Crossing Borders : Migration and Citizenship in the Twentieth-Century United States

Aspiring immigrants to the United States make many separate border crossings in their quest to become Americans—in their home towns, ports of departure, U.S. border stations, and in American neighborhoods, courthouses, and schools. In a book of remarkable breadth, Dorothee Schneider covers both the immigrants’ experience of their passage from an old society to a new one and American policymakers’ debates over admission to the United States and citizenship. Bringing together the separate histories of Irish, English, German, Italian, Jewish, Chinese, Japanese, and Mexican immigrants, the book opens up a fresh view of immigrant aspirations and government responses.Ingenuity and courage emerge repeatedly from these stories, as immigrants adapted their particular resources, especially social networks, to make migration and citizenship successful on their own terms. While officials argued over immigrants’ fitness for admission and citizenship, immigrant communities forced the government to alter the meaning of race, class, and gender as criteria for admission. Women in particular made a long transition from dependence on men to shapers of their own destinies.Schneider aims to relate the immigrant experience as a totality across many borders. By including immigrant voices as well as U.S. policies and laws, she provides a truly transnational history that offers valuable perspectives on current debates over immigration. (20110810) Aspiring immigrants to the United States make many separate border crossings in their quest to become Americansin their home towns, ports of departure, U.S. border stations, and in American neighborhoods, courthouses, and schools. In a book of remarkable breadth, Dorothee Schneider covers both the immigrants experience of their passage from an old society to a new one and American policymakers debates over admission to the United States and citizenship. Bringing together the separate histories of Irish, English, German, Italian, Jewish, Chinese, Japanese, and Mexican immigrants, the book opens up a fresh view of immigrant aspirations and government responses. Ingenuity and courage emerge repeatedly from these stories, as immigrants adapted their particular resources, especially social networks, to make migration and citizenship successful on their own terms. While officials argued over immigrants fitness for admission and citizenship, immigrant communities forced the government to alter the meaning of race, class, and gender as criteria for admission. Women in particular made a long transition from dependence on men to shapers of their own destinies. Schneider aims to relate the immigrant experience as a totality across many borders. By including immigrant voices as well as U.S. policies and laws, she provides a truly transnational history that offers valuable perspectives on current debates over immigration. "Aspiring immigrants to the United States make many separate border crossings in their quest to become Americans - in their home towns, ports of departure, U.S. border stations, and in American neighborhoods, courthouses, and schools. In a book of remarkable breadth, Dorothee Schneider covers both the immigrants' experience of their passage from an old society to a new one and American policymakers' debates over admission to the United States and citizenship. Bringing together the separate histories of Irish, English, German, Italian, Jewish, Chinese, Japanese, and Mexican immigrants, the book opens up a fresh view of immigrant aspirations and government responses. Ingenuity and courage emerge repeatedly from these stories, as immigrants adapted their particular resources, especially social networks, to make migration and citizenship successful on their own terms. While officials argued over immigrants' fitness for admission and citizenship, immigrant communities forced the government to alter the meaning of race, class, and gender as criteria for admission. Women in particular made a long transition from dependence on men to shapers of their own destinies."--Pub. desc. Contents ......Page 8 Acknowledgments ......Page 10 Introduction: Crossing Borders and Nation Building ......Page 16 1. Leaving Home ......Page 25 2. Landing in America ......Page 76 3. Forced Departures ......Page 128 4. Americanization ......Page 165 5. Becoming a Citizen ......Page 208 Epilogue: Crossing Borders in the Late Twentieth Century ......Page 257 Appendix 1: Figures ......Page 268 Appendix 2: Deportation Categories, 1917 ......Page 270 Notes ......Page 272 Index ......Page 326 Introduction : crossing borders and nation building Leaving home Landing in America Forced departures : deportations from the Progressive Era to the 1960s Building a nation and community : Americanization, 1906-1950 Crossing the final border : becoming a United States citizen Epilogue : crossing borders in the late twentieth century. Dorothee Schneider relates the story of immigrants' passage from an old society to a new one, and American policymakers' debates over admission to the United States and citizenship. Bringing together the histories of Europeans, Asians, and Mexicans, the book opens up a fresh view of immigrant expectations and government responses.