Reviews (4)

We'd Rather Die Striking, If We're Going to Die Anyhow
This new book written by Justin Akers Chacon and Mike Davis addresses the issue of immigrant-directed violence and multiple other aspects of the immigration story in these United States.Published by Haymarket Press of Chicago, No One Is Illegal: Fighting Racism and State Violence on the US-Mexico Border is, among other things,another excellent historyfrom this press of the US told from a popular working class perspective.Black Liberation and Socialism and Subterranean Fire before it, No One Is Illegal provides a refreshing and educational take on the bitter and often brutal history of the US and the people's fight against its excesses.
An Argument for Open Borders
I just finished reading No One is Illegal by Justin Akers Chacon and Mike Davis.They conclusion they arrive at is that: "we must reject the language, legitimacy, and limitations of "illegality" and tear down the borders between us. No one is Illegal!"But the way they arrive there is from the perspective of socialists. The authors see the issue of immigration from a labor struggle standpoint.They discuss at length the history of the racism, xenophobia and class struggles that have influenced the United State's immigration policy throughout history.They see almost all events through the lens of labor fighting for rights against a united front of capitalists who thwart them at every turn.They only touch briefly on the topic of organized labors historic opposition to open immigration since it does not fit properly with the theme of the book.The books main message is: "Borders serve only to divide people and reinforce the power of capital over all workers."I agree with that sentiment but would add that borders also reinforce the power of governments over people.
We'll need more than Marx and dualistic thinking to analyze this issue
The book made me ponder these questions, wish I had hoped it would answer: Can anyone oppose illegal immigration and NOT be racist, or violent? Can there be a surplus of low wage workers (illegal and legal) in the U.S. that end up competing for less and less slave-level jobs? (See California Cauldron '98 by Clark). Does the country really need more and more undocumented 'taxpayers' to fund the Pentagon and our proto-fascist government? Are there any costs to having more immigrants enter the U.S.? How have 12 million undocumented impacted the American environment and, in some cases, strapped municipal services? What has California's experience with educating the childen of the undocumented been? How does the average American worker (say in New Orleans), unionized or not, feel about ourgovernment cutting a deal with Mexico for easier (legal)access to American employment opportunities? How do poor Americans view illegal immigration? Are failing labor unions in the U.S. drooling to get the union dues of the millions here who the Unions fantasize will join their ranks? (note: I'm a union member). I'd prefer that these questions get answered with on-the-ground social science research conducted in key cities throughout the country experiencing high immigration rates. Let's get those political economy shades off the academic eyes and take a closer look. This book failed. The book Mexifornia failed as well. We need something better. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Alien labor, Mexican    2. Civil rights    3. Discrimination & Racism    4. Emigration & Immigration    5. General    6. History    7. History: American    8. Immigrants    9. Latin America - Mexico    10. Politics / Current Events    11. Public Policy - General    12. Social conditions    13. United States    14. United States - 20th Century    15. History / United States / 20th Century    16. Mexico    17. POLITICS & GOVERNMENT    18. USA   

Subjects:  1. Crime And Criminals    2. Emigration & Immigration    3. Emigration And Immigration    4. General    5. History - U.S.    6. Mexico    7. Social Science    8. Social aspects    9. Spanish: Adult Nonfiction    10. Texas    11. United States    12. United States - General    13. True Crime / General   

Subjects:  1. Emigration & Immigration    2. Emigration and immigration    3. History    4. History - General History    5. History: World    6. Human beings    7. Migrations    8. Population geography    9. World - General    10. History / World   

Subjects:  1. Colonies    2. Decolonization    3. Emigration & Immigration    4. History & Theory - General    5. Literary Criticism    6. Postcolonialism    7. Semiotics & Theory    8. Sociology    9. Colonization & independence    10. Cultural studies    11. Literary Criticism & Collections / General   

Editorial Review

Long regarded as one of the premier Spanish modernists, Federico García Lorca's newly revised Read more

Reviews (4)

The Collected Poems: A Bilingual Edition
Frederico Garcia Lorca is wonderful as always.This gives my granddaughters who know some Spanish and my friends who do not speak an opportunity to read and enjoy him.

