Migration and Social Welfare, published in 1940, identifies the more pressing problems faced by migrants in the United States, including the sources and causes of migration and the social effects of inadequate welfare provision. It was written on special commission from the Social Work Year Book Department. Topics include employment, housing, health, and education of migrants. It proposes a national immigration policy and includes a bibliography on interstate migration.

Philip E. Ryan was executive secretary of the Council on Interstate Migration.

Cultural Difference and Medical Care, published in 1954, explores the difficulties inherent to U.S. medical practitioners in supplying health services and medical care to Spanish-speaking people living in the American Southwest. While its examples are drawn from this culturally distinct population, its principles apply as well to any cultural or subcultural group in any geographic setting. 

Lyle Saunders was associate professor of preventive medicine and public health (sociology), University of Colorado, School of Medicine.

An exploration of life in the military, particularly rank and file servicemembers, to better comprehend the relationship of the armed forces to American society. Moskos examines, among other things, the portrayals of soldiers in the media from World War II to the Vietnam War, the changing technological and bureaucratic characteristics of the social organization of the armed forces, and political attitudes, pay grades, and demographics of servicemembers, as well as race relations among enlisted men and behavior of combat soldiers in Vietnam.

Charles C. Moskos, Jr. was a professor at Northwestern University and a sociologist of the United States military.

Winner of the 2020 Latino Politics Best Book Prize from the Latino Caucus of the American Political Science Association

Click here to view a webinar discussion of the authors discussing research findings from the book.

“We have long puzzled over the net effect of anti-immigrant hostility on the levels of civic and social engagement. Using this era of—by any measure—extreme anti-immigrant policy action by the Trump administration, James A. McCann and Michael Jones-Correa offer us a heartening answer and one consistent with the life narratives of the individuals involved. Challenged, excluded, and harassed, immigrants to the United States have opted for fuller engagement with our political system in an act of civic affirmation that is rooted in the finest traditions of American democracy, and consistent with the characters of individuals who chose to struggle past adversity to secure better futures for themselves and their progeny. These two nodal scholars have, once again, provided documentary evidence of the civic ideals of new Americans.”
—GARY M. SEGURA, professor and dean, Luskin School of Public Affairs, University of California, Los Angeles“

“Holding Fast is a critical read to understand how Latino immigrants have fared—and in fact remained resilient—under the Trump administration. Even in the face of a slew of anti-immigrant actions, James A. McCann and Michael Jones-Correa make it clear that Latino immigrants remain engaged and are using their voices to speak out and create change. As we head toward the presidential election, the book makes clear the promise and peril for both political parties of failing to truly engage the Latino community.”
—PHILIP E. WOLGIN, managing director, Immigration, Center for American Progress

“In recent years, immigrants from Latin America have been the target of vitriolic political discourse and federal policies restricting their participation in American life. But, as James A. McCann and Michael Jones-Correa show, these trends have not led to an exit from U.S. civic life nor a withdrawal from U.S. society. To the contrary, efforts to draw these immigrants outside the American circle have only strengthened their resolve. Based on an impressive study, Holding Fast powerfully underscores the growing importance of Latino immigrants in American politics and civic life. Engaging and persuasively argued, this book is essential reading for anyone interested in how Latino immigrants are actively forging their place in America’s future. If you pick up any book this year, read this one.”
—ROBERTO G. GONZALES, professor of education and director, Immigration Initiative at Harvard (IIH), Harvard University

The fight over immigration reform and immigrants’ rights in the U.S. has been marked by sharp swings in both public sentiment and official enforcement. In 2006, millions of Latino immigrants joined protests for immigration reform. Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, a policy granting work permits and protection from deportation to undocumented immigrants who entered the country before age 16, was enacted in 2012, despite a sharp increase in deportations during the Bush and Obama administrations. The 2016 election of Donald J. Trump prompted a surge in anti-immigrant sentiment which threatened DACA and other progressive immigration policies. In Holding Fast, political scientists James McCann and Michael Jones-Correa investigate whether and how these recent shifts have affected political attitudes and civic participation among Latino immigrants.

Holding Fast draws largely from a yearlong survey of Latino immigrants, including both citizens and noncitizens, conducted before and after the 2016 election. The survey gauges immigrants’ attitudes about the direction of the country and the emotional underpinnings of their political involvement. While survey respondents expressed pessimism about the direction of the United States following the 2016 election, there was no evidence of their withdrawal from civic life. Instead, immigrants demonstrated remarkable resilience in their political engagement, and their ties to America remained robust.

McCann and Jones-Correa examine Latino immigrants’ trust in government as well as their economic concerns and fears surrounding possible deportations of family members and friends. They find that Latino immigrants who were concerned about the likelihood of deportation were more likely to express a lack of trust in government. Concerns about personal finances were less salient. Disenchantment with the U.S. government did not differ based on citizenship status, length of stay in America, or residence in immigrant-friendly states. Foreign-born Latinos who are naturalized citizens shared similar sentiments to those with fewer political rights, and immigrants in California, for example, express views similar to those in Texas.

