Immigrant America: A Portrait

"Immigration is clearly in the news again, reflecting renewed interest and controversy over one of the oldest themes in our nation's history. In Immigrant America, Portes and Rumbaut tell us not only how America has become a mosaic of peoples and nationalities, but what the prospects for the future are as well. They have pulled together, in a readable fashion, a vast wealth of information and knowledge on the phenomena of immigration to the United States that is understandable to the layperson and provocative to the scholar."-Jerry M. Tinker, Subcommittee on Immigration and Refugee Affairs

"A superb book. It is that rarest of combinations: a work of impeccable scholarship that is also accessible to the general reader."-Gary E. Rubin, The American Jewish Committee

"Immigrant America: A Portrait is a fascinating and compelling window to our 'permanently changing' and amazingly diverse mosaic of peoples and cultures. The drama of newcomers' personal journeys from distant homelands combined with in-depth demographic research and history presents an invaluable resource for all students of America's unique immigrant tradition.Professors Portes and Rumbaut have compiled a masterful and provocative document, challenging our ideals of justice and compassion."-Al Santoli, author of New Americans: Immigrants and Refugees in the U.S. Today

"Immigrant America provides a fascinating and comprehensive up-to-date guide for understanding recent immigration to the U.S. and persuasive evidence that through immigration the nation has done well by doing good."-Lawrence H. Fuchs, Former Executive Director of the U.S. Select Commission on Immigration and Refugee Policy

"Chock-full of invaluable data for understanding immigration and immigrants."-Julian L. Simon, The University of Maryland

Author Biography: Alejandro Portes is John Dewey Professor of Sociology and International Relations at Johns Hopkins University and coauthor of Latin Journey: Cuban and Mexican Immigrants in the United States (University of California Press, 1985) and Labor, Class and the International System (1981). Rubén G. Rumbaut is Professor of Sociology at San Diego State University and author of The Agony of Exile (1990), The Structure of Refuge (1989), and other studies of the adaptation of refugees from Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.

"Widely acknowledged as a masterful analysis of the distinctive features of the new immigration, this book is a lively classic, combining an innovative paradigm with rich empirical evidence. With commitment and discipline, its authors provide the best that social science has to offer."—Aristide Zolberg, author of A Nation by Design

"Because of its intellectual breadth, Immigrant America is a portrait of American life itself, its pressures and difficulties, its mosaic of repressions, as well as its possibilities, as seen through the eyes of those struggling for a place in the society."—Richard Sennett, New York University

"A fascinating and compelling window to our 'permanently changing' and amazingly diverse mosaic of peoples and cultures. The drama of newcomers' personal journeys from distant homelands combined with in-depth demographic research and history presents an invaluable resource for all students of America's unique immigrant tradition."—Al Santoli, author of New Americans

"Immigration is clearly in the news again, reflecting renewed interest and controversy over one of the oldest themes in our nation's history.
In Immigrant America, Portes and Rumbaut tell us not only how America has become a mosaic of peoples and nationalities, but what the prospects for the future are as well. They have pulled together, in a readable fashion, a vast wealth of information and knowledge on the phenomena of immigration to the United States that is understandable to the layperson and provocative to the scholar."—Jerry M. Tinker, Subcommittee on Immigration and Refugee Affairs

"A superb book. It is that rarest of combinations: a work of impeccable scholarship that is also accessible to the general reader."—Gary E. Rubin, The American Jewish Committee

"This book is essential for those who seek the facts upon which intelligent discussion of the immigrant problem must be based."—Charles Peters, Washington Monthly

"Immigrant America is a thoroughly updated and revised edition of a classic in the immigration field. More than just an excellent synthetic overview, this remarkably well-written and engaging book provides original and theoretically stimulating analyses of the recent immigration that is transforming American society."—Nancy Foner, author of
In a New Land: A Comparative View of Immigration

Library Journal

In lucid, readable prose, with supporting charts and statistics, the authors discuss the nature of foreign influx over the years, relating diverse patterns to U.S. official and unofficial policy as well as politics and living conditions in the immigrants' countries of origin. They characterize immigrant America in its variety, from common laborer to educated elite, identifying those who ``make it'' and those who don't. Taking a position at odds with the negativism expressed by Richard D. Lamm and Gary Imhoff in The Immigration Time Bomb (LJ 12/85), these authors project a very positive attitude toward the role that immigrants play in American life. Negatively, source countries may suffer ``brain (or labor) drain,'' while the United States mostly gains from the newcomers' drive, energy, and cultural diversity. Highly recommended for general readers and policymakers.-- Suzanne W. Wood, SUNY Coll. of Technology, Alfred

Alejandro Portes is Professor of Sociology at Princeton University and Director of the Center for Migration and Development. He is the 2010 recipient of the W.E.B. Du Bois Career of Distinguished Scholarship Award from the American Sociological Association.Rubén G. Rumbaut is Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Irvine, and Codirector of the Center for Research on Immigration, Population, and Public Policy. They are the coauthors of Legacies: The Story of the Immigrant Second Generation and coeditors of Ethnicities: Children of Immigrants in America, both from UC Press.