Partners in Gatekeeping
How Italy Shaped U.S. Immigration Policy over Ten Pivotal Years, 1891-1901
Published on 1. November 2023
Book
Paperback/Softback
224 pages
978-0-8203-6540-4 (ISBN)
Description
Partners in Gatekeeping illuminates a complex, distinctly transnational story that recasts the development of U.S. immigration policies and institutions. Lauren Braun-Strumfels challenges existing ideas about the origins of remote control by paying particular attention to two programs supported by the Italian government in the 1890s: a government outpost on Ellis Island called the Office of Labor Information and Protection for Italians, and rural immigrant colonization in the American South-namely a plantation in Arkansas called Sunnyside.
Through her examination of these distinct locations, Braun-Strumfels argues that we must consider Italian migration as an essential piece in the history of how the United States became a gatekeeping nation. In particular, she details how an asymmetric partnership emerged between the United States and Italy to manage that migration.
In so doing, Partners in Gatekeeping reveals that the last ten years of the nineteenth century were critical to the establishment of the modern gatekeeping system. By showing the roles of Italian programs in this migration system, Braun-Strumfels establishes antecedents for remote control beyond the well-studied Chinese and Mexican cases.
Through her examination of these distinct locations, Braun-Strumfels argues that we must consider Italian migration as an essential piece in the history of how the United States became a gatekeeping nation. In particular, she details how an asymmetric partnership emerged between the United States and Italy to manage that migration.
In so doing, Partners in Gatekeeping reveals that the last ten years of the nineteenth century were critical to the establishment of the modern gatekeeping system. By showing the roles of Italian programs in this migration system, Braun-Strumfels establishes antecedents for remote control beyond the well-studied Chinese and Mexican cases.
Reviews / Votes
Partners in Gatekeeping is an important contribution to U.S. immigration historiography. Braun-Strumfel's use of Italian sources offers a powerful sense of how immigration to the United States played on both sides of the Atlantic at the policy level, correcting the prevailing notion that restrictionism developed almost wholly in the context of anti-Asian sentiments. -- Jennifer E. Brooks * author of Resident Strangers: Immigrant Laborers in New South Alabama * Partners in Gatekeeping relies on exciting, innovative, and ambitious research. The amount of never-before-used primary sources (at least in U.S. history) is breathtaking and one of the book's many strengths. . . . With this evidentiary base, Braun-Strumfels clarified questions I have long had. She also raised questions that had not even occurred to me to ask, but were lightbulb moments as I read them. -- Torrie Hester, associate professor of history, Saint Louis University Braun-Strumfels's work in the Italian archives has produced a remarkable book that adds an important contribution to the growing number of scholars who take the South seriously as a place to study immigration history. -- Michael K. Rosenow * Journal of Southern History * In Partners in Gatekeeping: How Italy Shaped U.S. Immigration Policy over Ten Pivotal Years, 1891-1901, Lauren Braun-Strumfels reveals the fundamental inseparability of these American and Italian histories of migration law and politics. . . .Historians of US immigration law and Italian emigration policy, and interdisciplinary scholars of international migration more broadly, should read her important book. -- Brendan A. Shanahan * American Historical Review * Braun-Strumfels's careful research casts much light on today's controversies, such as "remain in Mexico," family separations at the border, and long-term detentions without the right to counsel-all of which resulted from a legal framework that took shape in the 1890s and persists -- Paul Moses, Brooklyn College * The Journal of American History *More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Georgia
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Illustrations
3 b&w images
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 14 mm
Weight
374 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-8203-6540-4 (9780820365404)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Lauren Braun-Strumfels
Partners in Gatekeeping
How Italy Shaped U.S. Immigration Policy over Ten Pivotal Years, 1891-1901
E-Book
11/2023
University of Georgia Press
€28.49
Available for download
Person
LAUREN BRAUN-STRUMFELS is an associate professor in the history department at Cedar Crest College. She was also a Fulbright Scholar at Universita Roma Tre in 2020.