From The Bookshelves: Keeping Out the Other

Columbia University Press has announced the publication of Keeping Out the Other: A Critical Introduction to Immigration Enforcement Today, edited by David C. Brotherton and Philip Kretsedemas.   Here is a description of the book:

David C. Brotherton and Philip Kretsedemas provide a history and analysis of recent immigration enforcement in the United States, demonstrating that our current anti-immigration tendencies are not a knee-jerk reaction to the events of September 11. Rather, they have been gathering steam for decades. With contributions from social scientists, policy analysts, legal experts, community organizers, and journalists, the volume critically examines the discourse that has framed the question of immigration enforcement for the general public. These diverse perspectives stimulate new ways of thinking about the issue of immigration enforcement, proving that "security" has more to do with improving legal rights, social mobility, and the well-being of all U.S. residents than keeping out the "other."

About Keeping Out the Other: "Not all is well on the American immigration front. This is one of the most critical examinations of the deep flaws in our laws and enforcement practices concerning the foreigner. Historically, few states have been able to handle the foreigner in a reasonably fair way, but many continue to think that the United States is such a state. This collection pinpoints with frightening precision how and why it is not, and the extent to which these deep flaws are not an aberration or a malfunction but actually an intrinsic part of our law."

— Saskia Sassen, author of Territory, Authority, Rights: From Medieval to Global Assemblages

KJ