Reviews (4)

Stories about desperate people and the walls that block them
McGill has given us a well laid out, quick introduction to the millions of desperate people who seek, regardless of risk of life or financial cost, to start life over in a 1st world country.He also shows how these very countries are determined not to let them in.
An exploitative, poorly researched book
It's a shame that this sort of thing gets published. I've spent years studying unsanctioned migration and take it from me: this book stinks. It is badly written, un-researched, and seemingly un-edited. The title says it all: pure sensationalism. "Hey! Let's exploit human suffering and make Big Bucks in the publishing trade! We got sex! We got slavery! We got it all, folks!"McGill's "investigation" seems to consist mainly of interviews with a very few informants; his reference list in the back consists of a few decent essays on the topic from consumer magazines and then a bunch of trivial articles and websites; it includes virtually none of the really important works on the field. The book ranges from vaguely plausible to complete nonsense: at one point he describes the temperature in the Arizona desert as 130 degrees Celsius (a nice image of cacti boiling over and cars melting into the pavement). All of his information on illegal immigration from Mexico seems to come from one immigrant and one "retired Border Patrol agent." Good lord. Similarly, all his data on coming from China is from one person, padded out with some hearsay about another. I lived on the US-Mexico border for a decade, and I can say that virtually everything he says about the place suggests that he never set foot there (or even looked at it on a map - he has a guy taking Highway 80 from Bisbee to Phoenix, which McGill strangely refers to by the name of its airport, Sky Harbor). While it's fine to get data from individual informants, even a small number of them, a careful journalist does substantial background research and follow-up, which McGill clearly didn't. There are many, many good books on this topic - written by people who care enough about the issue to do legitimate investigation and research - and if you read a few of them, you will realize after about 5 pages of this book that it is a complete sham. Pick up one of the vastly more reliable, carefully researched, well documented books by Suarez-Orozco, Kimberly Grimes, Felix Padilla, Mariam Davidson, Ted Conover, Ruben Martinez, Mike Davis, Alejandro Portes, Ruben Rumbaut, etc. And say NO to McGill's brand of exploitative, sensationalist tripe.

Very informative
I would have given this book a higher rating, but I think it suffers from a few serious flaws. As other reviewers have pointed out, the Asian sex trade is very well researched and reported on in detail. It covers all aspects of the sex trade, such as the management/organization, (how it bypasses) the legal framework and of course the customers and the 'sex slaves' themselves.Read more

Subjects:  1. Crime And Criminals    2. Criminology    3. Emigration & Immigration    4. Emigration And Immigration    5. International - General    6. Social Science    7. Sociology    8. Current Events / General    9. Immigration & emigration    10. Organized crime    11. Social Science / Emigration & Immigration   

Reviews (1)

alright
it gave a focus on all the china towns in a global perspective.the words were alittle hard to comprehend with the text but it was very imformative. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Asia - China    2. Asia - General    3. Chinese    4. Emigration & Immigration    5. Foreign countries    6. History    7. History: World    8. Sociology    9. Asian / Middle Eastern history: from c 1900 -    10. China    11. Hawaii    12. History of specific racial & ethnic groups    13. Illinois    14. Immigration & emigration    15. Multicultural studies    16. Peru    17. Social & cultural anthropology    18. Social Science / Emigration & Immigration   

Subjects:  1. Anthropology - Cultural    2. Archaeology / Anthropology    3. Children of immigrants    4. Chinese Americans    5. Economic conditions    6. Education    7. Emigration & Immigration    8. Social Science    9. Social conditions    10. Sociology    11. United States    12. Ethnic studies    13. Higher & further education    14. USA   

Subjects:  1. Emigration & Immigration    2. Ethnic Studies - General    3. Ethnic Studies - Hispanic American Studies    4. International Relations - General    5. Latin America - Mexico    6. Political Freedom & Security - Law Enforcement    7. Political Science    8. Politics / Current Events    9. Politics/International Relations    10. Sociology    11. United States - General    12. International relations    13. Mexico    14. Social Science / Ethnic Studies    15. USA   

Subjects:  1. Emigration & Immigration    2. Social Science    3. Sociology    4. British Isles    5. Civil rights & citizenship   

Reviews (1)

