Impossible Subjects: Illegal Aliens and the Making of Modern America - Updated Edition (Politics and Society in Modern America)

In Impossible Subjects: Illegal Aliens and the Making of Modern America, Maw M. Ngai “argues that illegal immigration is not anomalous but inherent to the regime of immigration restriction. Nor is it a side channel to the main stream of the nation’s history as a ‘nation of immigrants.’” (pg. xxv) Ngai organizes her book into four sections: the quota system and paper legality; immigration at the margins of law and nation; war, nationalism, and citizenship; and postwar immigration reform. Her subjects broadly alternate between Asian immigrants from Japan and China, with a section on the Philippines, and immigrants from Mexico. Further, Ngai employs a transnational approach, situating her work within recent borderlands scholarship.In discussing restriction, Ngai writes, “Restriction not only marked a new regime in the nation’s immigration policy; [she] argue[s] that it was also deeply implicated in the development of twentieth-century American ideas and practices about citizenship, race, and the nation-state.” (pg. 3) According to Ngai, the quota system “constructed a white American race, in which persons of European descent shared a common whiteness distinct from those deemed to be not white. In the construction of that whiteness, the legal boundaries of both white and nonwhite acquired sharper definition.” (pg. 25) Discussing early twentieth century Americans’ fears over Filipino immigration, which they equated with a threat to job opportunities, Ngai writes, “The perception of widespread job competition was, in fact, fueled by longstanding racial animus towards Asiatics. The central element of this hostility was the ideology of white entitlement to the resources of the West.” (pg. 109) Discussing migrant Mexican labor, Ngai “argues that immigration law and practices were central in shaping the modern political economy of the Southwest, one based on commercial agriculture, migratory farm labor, and the exclusion of Mexican migrants and Mexican Americans from the mainstream of American society.” (pg. 128) Further, Ngai argues “that this transnational Mexican labor force...constituted a kind of ‘imported colonialism’ that was a legacy of the nineteenth-century American conquest of Mexico’s northern territories.” (pg. 129). Ngai’s discussion of Japanese internment demonstrates the clash between the federal and state governments’ belief in immigrants’ duty to assimilate and Japanese-Americans’ desire to blend their culture with that of the United States. (pg. 180) Their uncertain legal status further compounded this. While the United States relaxed its immigration restrictions on China during World War II, “Cold War politics and the sensationalized investigations against fraud reproduced racialized perceptions that all Chinese immigrants were illegal and dangerous. Confession legalized Chinese paper immigrants, but it did not necessarily bring them social legitimacy.” (pg. 223) In her final section, Ngai argues “that the thinking that impelled immigration reform in the decades following World War II developed along a trajectory that combined liberal pluralism and nationalism.” (pg. 230) She also examines the unforeseen consequences of those policies, such as the intellectual “brain drain” of the Third World.Ngai draws upon the “intellectual and editorial interventions” of Gary Gerstle, author of "American Crucible: Race and Nation in the Twentieth Century". (pg. xvii) This links her to other historians, such as John Dower, who argued in "War Without Mercy: Race & Power in the Pacific War", that World War II was a race war, and to Lawrence Goldstone’s "Inherently Unequal: The Betrayal of Equal Rights by the Supreme Court, 1865-1903", which, like Ngai’s examples, examined the court cases that stripped non-white Americans of their rights or citizenship.

The media could not be loaded.  As a used book, it is still okay to use for just one semester.

I like this book! Ngai’s writing style is easy to understand, and she thoroughly covers the topic.

Super history of 20th Century immigration to America, with long overdue emphasis on immigrants from Asia. Places the 1965 Immigration Reform Act into excellent context. Recommended for general readers and specialist

This book betrays its origin as a doctoral dissertation with its slightly ponderous introduction establishing the historiography of the subject and occasional attention to theory. So it lacks the literary sparkle of Ngai's second book, The Lucky Ones. Nevertheless, this is a fascinating book about the history of U.S. immigration policy, its racists premises, and the fateful construction of the illegal alien category that poisons our immigration policy today. Highly recommended to anyone who wants to understand how we got to where we are today.

Well written and researched. If you're a conservative, it will only make your weak brain angry. If you're a liberal, it will only inflate your already overdeveloped sense of self importance and arrogance.If you're an actual intellectual, read it.

Very concise read on illegal aliens. So much we read on illegal aliens are about our folks to the south of the USA border. Also economies need cheap labor so it is a love and hate relationship with the business owner and the individual seeking a manner it a way to feed themselves and their families. It is the reality of our time of use of illegal workers. Will it ever cease?

This book is amazing! One of my favorites. Provides a good historical review on the experiences of different immigrant groups. I would recommend this book not only to academics but also history teachers who are interested in learning more about untaught U.S. history.