Ben Waber reviewed America for Americans by Erika Lee
An Amazing and Painful Look at the US's Long History of Xenophobia
5 stars
Lee methodically reviews North American and US immigration history to demonstrate the strong undercurrent of racism and xenophobia that has always been the undercurrent of immigration policy. Showing the shifting notion of "desirable" immigrants and the American invention of immigration restrictions, she further dives into sordid corners of immigration policy that aren't well known - the example of encouraging Peru to export their Japanese ancestry citizens to the US during WW2 so we could intern them and then trade them to Japan for American citizens was genuinely shocking. Seen in this light, recent moves look all the more disturbingly normal, with echoes of the deportation of American citizens of Mexican descent coming to mind. Highly recommend
Lee methodically reviews North American and US immigration history to demonstrate the strong undercurrent of racism and xenophobia that has always been the undercurrent of immigration policy. Showing the shifting notion of "desirable" immigrants and the American invention of immigration restrictions, she further dives into sordid corners of immigration policy that aren't well known - the example of encouraging Peru to export their Japanese ancestry citizens to the US during WW2 so we could intern them and then trade them to Japan for American citizens was genuinely shocking. Seen in this light, recent moves look all the more disturbingly normal, with echoes of the deportation of American citizens of Mexican descent coming to mind. Highly recommend