A very nice collection.
I consider this compilation of essays and historical documents an essential addition to the library of persons interested in US-Mexico borderlands history. The strength is, in my opinion, in its collection of historical writings, which include the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo, the Plan of San Diego, and Juan Cortina's Proclamations. The reader is able to consider events and thoughts that occurred during the period between 1848 and 1915, rather than rely on commentary. However, the well-written essays compliment the documents (and I believe the text was designed with this in mind.) All together, a very nice collection. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Emigration & Immigration    2. History    3. History - General History    4. Latin America - Mexico    5. Mexican-American Border Region    6. Reference    7. Sources    8. United States - General    9. Central America    10. History / Latin America    11. International relations    12. South America    13. USA    14. World history: c 1750 to c 1900    15. World history: from c 1900 -   

Reviews (2)

Excellent book, but know in advance....
Excellent book, but know in advance that this book is heavily skewed toward legal topics and lawyer authors. While much of the legal writing is dense for lay readers, it is often well worth the effort. The selections authored by Margaret Montoya, Kevin Johnson, editor Richard Delgado, and non-attorney Gloria Anzaldua were the very best of this remarkably well-written anthology.

informative
This book answers a lot of questions about the Latino culture, experience, past, present and future.Some essays tell stories, while others are plain facts.This book has about 670 pages, yet it is a fast and informative read where you can't put the book down.It is organized by section oftopic and gives suggested reading lists at the end of each chapter. A goodintroductory to Latin American studies, historically, culturally, andsociologically. It gives a lot of information for the price, you will notregret buying this book. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Emigration & Immigration    2. Ethnic Studies - General    3. Hispanic Americans    4. Minority Studies - Ethnic American    5. Multicultural Nonfiction    6. Politics / Current Events    7. Politics and government    8. Racism    9. Social Science    10. Social conditions    11. United States    12. United States - 20th Century    13. Caribbean islands    14. Central America    15. Civil rights & citizenship    16. Ethnic studies    17. Ethnography    18. Immigration & emigration    19. MINORITIES_UNITED STATES    20. Social Science / Ethnic Studies / Hispanic American Studies    21. South America    22. USA   

Reviews (13)

ANALYSIS AND REFORMATION
He is doing the work that we pay our elected politicians to do. Ours is not a government by politicians for politicians. Most of them are out of touch with the new reformative spirit of our times; as they will painfully learn rather shortly: that our "government by the people" really is "for the people". His clear analysis is a vital step towards a permanent solution to a permanent threat.
Clear and Present Danger
Frosty Wooldridge's book presents well-documented evidence of a clear and present danger to American culture, language, institutions, economy, government and constitution represented by our liberal immigration policies and failures to enforce our borders and penalize illegal aliens and their employers.It is clear that many jobs Americans would do at a fair wage and benefits have been taken over by illegal aliens who are willing to work for substandard wages.There is no way present levels of legal immigration, illegal aliens and their progeny can be accommodated in the U.S. without changing the America we know and love irretrievably forever.
Immigration's Unarmed Invasion: Deadly Consequences
The information in this book has been researched with many of the researchers contributing within the chapters.I found this book to be very enlightening.I have been trying to understand where many of the students and families with whom I am working are coming from. It is scary.Having survived the 40's, 50's, 60'+, and now understanding the new wave of immigration, it is disheartening to realize, without the desire to assimilate ( boldly shown on the streets of the city and in the homeroom-classroom) 'No Child left Behind" is an impossible task. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Emigration & Immigration    2. Social Science    3. Sociology    4. Immigration & emigration   

Reviews (9)

Disturbing but I loved it
This was originally in The New Yorker years ago, but I just got the book. Bowden provides a voice to the voiceless here, as we see the work of the photographers of Juarez. Content is king here, and it seems like they are witness to the apocalypse. One could get into the politics involved here and border issues, but I'd prefer to ignore that...its just a lovely book.
Painful and brilliant portrayal
"Lost in Juarez and its eastertime too", Bob Dylan shrieks and after reading Bowden's masterpeice you can feel the connection.This is one of those efforts that stay with the reader long after the book is put down.It's haunting photos and depictions are hard to forget.From the pictures of the forgotten dead to the photo of a young wife bending over her husband who had just shot on a busy Juarez street.It is said that photographs don't lie, however, sometimes they tell an awful truth.Bowden captures the futility and danger of Juarez in every photo and what makes this effort unique is that the prose accompanying the photos actually enhances the effect.Wonderful work.