Beautiful, magical
Lorca was such an amazing poet and this book captures him in all his dynamic beauty and magic. The translations are wonderful and its bilingual and the selection vast. If you like poetry, get this book.

Collected Lorca in fine translation
This volume is really superb. The translations are of consistently high quality.I particularly enjoyed Jerome Rothenberg's "Suites."Too bad this book is out of print! ... Read more

Subjects:  1. 1898-1936    2. Continental European    3. Emigration & Immigration    4. Garcia Lorca, Federico,    5. Garcâia Lorca, Federico,    6. Poetry    7. Translations into English   

Reviews (2)

Anthropology the old-fashioned way
For years the Twin Cities area has been home to a surprising number of African refugees fleeing some of the world's most brutal conflicts.In the 1980s it was Ethiopians and Eritreans; in the 1990s Somalis and Sudanese joined them. Walk down any street in South Minneapolis on a warm day and you're likely to see dozens of women wearing distinctive Somali garb.Tens of thousands such people now inhabit the Twin Cities.Why are they there?How did they make the long and difficult journey?How are they adapting to life in the United States? Nuer Journeys, Nuer lives: Sudanese Refugees in minnesota
Holtzman, made a behavioral research on Nuer people, while designed his plot to analyse the Cultural viewpoint.Read more

Subjects:  1. Anthropology - Cultural    2. Cultural And Social Anthropology    3. Emigration & Immigration    4. Minnesota    5. Minority Studies - Ethnic American    6. Nuer (African people)    7. Refugees    8. Social Science    9. Social life and customs    10. Sociology    11. Sudanese Americans    12. United States - State & Local - General    13. Cultural studies    14. Ethnic studies    15. Social & cultural anthropology    16. Social Science / Sociology / General   

Reviews (4)

Understand U.S. Immigration Law through examples.
The most striking thing about this book is the extensive use of examples throughout the book. One of the main problems in understanding the law is trying to figure out how it applies to your particular situation. The use of examples is one of the best ways for an author to explain the various aspects of any law. In this book, the author did such a fantastic job that I have picked up the book at various times in the last decade to figure out how I can solve my own particular immigration problem and I was able to fix it very fast. He does such a great job that I got carried away by the confidence the book inspires and decided to handle one of the more difficult immigration situations myself. It worked out alright but in hindsight, I should have taken the assistance of a lawyer to make things easier for myself. A must read
This is the best book on this subject available. I am a new citizen to this country, and it would have not happened so easily without this great book. Thank you, Mr. Wernick.

Very usefull and well written
This is an excellent book for anyone going through the hurdles of US Immigration. The author covers all bases and still keeps the text easy to read and easy to reference. I have seen Mr. Wernick speak and have read his authoritative newspaper column and this book lives up to his usual high standards. It is the only book of its kind you will need and with the high cost of legal advice, you will save time and money. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Business Law    2. Citizenship    3. Civics & Citizenship    4. Constitutional    5. Emigration & Immigration    6. Emigration And Immigration    7. Emigration and immigration law    8. Legal Reference / Law Profession    9. Popular works    10. Social Science    11. Sociology    12. United States    13. Visas    14. Law / Emigration & Immigration   

Editorial Review

Many political activists will quickly label Read more

Reviews (3)

Biased Analysis
One of the most comprehensive books on the economic effects of immigration on the native population is "Heaven's Door" by Dr. George Borjas.Dr. Borjas has for decades been trying to prove the adverse effects of immigration on natives.Although his research has continued since 1999, "Heaven's Door" is his most recent major work.
A cuban who doesn't like mexicans
what else is new? This book is like most academic work these days: start with a conclusion, then find supporting arguments. Required reading for study of modern immigration debate.
A very sound piece of economic work.Regardless of what you feel about Borjas's conclusions, you must acknowledge the value of his economic analysis.To truly have an understanding of the immigration debate, youmust have read Borjas's work.His contributions to the field areimmeasurable.While I do not always agree with him on the place of"ethnicity" in the realm of immigration policy making, I am moreeducated for even considering his proposal.In sum, I highly recommendthis book to anyone interested in immigration issues--especially thoseinterested in its economic impact. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Business & Economics    2. Economic Conditions    3. Economic History    4. Economic aspects    5. Emigration & Immigration    6. Emigration and immigration    7. Government - U.S. Government    8. Government policy    9. Immigrants    10. Politics / Current Events    11. Politics/International Relations    12. United States    13. Business & Economics / Economic History    14. Central government policies    15. Economics    16. Immigration & emigration    17. Political Science and International Relations    18. Political economy    19. Sociology    20. USA   

