It would not be overstating the case to call this history top-heavy with charts and statistics. Our author admits early on: "I hate to burden the reader with all these figures, but in demographic matters, if you don't get the numbers right, you just don't know what you're talking about." That's a truth one can respect, yet toleration (for those of us less enamored of the crunch) is greatly enhanced by a generous assortment of meaty asides. Thankfully, Daniels is aware of this and channels his inner wit to provide a genuinely entertaining and informative journey through America's attempts to accept those huddled masses yearning to be free.
We are taken from the colonial era to the heaviest period of immigration (1820-1924), and on through the 1990s - drawing extensively from census records, passenger manifests, government accountings and more to answer the questions of when people came, how they came, where they settled and why. Which populations were pushed out of their countries? Which were, alternatively, pulled toward America? How did the means of each group impact their immigration experience? Attention is also paid to America's response to these incursions - welcoming in times of prosperity and peace, much less so when money was tight and the threat of war was in the air.
To get a sense of those asides peppered throughout, here's one on the predicament of Israel and the Soviet Jews:
The mechanism under which that immigration takes place is a curious and complex one. All Jews leaving the Soviet Union have emigration visas that state their destination as Israel. But you can't go to Israel directly from the Soviet Union, so the Jews fly to Vienna. Once in Austria, which is technically a country of first asylum, they are asked where they wish to go. In 1988 some 19,000 Jews were allowed out of Russia. Only 7 percent chose to go to Israel; the rest chose the United States, despite pleas and promises from Israeli officials who had access to them. The Israeli government has been trying to get the Soviet government to change the system and funnel the emigrants through Bucharest, where they would presumably not have a choice, but the USSR has not agreed. Once such persons are in Israel, which is a country of refuge rather than a country of first asylum they would no longer be eligible to enter the United States as refugees but would have to go through regular immigration procedures. An official of the Israeli government said recently that if Soviet Jews did not want to come to Israel, Israel did not care whether they got out or not, but surely few Israelis would share that sentiment.
This book was written prior to September 11, an event which undoubtedly had an impact on American immigration. Still, I find it an invaluable resource with regard to centuries past and have a much better sense of the immigration experience my ancestors encountered. Brave folks, they.