Scholars, journalists, and policymakers have long argued that the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act dramatically reshaped the demographic composition of the United States. In A Nation of Immigrants Reconsidered, leading scholars of immigration explore how the political and ideological struggles of the "age of restriction"--from 1924 to 1965--paved the way for the changes to come. The essays examine how geopolitics, civil rights, perceptions of America's role as a humanitarian sanctuary, and economic priorities led government officials to facilitate the entrance of specific immigrant groups, thereby establishing the legal precedents for future policies. Eye-opening articles discuss Japanese war brides and changing views of miscegenation, the recruitment of former Nazi scientists, a temporary workers program with Japanese immigrants, the emotional separation of Mexican immigrant families, Puerto Rican youth’s efforts to claim an American identity, and the restaurant raids of conscripted Chinese sailors during World War II.

Contributors: Eiichiro Azuma, David Cook-Martín, David FitzGerald, Monique Laney, Heather Lee, Kathleen López, Laura Madokoro, Ronald L. Mize, Arissa H. Oh, Ana Elizabeth Rosas, Lorrin Thomas, Ruth Ellen Wasem, and Elliott Young

Maddalena Marinari is an assistant professor of history at Gustavus Adolphus College. She is the author of From Unwanted to Restricted: Italian and Jewish Mobilization against Restrictive Immigration Laws, 1882-1965. Madeline Y. Hsu is a professor of history at the University of Texas at Austin. She is the author of the award-winning The Good Immigrants: How the Yellow Peril Became the Model Minority. María Cristina Garcia is the Howard A. Newman Professor of American Studies at Cornell University. Her most recent book is The Refugee Challenge in Post-Cold War America.