Immigrant America : A Portrait (2 Rev ed)

Recent years have seen an acceleration of immigration flows into the US, as well as an intensification of public alarm and resistance to it.

This edition seeks to grasp the changing character of immigrant America, focusing on immigration as a process, not an event, and on the growing diversification of modern immigrants - manual labourers and polished professionals, entrepreneurs and exiles.

It also contributes a critical assessment of the often unintended consequences of present policies. Drawing on the most up-to-date census at the time of writing, and other primary sources, the book looks at patterns of immigrant settlement in urban America, discusses the problems of English-language acquisition and bilingual education, and explains how both legal and undocumented immigrants are incorporated into the American economy.

It probes the dynamics of immigrant politics, examining questions of identity and loyalty among newcomers who are "in the society but not of it", and explores the psychological consequences of varying modes of migration and acculturation.