Subjects:  1. Emigration & Immigration    2. Gender Studies    3. Social Science    4. Sociology    5. Anthropology    6. Colonization & independence    7. Cultural studies    8. English    9. Literary Collections / General    10. Literary studies: general   

Reviews (5)

A hard read
First let me begin by saying that this is an interesting read. You basically learn about domestic workers (live in nannies, home cleaners). The author gives you alot of information, in fact I would say that she gives you a plethora of information. As such it took me over a month to finish this book, and the fact.
Domestic Labour: Research on the Haves and Have-Little.
In Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo's Dom�stica: Immigrant Workers Cleaning and Caring in the Shadow of Affluence, readers explore, along with the researcher, an oft overlooked element of domestic labour in America.In examining this particular manifestation between the haves and have little, Hondagneu-Sotelo has provided a "scholarly" treatment where Ehrenreich's Nickel and Dimed fell short.This is by no means an indictment of Ehrenreich's work, quite the contrary.Ehrenreich's Nickel and Dimed is approachable by the many levels of readers that seek to understand the phenomenon of the working poor and their interaction with affluent Americans (here, I speak specifically of Ehrenreich's chapter two titled "Scrubbing in Maine").However, in Dom�stica, Hondagneu-Sotelo has opted to focus her research on immigrant domestic workers, specifically Mexican and Central American women in Los Angeles.In so doing, her research provides insight into the minds and worlds of both parties who engage in what can easily be termed a "love hate" relationship; one where, out of necessity, both the employer and employees are in need of one another.In addition, Dom�stica serves to highlight some of the struggles of members of America's largest "minority" population (be they documented or otherwise).While Hondagneu-Sotelo relegates her analysis and interviews to women in the Los Angeles area, this reviewer is of the opinion that her research may well be duplicated in other cities with similar populations and yield like outcomes.
Well-Done
A good introduction into the world of domestic workers in the United States.Read more

Subjects:  1. California    2. Emigration & Immigration    3. Employment    4. Gender Studies    5. Hispanic American women    6. Los Angeles Metropolitan Area    7. Minority Studies - Ethnic American    8. Nannies    9. Social Science    10. Sociology    11. Women domestics    12. Immigration & emigration    13. Social Science / Gender Studies    14. Women's studies    15. Work & labour   

Subjects:  1. Americanization    2. Anthropology - Cultural    3. East Indians    4. Emigration & Immigration    5. Feminism & Feminist Theory    6. Globalization    7. Politics / Current Events    8. Social Science    9. Sociology    10. Transnationalism    11. United States    12. Women's Studies - General    13. Asian studies    14. Feminism    15. Gender Studies/Feminist Theory    16. India    17. Postcolonial Studies    18. South Asian Studies   

Reviews (17)

who cares about objectivity.
people who read this book need to understand that this book is going to be biased. in the beginning the author explicitly states that this book is going to be his personal account about his experience of the border life in Tijuana. people who want truth about the hardships these people face need to pick up this book and read it. i read it for a class that i am interning for and i work in a homeless youth shelter in the city of Tijuana and i see so many similarities of this life. i see the children and have to ask myself where and how did these children end up on the streets. why have they chosen this life, a life of hardship and chaos? Never knowing when your time is up or who that person down the street is beating up or for my case, how can there be a drug house next door to these children? this book is a very emotional account of those that have gone as far as they could only to end up a step closer to that freedom. this book definitely opened my eyes to those who have come this far only to continue to struggle. searching in the dumps for food, living on a piece of land where you could be kicked off in a instant, only to be more homeless than you already are. this is a story, a true srory, that will hopefully open the eyes of all who read this book. it is an account of hope and survival, quite often things that you or me need not to worry about. the people who are talking about immigration reform and who are hoping to make it alot more strict because they feel "their country" is being overrun by illegals, need to pick up this book. you need to step out of your bubble and volunteer with a group that goes across the wire to the other side, the true other side. not revolution avenue, but go into the city, go to houses on the hills. go and see the way these people live and then ask yourself if you have the right to complain about those people who are trying to make a better life for their families and themselves.