Addressing the potential influence immigrant voters may wield in in the coming election, the authors point to signs that the turnout rate for naturalized Latino immigrant may be higher than that for Latinos born in the United States. The authors further underscore the importance of the parties' platforms and policies, noting the still-tenuous nature of Latino immigrants’ affiliations with the Democratic Party.

Holding Fast outlines the complex political situation in which Latino immigrants find themselves today. Despite well-founded feelings of anger, fear, and skepticism, in general they maintain an abiding faith in the promise of American democracy. This book provides a comprehensive account of Latino immigrants’ political opinions and a nuanced, thoughtful outlook on the future of Latino civic participation. It will be an important contribution to scholarly work on civic engagement and immigrant integration.

JAMES A. MCCANN is professor of political science at Purdue University.

MICHAEL JONES-CORREA  is the President’s Distinguished Professor of Political Science at the University of Pennsylvania.

Winner of the 2020 Otis Dudley Duncan Award for Outstanding Scholarship in Social Demography

Honorable Mention for the 2020 Thomas and Znaniecki Award from the International Migration Section of the American Sociological Association

“Using the best available data, state-of-the-art analytical strategies, and sophisticated theoretical framing, Immigration and the Remaking of Black America offers the definitive statement about the diverse experiences of black immigrants to the United States and how they compare to their native-born African American counterparts. Professor Hamilton has unquestionably raised the bar for future scholars who would seek to further advance our understanding of this important, but heretofore poorly understood, population.”
—STEWART E. TOLNAY, S. Frank Miyamoto Professor Emeritus of Sociology, University of Washington

“In the most comprehensive study to date of voluntary black immigration to the United States, Tod Hamilton conducts a tempered and temperate demolition on cherished conventional claims about race, national origin, immigration, and social outcomes. Hamilton’s systematic comparisons of the characteristics and experiences of recent black immigrants vis-à-vis their fellow nationals who remain in their home country, of internal black migrants to the north vis-à-vis those blacks who remained in the south, and of recent black immigrants vis-à-vis the native black American population writ large eradicate cultural-cum-behavioral explanations for ongoing racial inequality in the United States. Immigration and the Remaking of Black America is a masterful study.”
—WILLIAM A. DARITY JR., Samuel DuBois Cook Professor of Public Policy, Professor of African and African American Studies, and Professor of Economics, Duke University

“Immigration and the Remaking of Black America teaches us what it means to be black in America today. Its author, Tod G. Hamilton, provides a timely and accessible theoretical and empirical demographic benchmark describing America’s newest black immigrants. More importantly, Hamilton sets today’s black immigrant experience in comparison with native-born black Americans, who still feel the ancestral sting of forced migration from a much earlier and shameful period in U.S. history. America’s burgeoning immigrant and refugee populations from sub-Saharan Africa are too often overlooked but can tell us a great deal about contemporary race relations, race and class dynamics, and immigrant integration in a multiracial society. Immigration and the Remaking of Black America fills the current void.”
—DANIEL T. LICHTER, Ferris Family Professor, Cornell University

Over the last four decades, immigration from the Caribbean and sub-Saharan Africa to the U. S. has increased rapidly. In several states, African immigrants are now the primary drivers of growth in the black population. While social scientists and commentators have noted that these black immigrants’ social and economic outcomes often differ from those of their native-born counterparts, few studies have carefully analyzed the mechanisms that produce these disparities. In Immigration and the Remaking of Black America, sociologist Tod Hamilton shows how immigration is reshaping black America. He weaves together interdisciplinary scholarship with new data to enhance our understanding of the causes of socioeconomic stratification among both the native-born and newcomers.

Hamilton demonstrates that immigration from the Caribbean and sub-Saharan Africa is driven by selective migration, meaning that newcomers from these countries tend to have higher educational attainment and better health than those who stay behind. As a result, they arrive in the U.S. with some advantages over native-born blacks, and, in some cases, over whites. He also shows the importance of historical context: prior to the Civil Rights Movement, black immigrants’ socioeconomic outcomes resembled native-born blacks’ much more closely, regardless of their educational attainment in their country of origin. Today, however, certain groups of black immigrants have better outcomes than native-born black Americans—such as lower unemployment rates and higher rates of homeownership—in part because they immigrated at a time of expanding opportunities for minorities and women in general. Hamilton further finds that rates of marriage and labor force participation among native-born blacks that move away from their birth states resemble those of many black immigrants, suggesting that some disparities within the black population stem from processes associated with migration, rather than from
nativity alone.

Hamilton argues that failing to account for this diversity among the black population can lead to incorrect estimates of the social progress made by black Americans and the persistence of racism and discrimination. He calls for future research on racial inequality to disaggregate different black populations. By richly detailing the changing nature of black America, Immigration and the Remaking of Black America helps scholars and policymakers to better understand the complexity of racial disparities in the twenty-first century.

TOD G. HAMILTON is assistant professor of sociology at Princeton University.

Although tolerance is one of our most cherished ideals, history suggests it is not an inborn human trait. Tolerance must be learned, and the sophisticated arguments on which it is based make it much harder to learn than intolerance. In this extensive study of civil liberties, Herbert McClosky and Alida Brill attempt to discover who learns the norms of tolerance and why.

