1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910811862103321

Autore

Ettinger Patrick W

Titolo

Imaginary lines : border enforcement and the origins of undocumented immigration, 1882-1930 / / Patrick Ettinger

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Austin, : University of Texas Press, 2009

ISBN

0292795165

Edizione

[1st ed.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (xi, 244 pages) : illustrations

Disciplina

325.7309/041

Soggetti

Immigration enforcement - United States - History - 19th century

Noncitizens - United States - History - 19th century

Noncitizens - Government policy - United States

Illegal immigration

United States Emigration and immigration History 19th century

United States Emigration and immigration Government policy

Mexico Emigration and immigration History 19th century

Mexican-American Border Region Emigration and immigration History 19th century

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

The menaces without : immigrant aliens and the origins of immigration restrictions -- Diverted streams : discovering a permeable border, 1882-1891 -- Drawing the lines : blueprints for immigration enforcement on the borders, 1891-1910 -- Erasing the lines : immigrant ingenuity on the U.S.-Mexico border, 1895-1910 -- Northward bound : Mexican immigrants, migrants, and refugees at the border, 1900-1921 -- The sisyphean task : origins of the modern border -- An imaginary line : change and continuity on the U.S.-Mexico border.

Sommario/riassunto

"Although popularly conceived as a relatively recent phenomenon, patterns of immigrant smuggling and undocumented entry across American land borders first emerged in the late nineteenth century. Ingenious smugglers and immigrants, long and remote boundary lines, and strong push-and-pull factors created porous borders then, much as they do now.Historian Patrick Ettinger offers the first comprehensive



historical study of evolving border enforcement efforts on American land borders at the turn of the twentieth century. He traces the origins of widespread immigrant smuggling and illicit entry on the northern and southern United States borders at a time when English, Irish, Chinese, Italian, Russian, Lebanese, Japanese, Greek, and, later, Mexican migrants created various 'backdoors' into the United States. No other work looks so closely at the sweeping, if often ineffectual, innovations in federal border enforcement practices designed to stem these flows.From upstate Maine to Puget Sound, from San Diego to the Lower Rio Grande Valley in Texas, federal officials struggled to adapt national immigration policies to challenging local conditions, all the while battling wits with resourceful smugglers and determined immigrants. In effect, the period saw the simultaneous 'drawing' and 'erasing' of the official border, and its gradual articulation and elaboration in the midst of consistently successful efforts to undermine it."- from Amazon.com