are still widely held." (Pg. 21) Certain nativist contentions, such as mental inferiority, were common in the past and only occasionally alluded to today due to sensitivity. However, other reasons for not liking immigrants, such as the spread of disease, he notes are almost identical to similar concerns a century ago. Many ideas posited a century ago reflect concepts of eugenics and race-identity that have since become taboo.

Among the most entertaining passages quoted from nativists is this: "Aryan technology...plus Aryan treason [reason?] made possible what was impossible for these mongrel peoples to accomplish. They, who have never dreamed of steam or jet power, land on our shores daily." (Pg. 26) Other nativists voice concerns that have political relevance, Jaret notes, such as fears that young fundamentalist Muslims will enter the country to commit acts of terrorism. This he likens to anti-German sentiment during the teens.

The Changing Face of America: Immigration, Race/Ethnicity, and Social Mobility, Chapter 2 of the book, reviews contemporary immigration and its effects on American society. He contrasts the backgrounds of new immigrants with old immigrants, noting the settlement of new immigrants as being different as well. He also contrasts differences between immigrants from Asia and their less sophisticated Latin American and Russian counterparts. He claims, for example, that the average income of an Indian immigrant family is 48 thousand, whereas average American households pull in 30 thousand and that of a Dominican or former Soviet family is a mere 20 thousand.

The third chapter explores the relationship between immigration and racial conflict. Examples the authors give are conflicts between blacks and Koreans, anti-Mexican riots in the 1940's, and anti-Chinese sentiments in the 1880's. The authors note that "it became clear that there was a growing distinction and debate over which immigrant groups were white and which were not" (Pg. 101) arguing "that ethnic immigration played a pivotal role in organizing and redefining U.S. Racial boundaries."

The fourth chapter reviews structural factors that give contemporary immigrants advantages over the earlier white immigrants in passing down their culture from generation to generation. However; it doesn't mention the primary beneficial effect on American society of such transfers: the culinary tradition of the country.

The fifth chapter, by Dorothee Schneider, focuses on the effect of historical quotas on immigration, and the waning of race and gender restrictions. The author notes that immigrants were denied 'rights' to things such as social programs, Social Security, and mothers' pensions. She fails to draw the connection between these entitlements and any adverse selection in the pool of immigrants that eventually emerged.

The sixth chapter, as a statistical study, was the most interesting in the book. It concerned the difference in immigrant populations in New York City neighborhoods between 1910 and 1990. The author recounts a time when "Russians, Italians, and Germans - accounted for half of all foreign born" immigrants in 1910. (Pg. 201) The chapter contains detailed maps showing the locations of immigrants in 1910 and in 1990. According to the author, Manhattan has nearly a million less people than it did in 1910. (Pg. 210) The subways and suburbs were the major culprit of this de-population. Although he addresses segregation and briefly discusses poverty, the author fails to note that almost exactly half of the city's several hundred thousand public housing units are occupied by Blacks, and the other half occupied by Hispanics. His most important observation is that the immigrants to New York City tend to settle in enclaves; for example, West Indians live in Flatbrush, Dominicans live in Washington Heights, Russians live in Brighton Beach, and yuppies live in Hoboken.

Chapter seven, written by Nancy Foner, was all about immigrant women and how immigration patterns have changed over the past hundred years. The language was vaguely feminist: "Wage work has empowered immigrant wives and mothers in late twentieth-century New York in ways that were not possible for Jewish and Italian married women of an earlier era." (Pg. 232) Here she neglects to mention that the elimination of tenement housing has lead to greater scarcity; despite the continued prevalence of women from male-dominated ethnic backgrounds, many must work simply in order so that the family may pay rent.

Chapter eight, by Steven Gold, deals with the difference in Jewish migration between the two immigration periods. He is first to note the obvious similarities: many Jews now, as before, come from Russia. Interestingly, he doesn't mention Ukraine, and as the Nazis killed most Jews in the Baltic region, referring to new Jewish immigrants as being from the "former Soviet Union" isn't specific enough. The article mostly focuses on the family structures of immigrant Jews now vs. At the turn of the century. One point that he seems to mischaracterize is the intra-Jewish conflict between German and Russian Jews that has largely been abandoned by the Jewish community. He portrays the German Jews as having helped out their Eastern neighbors, when in fact many disassociated themselves from the newcomers.