A Nation of Nations: A Great American Immigration Story

If there is one law that can be credited with my presence in the United States and subsequently meeting my wife, my marriage, and the birth of our son, it would be the 1965 Immigration Act. The Act abolished national quotas that heavily favored Europeans and kept Asians immigrants from moving to America. Gjelten weaves the story of several immigrants' and their children's arduous journey of legally immigrating to the U.S. with the political background of welcoming immigrants of a ‘different kind'. We're shown with examples through the years of history that bigotry is as American as apple pie but that hasn't prevented the equally strong pushback against such actions that inherently undermine the country's ideal.

The book is timely in the context of the immigration debates and the fearmongering amongst the conservatives toward immigrants who have nothing but hard work and entrepreneurship to offer. Perhaps the book would've been and will continue to be timely no matter the year it was published in. Gjelten convinces you that change is slow and hard but eventually will bend toward justice even though it may seem totally improbable at the time. John F. Kennedy's role in prioritizing the 1965 Act was pivotal but even more important was his brother, Edward Kennedy who was truly the ‘lion' in the debate leading up to the passage. Ultimately what worked for the Act was its unintended consequences because if they were known at the time, it would've never passed and kept America a predominantly white country and perhaps robbed of its competitive edge that now keeps it two steps ahead of the rest of the world.

Gjelten concludes with the backlash toward Muslims in wake of the 9/11 attacks and details the profound effect it had on people who had been living peacefully as citizens for many years. It shows that hatred can easily be preached and is often run counter to what you want to achieve.

Perhaps Gjelten could've included an Indian story as one of the anecdotes considering the high proportion of Indians moving to America compared to any other nationality. In delving into the Indian experience, he may have discovered that for Indians, the legal immigration continues to be a nightmare enough to make us cagey about our existence in this country. We're one bureaucratic mishap away from having our entire life torn apart. There is much work to be done in terms of legal immigration and unfortunately certain sections of the population that were earlier in support of welcoming immigrants are now the fearmongers. Forgive them for they know not what their country needs.

Overall, I would highly recommend this book to whoever is interested in the nuances of immigration debate. Sometimes you've to know how the sausage is made.