Unguarded Gates: A History of America's Immigration Crisis

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Throughout America's history immigration policy has always been a controversial and complex topic, going to the heart of what it means to be American. Now, with terrorism as a new concern, Americans have begun to look closer at the effects of rising immigration and porous borders.

In this cogently-argued work, immigration scholar Otis L. Graham, Jr. examines the history of immigration pressures and American policy debates and choices. He begins with the first "Great Wave" of the 1880s and traces the effects of the system of national origins, enforced from the 1920s through 1965. The reforms of the 1960s ushered in an era of large-scale legal and illegal immigration, resulting in a vast social experiment in demographic transformation. In assessing the past, present, and future of immigration, Graham shows that the failure to control the influx of foreigners is leading America toward further security risks, unsustainable population growth, imported worker competition with American labor, and, ultimately, social fragmentation.

Reviews

Otis Graham brings new eyes and new scholarship to the agonizing question of immigration, a subject that usually engenders too much emotion and too little objective analysis. Unguarded Gates: A History of America's Immigration Crisis is a clear-eyed look at both the pluses and minuses of our new immigration patterns. Readable and compelling. -- Richard D. Lamm, Governor of Colorado, 19751987, Co-Director of the Institute for Public Policy Studies, University of Denver
Otis Graham's Unguarded Gates is a vivid reminder that our contemporary debates over immigration have a long history. Graham shows powerfully how immigration has proven a continual challenge to the ability of America to realize its highest ideals and, as such, is must reading for understanding one of the pivotal issue of our times. -- John Bodnar, Indiana University
A much-needed guide to an unknown history: America's constant effort to control immigration in the national interest, culminating in the legislation that ended out-of-control immigration in the 1920s. Graham performs a great service in calmly stripping away the self-serving myths that grew up around this cut-off, caused its abandonment in the 1960s, and still poison debate today, as immigration once again reaches crisis proportions. -- Peter Brimelow, editor of VDARE.com and author of Alien Nation
Otis Graham has been reflecting on the consequences of large-scale immigration in the U.S. for many years. Unguarded Gates distills many of those insights in a coherent and informative fashion. Regardless of one's perspective on the immigration debate, Graham's analysis shows that the making of an informed policy requires that we all become aware of how immigration is changing the country. -- George Borjas, Harvard University
Graham performs a valuable service in refuting modern-day charges that racist motivations and eugenicist theories underlay the Progressives' move to restrict immigration. Unguarded Gates is especially enlightening in its analysis of the vast cultural rift between the elites, who benefit economically from cheap immigrant labor, and average Americans, who bear the costs and consequences of the present mass immigration. * National Review *
Ethnic activistsalong, unfortunately, with most liberals and historians of immigrationrefuse to grant that efforts to restrict immigration can be inspired by anything but nativism, racism, and fear of 'the Other.' This book shows how ungroundedand unfairthat assumption is. Graham's evidence and argumentation should go far toward making reasonable discussion of the issue possible. -- Philip Gleason, University of Notre Dame
This is a clear and rational little bookno small accomplishment when the subject is immigration.Unguarded Gates: A History of America's Immigration Crisis is less a policy tome or a polemic than a fine exercise in simply telling it like it was. * Sunday Washington Times *
Unguarded Gates provides an intriguing historical survey of America's immigration crisis. . . . This should be a part of any college-level collection on immigrant social issues. * The Bookwatch *

Author Bio

Otis L. Graham, Jr. is professor of history, emeritus, at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is the author or editor of over 15 books, including Debating American Immigration, 1882Present (with Roger Daniels) and Environmental Politics and Policy, 1960s to 1990s. He lives in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.