Heartbreaking
I am speechless. The book is amazingly grueling. Rather than an attack on Juarez, it is an attack, a challenge to our humanity, hoping that we wake up and see the horrors so that we may stop them. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Ciudad Juarez (Mexico)    2. Ciudad Juâarez (Mexico)    3. Documentary Photo Collections    4. Economic conditions    5. Emigration & Immigration    6. International Relations - General    7. Latin America - Mexico    8. Photo Essays    9. Photography    10. Photojournalism    11. Politics / Current Events    12. Social conditions    13. Sociology - Urban    14. Urban Sociology    15. International relations    16. Mexico    17. Photographs: collections    18. USA   

Reviews (1)

voting with your feet
Ask the average American where the words "the Golden Door" comes from and I suspect you'd be met with a blank state.It comes from the Statue of Liberty: "Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to be free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore, Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden Door!"Roger Daniels' well researched and carefully nuance view of immigration to America since 1882 is a refreshingly even-handed assessment of America's immigration policies.Read more

Subjects:  1. Emigration & Immigration    2. Emigration And Immigration    3. History - General History    4. History - U.S.    5. Public Policy - General    6. Social Science    7. Sociology    8. United States - General   

Subjects:  1. Business/Economics    2. Congresses    3. Developing countries    4. Economic development    5. Emigration & Immigration    6. Forced migration    7. Poverty    8. Social aspects    9. Sociology    10. Development studies    11. Political oppression & persecution    12. Refugees   

Reviews (6)

A balanced view of the immigrant experience
I enjoyed this book so much I read it straight thru in one sitting.All 3 portraits had their share of heartbreak but were inspiring in their own way.This is a must read for Indians anywhere in the diaspora (or for any residents of New Jersey for that matter).

Articles better than book
I bought this book because I was very impressed with Kalita via her Newsday pieces.Unfortunately, this book doesn't carry the same comparative cultural insight that is a hallmark of her other writing.Read it and if you're going to buy anything, buy the Washington Post.

A very ordinary writing..
I was told by a co worker to buy this one to encourage this author. But the content was very ordinary, any DESI (indian who has settled or lives in the united states) will find it ordinary. This does not display the thinking,attitude and the real story of what immigrants go through, perhaps only those who go through this could have helped the author potray the truth. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Anthropology - Cultural    2. Biography    3. Cultural assimilation    4. East Indian Americans    5. Emigration & Immigration    6. Ethnic Studies - Asian American Studies    7. Middlesex County    8. New Jersey    9. Social Science    10. Social conditions    11. Sociology   

Subjects:  1. Adult & Continuing Education    2. Emigration & Immigration    3. Emigration and immigration    4. English as a Second Language    5. English language    6. Foreign Language - Dictionaries / Phrase Books    7. Immigrants    8. Language    9. Language Arts & Disciplines    10. Problems, exercises, etc    11. Readers    12. Reading Skills    13. Textbooks for foreign speakers    14. United States    15. ELT: teaching theory & methods    16. English language--Textbooks for foreign speakers    17. Foreign Language Study / English as a Second Language   

Reviews (1)

The Irish you've never heard of, but see everyday
When I think of the term "Irish," a few things come to mind:potato famine, green shamrocks, and Notre Dame Football.I also generally think of the large and prominent Irish populations in Boston, Chicago, and other areas in the North.But, one thing that never comes to mind is the term Southerner.
Read more

Subjects:  1. 19th century    2. Emigration & Immigration    3. Ethnic identity    4. History    5. History - U.S.    6. History: American    7. Irish Americans    8. Minority Studies - Ethnic American    9. Social conditions    10. Southern States    11. United States - 19th Century    12. United States - State & Local - General    13. American history: c 1800 to c 1900    14. History / United States / 19th Century    15. USA   

Features

• Illustrated

Subjects:  1. Alien criminals    2. Crime    3. Crimes against    4. Criminology    5. Discrimination & Racism    6. Emigration & Immigration    7. Immigrants    8. Social Science    9. Sociological aspects    10. Sociology    11. United States    12. Causes & prevention of crime    13. Ethnic studies    14. IMMIGRANTS_UNITED STATES    15. Immigration & emigration    16. Social Science / Emigration & Immigration    17. UNITED STATES_EMIGRATION AND IMMIGRATION    18. UNITED STATES_RACE RELATIONS    19. USA   

Subjects:  1. Emigration & Immigration    2. Individual Photographer    3. Photoessays & Documentaries    4. Photography    5. Social Science    6. Sociology    7. Subjects & Themes - Portraits    8. Immigration & emigration    9. Sociology, Social Studies   

Reviews (3)