Have A Good Cry, But Then Act
This is a heart wrenching book that attempts to describe what it's like to be one of the poorest of the poor in the world.The author outstandingly introduces to people, some of whom are his close friends, who live in an entirely different world and yet have the same desires and dreams as we although they are often too discouraged to dream them.
Former Border Patrol Agent writes...
I am a former United States Border Patrol Agent and I read this book while working the fixed positions we often manned along the Arizona-Mexico border.I was so moved by this story, I cried.I cried as I read this book, right there in my Border Patrol vehicle on the very line separating two very different worlds!This book is an easy read and can be taken a little at a time.Its impact is incredible and your heart will be broken.It is a must read!I am not compromising my stance on immigration laws here, I am just expressing my heart-felt pain for some of what the beautiful people of Mexico must face in their lives.God bless! ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Economic conditions    2. Emigration & Immigration    3. General    4. Hispanic American Sociology    5. Latin America - Mexico    6. Mexican-American Border Region    7. Social conditions    8. Sociology    9. Tijuana (Baja California, Mexi    10. Tijuana (Baja California, Mexico)    11. Social Science / Emigration & Immigration   

Reviews (3)

This book makes me want to hop the border to Canada
This book is truly awful.I don't know what her publisher was thinking by letting this book get out.The tone: Nasal.The language: Sociological jargon.The argument: Garbage.Save a tree and find something better.

Reframing immigration history
Mae Ngai's ambitious book compels historians and general readers alike to critically reassess traditional understandings of and approaches to U.S. immigration.Much of the histories on U.S. immigration and immigration policies have told a similar tale.The United States, the narrative goes, has been tainted by a long history of exclusion, a blight on the nation's democratic tradition that was only recently removed with the passage of the Immigration Act of 1965.Such a narrative not only reaffirms the myth of American universalism, but also consistently fails to produce any new critical knowledge about U.S. immigration and U.S. history.Impossible Subjects differs from these other works of immigration history in this important respect: it proceeds with the conviction that the United States was never a "nation of immigrants."
The legally constructed "illegal aliens"
IMPOSSIBLE SUBJECTS, written by Mae Ngai, is the best of recent books on the 20th-century American history of immigration. She reveals that the problem of "illegal immigrants," which has been regarded as one of the most serious problems since the late 20th century, is indeed a legal construction. According to the author, immigrants from Mexico were drawn into the U.S. Southeast because the Southeast political economy, especially agri-business, raised need for the massive wave of low-wage immigrant workers and at the same time defined them as the racially "foreign" people who were rendered alien to America, which was defined as the nation of Caucasians. What enabled the American Government and people to attach racialized foreignness to the Mexican immigrants (and, inevitably, American citizens of Mexican origin) were Immigration Acts, border policing, and discriminatory control of visas.Read more

Subjects:  1. Civics & Citizenship    2. Constitutional    3. Emigration & Immigration    4. Government - U.S. Government    5. History    6. History: American    7. Sociology    8. United States - 20th Century    9. 20th century    10. American History    11. American history: from c 1900 -    12. History / United States / 20th Century    13. Immigration & emigration    14. Law    15. Political Science and International Relations    16. USA   

Reviews (9)

2 stars simply becacuse the author picked an important subject
Lacks just about everything:
they sent me a library book
The seller sent me a library book from the Salt Lake City Library.
Trite and shallow
This book does a huge disservice to the serious issue of human trafficking. It is very poorly researched, highly derivitive, and badly written. It does not even begin to grapple with the complications of the global trade in human beings but instead relies on sensation and titillation. I would not accept this from an undergraduate.
Read more