Reaching well beyond traditional categories of analysis, McClosky and Brill have surveyed civil libertarian attitudes among the general public, opinion leaders, lawyers and judges, police officials, and academics. They analyze levels of tolerance in a wide range of civil liberties domains—first amendment rights, due process, privacy, and such emerging areas as women's and homosexual rights—and along numerous variables including political participation, ideology, age, and education.

This landmark study offers a comprehensive assessment of the viability—and vulnerability—of beliefs central to the democratic system. It makes an invaluable contribution to the study of contemporary American institutions and attitudes.

Herbert McClosky was research director at the Survey Research Center in Berkeley and professor of political science at the University of California, Berkeley.

Alida Brill was program director and scholar in residence at the Russell Sage Foundation.

Despite the romantic image of American Indians that lingers in our collective imagination, little is known about the descendants of the people who dwelt in this land for centuries before Columbus. In American Indians: The First of This Land, C. Matthew Snipp provides an unrivaled chronicle of the recent history, contemporary lives, and demography of American Indians and Alaska Natives.

Taking advantage of Census Bureau efforts to collect high quality data for these groups, Snipp details the composition and characteristics of the American Indian and Alaska Native populations, looking at housing, family structure, language use and education, socioeconomic status, migration, and mortality. Drawing comparisons with the black and white populations, Snipp provides important historical perspectives that are particularly necessary to any understanding of American Indian demography. A remarkable diversity emerges of a population—Eskimos, Aleuts, and numerous Indian tribes—once thought doomed to extinction but now making a dramatic comeback, exceeding 1 million for the first time in 300 years.

American Indians offers an unsurpassed overview of a minority group that is deeply embedded in American folklore, the first of this land historically but now among the last in its socioeconomic hierarchy. The book is an essential reference for anyone interested in a contemporary portrait of an enduring element of America's social mosaic.

C. Matthew Snipp is associate professor of rural sociology and sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a former fellow of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences.

Winner of the 2019 Don T. Nakanishi Award for Distinguished Scholarship and Service from the Western Political Science Association Committee on the Status of Asian Pacific Americans

“Immigrants are not necessarily liberals, and religion is a large factor in predicting immigrant conservatism. These points are often overlooked by scholars and policymakers alike, and Janelle Wong’s path-breaking work shines much needed light on the ways in which religion—particularly evangelical Christianity—shapes immigrants’ politics, with considerable implications for the future of American party coalitions.”

—Michael Jones-Correa, professor of political science, University of Pennsylvania

“This is the perfect time for this important book. With evangelicals again in the bright political spotlight over their role in electing Donald Trump, it is essential to understand Janelle Wong’s exploration of evangelical religion, interests, and identities. Evangelical is clearly not a synonym for white Republican. But the steady diversification of evangelicalism will not necessarily entail a moderation of white evangelical politics either. There is fascinating work to be done on how people wrestle with competing racial and religious identities and Wong’s Immigrants, Evangelicals, and Politics in an Era of Demographic Change paves the way.”

—Paul A. Djupe, associate professor of political science, Denison University

As immigration from Asia and Latin America reshapes the demographic composition of the U.S., some analysts have anticipated the decline of conservative white evangelicals’ influence in politics. Yet, Donald Trump captured a larger share of the white evangelical vote in the 2016 election than any candidate in the previous four presidential elections. Why has the political clout of white evangelicals persisted at a time of increased racial and ethnic diversity? In Immigrants, Evangelicals, and Politics in an Era of Demographic Change, political scientist Janelle Wong examines a new generation of Asian American and Latino evangelicals and offers an account of why demographic change has not contributed to a political realignment.

Asian Americans and Latinos currently constitute more than one in every seven evangelicals, and their churches are among the largest, fastest growing organizations in their communities. While evangelical identity is associated with conservative politics, Wong draws from national surveys and interviews to show that non-white evangelicals express political attitudes that are significantly less conservative than those of their white counterparts. Black, Asian American, and Latino evangelicals are much more likely to support policies such as expanded immigration rights, increased taxation of the wealthy, and government interventions to slow climate change. As Wong argues, non-white evangelicals’ experiences as members of racial or ethnic minority groups often lead them to adopt more progressive political views compared to their white counterparts.

However, despite their growth in numbers, non-white evangelicals—particularly Asian Americans and Latinos—are concentrated outside of swing states, have lower levels of political participation than white evangelicals, and are less likely to be targeted by political campaigns. As a result, white evangelicals dominate the evangelical policy agenda and are overrepresented at the polls. Also, many white evangelicals have adopted even more conservative political views in response to rapid demographic change, perceiving, for example, that discrimination against Christians now rivals discrimination against racial and ethnic minorities.

Wong demonstrates that immigrant evangelicals are neither “natural” Republicans nor “natural” Democrats. By examining the changing demographics of the evangelical movement, Immigrants, Evangelicals, and Politics in an Era of Demographic Change sheds light on an understudied constituency that has yet to find its political home.

JANELLE S. WONG is professor of American Studies at the University of Maryland.