Excellent History. Excellent Read...
John Van Sant, a professor of Japanese History at the University of Alabama, Birmingham, has written an approachable and engaging look back at some of the very first Japanese travelers to the United States in the mid to late 1800s. A little-explored corner of American history
This is a truly absorbing read.Author John Van Sant casts light on a little-explored corner of American history about which, I'm willing to bet, few readers have any knowledge at all.Some may be vaguely aware that a handful of shipwrecked Japanese sailors fetched up on American shores in the first half of the nineteenth century or that large Japanese embassies toured this country in 1860 and 1871-72.But how many know that scores of Japanese students were living in such an unlikely place as New Brunswick, New Jersey in the late 1860s and 1870s, studying about American institutions as well as "big guns" and "big ships."Or that several young Japanese aristocrats--including a later titan of Meiji Japan--were holed up in a utopian commune, under the watchful eye of an eccentric guru, doing housework and tending grapevines?Or that other countrymen and women of less elevated status, fleeing worsening economic conditions back home, were scraping out a bare living in Hawaii and northern California? A Must Read
I think that Dr Van Sant tells a compelling tale of the first wave of Japanese settlers who came to the United States and Hawaii. This book is for anybody who is interested in Asian American History. It should be the first book cracked open for any student who signs up to take any Asian studies class, either in the undergraduate or post-graduate world.I loved it. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. 19th century    2. Asians In The U.S.    3. Emigration & Immigration    4. Emigration And Immigration    5. Ethnic Studies - General    6. Hawaii    7. History    8. History: American    9. Immigrants    10. Japanese Americans    11. Minority Studies - Ethnic American    12. Social Science    13. Sociology    14. United States    15. American history: c 1800 to c 1900    16. Ethnic studies    17. USA   

Subjects:  1. Anthropology - Cultural    2. Eastern - General    3. Emigration & Immigration    4. Ethnic Studies - General    5. Immigrants    6. Religion    7. Religious communities    8. Religious life    9. Sociology    10. Sociology - General    11. South Asians    12. United States    13. Anthropology    14. Civil rights & citizenship    15. Ethnic studies    16. Immigration & emigration    17. Religion: general    18. USA   

Subjects:  1. Alien labor, Guatemalan    2. Alien labor, Mexican    3. California    4. Emigration & Immigration    5. Immigrants    6. Nebraska    7. Photojournalism    8. Social Science    9. Social conditions    10. Sociology    11. Immigration & emigration    12. Photographic reportage   

Editorial Review

The daughter of an American singer and an Iranian architect does justice to both her heritages in this thoughtful memoir. Tara Bahrampour spent most of her childhood in Tehran, but in 1979 she fled from there with her family as the unfolding Islamic revolution made Iran unsafe for anyone with Western ties. While her parents struggled to make a living in the U.S., Bahrampour worked on becoming an American teenager, though she still felt strong ties to the warm, communal world she left behind. Returning for a visit in 1994, Bahrampour found a nation too complex to be properly described by political stereotypes--a transitional society where her female relatives slept in lacy negligees and watched illegal American videos, but also drove around with a tape of Khomeini's speeches in their car's cassette player. During her stay, despite some scary encounters with hostile officials, Bahrampour rediscovered a continuity she could never find anywhere else--the links to kin and to history that are alive in the Iranian landscape. This rootedness, she accepts, will never be hers as an Iranian American, yet her thoughtful examination of what she has gained and lost affirms the value of a life informed by two cultures. Read more

Reviews (47)

Decent but Short of Expectations
This is the true story of an Iranian woman and her life in the culture chasm that results when someone grows up between America and another country. The story is a common one, it's general theme littering the pages of scores of books at your local bookstore. That doesn't make it hard to read. On the contrary, To See and See Again is an easy read that both entertains and, at times, intrigues. Overall however, this book is another step in the grand staircase of stories written about one's struggle to locate a home on the planet. At it's heart, To See and See Again is a sort of cry for help, in an attempt to work out the sense of loss she feels as she grows up in a culture that isn't everything she expects it to be.
I couldn't put it down!
It was a beautiful journey.This is a great book.

Enchanting and Inspiring
This beautifully written book pulled tears from my eyes, laughter from my mouth, and feelings from my heart.Many thanks to the author for encapsulating her family's personal story and sharing it with the world.I completed the book in less than two days, unable to set it down, and now I cannot wait to enjoy it again hoping I can identify with something I did not before.I'm eagerly awaiting Tara Bahrampour to captivate the world with a sequel. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Anthropology - Cultural    2. Bahrampour, Tara    3. Biography    4. Elements In The U.S. Population    5. Emigration & Immigration    6. History    7. Iranian American women    8. Iranian Americans    9. Middle East - Iran    10. Political refugees    11. Refugees    12. Sociology    13. United States    14. United States - General    15. 20th century    16. Biography: general    17. Cultural studies    18. History / Americas (North, Central, South, West Indies)    19. Iran    20. USA