Debating Immigration

by Carol M. Swain (Editor)

Debating Immigration presents 18 original essays, written by some of the world's leading experts and preeminent scholars, that explore the nuances of contemporary immigration and citizenship affecting the United States and Europe. The volume is organized around the following themes: religion and philosophy, law and policy, economics and demographics, race and ethnicity, and cosmopolitanism. Critical questions addressed include: What accounts for the disconnect between public attitudes about immigration and the policies produced by elected officials? Why has the United States not developed a well-articulated public philosophy of immigration?

Genres: Politics, Immigration, Nonfiction, Political Science

330 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Carol Miller Swain is a retired professor of political science and law at Vanderbilt University. A frequent conservative television analyst, she is the author and editor of several books. Her interests include race relations, immigration, representation, evangelical politics, and the United States Constitution.

Reviews

[Chrisanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

In a nutshell: it's more complicated than you probably imagined.

I really like Carol Swain, so far. In her intro to the collection she describes this book as the next logical step after studying White Nationalism but, not having all the necessary background (her focus is law), she invites people from multiple backgrounds to the table(liberal as well as conservative). We don't really hear that a lot from people these days and I admire people who can say that.

They bring a lot of varying viewpoints, especially because some of them were added into this second edition in 2017 ish. There's the sociologists, the philosopher, the environmentalist, and the lawyers. We get more specifics on DACA, on immigration history, on civil rights. Immigration reform is not as easy as it sounds, nor is it as simple as a bill passed in DC.

The last article, before the conclusion, did seem a little out of place. The information on smugglers and trafficking in Europe was simultaneously fascinating and troubling, and Swain tied it in fairly well, but I found myself wondering: if they could get all those facts and figures about Europe, why wasn't there an article about the effects of such acts in the US?

[The American Conservative]

'Debating Immigration grew out of papers presented at a conference held at Princeton in 2005, plus some additional contributions. The book is thus not animated by a single hypothesis and is therefore perhaps even more difficult to review than is usually the case with collected volumes.
The question becomes, are there enough essays with something useful to say to make it worth reading? The answer is yes.'

Read the whole review, "Bringing Diversity to the Debate," on our website:
http://www.theamericanconservative.co...

[Christy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hoo, boy. Feel like I'm back in school and have to read an assigned text. Heavy going! I got through parts. Some interesting points when I could manage to stay awake. Thank goodness there was an accompanying book for our book club discussion.

[Mike Emett · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like the many others previously added, this is for a class