Making Foreigners: Immigration and Citizenship Law in America, 1600–2000

New Histories of American Law

by Kunal M. Parker

This book reconceptualizes the history of U.S. immigration and citizenship law from the colonial period to the beginning of the twenty-first century by joining the histories of immigrants to those of Native Americans, African Americans, women, Asian Americans, Latino/a Americans, and the poor. Kunal Parker argues that during the earliest stages of American history, being legally constructed as a foreigner, along with being subjected to restrictions on presence and movement, was not confined to those who sought to enter the country from the outside, but was also used against those on the inside. Insiders thus shared important legal disabilities with outsiders. It is only over the course of four centuries, with the spread of formal and substantive citizenship among the domestic population, a hardening distinction between citizen and alien, and the rise of a powerful centralized state, that the uniquely disabled legal subject we recognize today as the immigrant has emerged. The book advances new ways of understanding the relationship between foreignness and subordination over the long span of American history.

Genres: History

272 pages, Hardcover

First published September 30, 2015

Reviews

[YBV · Rating 5 out of 5]

Law? History? My two favorite domains of study, all in a book. Parker's Making Foreigners is a sweeping overview of American law over three centuries and how it not only excludes territorial outsiders but also render foreign those who might be considered insiders. Cogently argued and evidenced, Parker's work also benefits from a persuasive framework that positions the book at an important juncture in the historiography. A fascinating read about how America, this "nation of immigrants," is (surprisingly? or not?) a product of a history grounded in a tradition of exclusion and othering.

[Matthew R · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thought-provoking history, but excessive use of "vis-a-vis" that a good editor should have reduced.

[Xander Dale]

read for law of empire class literally soooo fast today

was so good and well outlined and organized tbh