Immigration from the Middle East

Children's Literature

The number of Middle Eastern immigrants to the United States swelled from 200,000 in 1970 to about 1.5 million at the beginning of the 21st century. The book begins with an overview of Middle Eastern history and a fairly detailed history of immigration law in both the United States and Canada. These early sections are good for research though less interesting for straight reading. The more memorable information is in the later chapters, where classes could read specific sections and generate thought-provoking discussions on media stereotypes, Justice Department intervention in immigration cases, generational differences in accepting new social mores, comparisons between waves of immigrants from different parts of the world. One stereotype is unfortunately perpetuated by the single photo of a veiled young woman that is shown at the beginning of each chapter; it would have been much more instructive to show the diversity of Middle Eastern women rather than concentrate on one of the images that leaves Americans most uncomfortable. There are quotes and stories of individual immigrants which give humanity to all the statistics: the young man who earned his Ph.D. in the United States but longs for his native Sudan because of the "loneliness, stress and racism" he finds in his adopted country. The short glossary is very useful as is the interesting list of famous Americans of Middle Eastern background, including everyone from Christiane Amanpour and Doug Flutie to Ralph Nader and Manute Bol. Other books in the series, The Changing Face of North America, address immigration from China, Cuba, Philippines, Haiti, Central America, India, Korea, Mexico, Vietnam as well as a separate book aboutrefugees. 2004, Mason Crest, Ages 12 to 15.
—Karen Leggett