Subjects:  1. Child labor    2. Emigration & Immigration    3. Forced labor    4. Human Services    5. Prostitution    6. Slave trade    7. Slavery    8. Social Science    9. Sociology    10. History / United States / General   

Reviews (1)

Well-written and engaging
This book will be useful to students of immigration, history, and political science.Tichenor shows us the complex set of connections between political institutions, interest groups, and political actors that combined to produce policy outcomes.
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Subjects:  1. Emigration & Immigration    2. Emigration and immigration    3. Government - U.S. Government    4. Government policy    5. History    6. Political Science    7. Politics / Current Events    8. Politics/International Relations    9. Public Policy - General    10. United States    11. American History    12. Immigration & emigration    13. International relations    14. Political Science / Public Policy    15. Political Science and International Relations    16. USA   

Reviews (4)

Prophetic Work
Memmi's text, written in the midst of the colonial war in Algeria,is a powerfully useful text for examining later colonial insurrections (unlike the previous reader's claim), including the present Israel-Palestine conflict in which a clear line divides the homeland and the colony. Just as the war in Algeria drained France's economy, divided its society, and destroyed its moral fabric (and merely delayed the inevitable!) so too have the last two rounds of Intifadas (large numbers of both Israelis and Palestinians live in poverty for the sake of elite and unnecessary settlements). Memmi's words still resonate.
A relic with insights
THis book is a wonderful example of what passed for scholarship in the 1960s.The author who grew up in Tunisia describes the hypothetical positions of the colonizer and the colonized, trying to discern what are the options open to them.In this anlysis several important realizations are made, such that the left discourages terrorism at home but supports it when 'suppressed non europeans' engage in it.But beyond a few insights the book lacks almost any grip on reality.Certain platitudes are taken for granted, for exmaple "The colonized is presumed a thief".or the colinizer is racist.Or the colonized has no choice over his desinty and "is not a man".But this is just not acurate for all colonial situations.In many situations the native inhabuitants did retain many of their rights and their soviergnty, the Rajas in India might come to mind.It may be true of Tunisia however which the book is coming out of, but little experience is given in the book, no facts are included as if the book applies to all situations.Rather this book applies to the situation in the ALgeria and Tunisia, and that is about it.Despite the vast generalizations, this book is mostly a museum piece of the kind of works that passed as 'academic' in the 1960s when anything that siad "Europe is evil" was gobbled up by the unsuspecting deluded public.
One of the top books of all time
Memmi captures the contradictions and destructive forces of colonialism from an individual perspective, but more importantly he provides us with a work that transends his subject matter and allows for greater understanding of the manner in which structural and institutional forces of other forms of oppression and inequality affect us today. A classic statement pertaining to the human condition and the potential for liberation. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Colonies    2. Colonies And Colonization    3. History - General History    4. History: World    5. Indigenous peoples    6. World - Colonial Studies    7. Cultural studies    8. Non-Classifiable   

Subjects:  1. Demography    2. Emigration & Immigration    3. Emigration and immigration    4. Social Science    5. Sociology    6. Social Science / Demography   

Subjects:  1. Anthropology - Cultural    2. Anthropology - General    3. Archaeology / Anthropology    4. Emigration & Immigration    5. Emigration and immigration    6. Government policy    7. Immigrants    8. Public opinion    9. Social Science    10. Sociology    11. United States    12. Ethnic studies    13. Immigration & emigration    14. Media studies    15. Social & cultural anthropology    16. Social Science / Anthropology / General    17. USA    18. c 1960 to c 1970    19. c 1970 to c 1980    20. c 1980 to c 1990    21. c 1990 to c 2000   

Editorial Review

Fauziya Kassindja describes her upbringing in a small Western Africa village as "partmodern, part traditional, and Muslim throughout." Her Muslim father did not force his daughters towear veils and encouraged their individualism. Most importantly, Kassindja's father instilled in her adistrust and fear of female circumcision, a controversial procedure still performed in many parts of theworld. Tragically for Fauziya, he would die an untimely death, but his emphatic disgust at this dangerousand life-threatening operation had a remarkable effect on his daughter. She would flee the country justhours before her own circumcision, eventually arriving in the United States, where she faced animmigration nightmare.