Undocumented European Immigrants in the United States, 1906-1986

FAIN: FT-265205-19

S. Deborah Kang
California State University San Marcos Corporation (San Marcos, CA 92096-0001)

A book-length study about undocumented European immigration to the United States and the laws and policies that were designed to legalize their status, 1906-1986.

Pathways to Citizenship: Undocumented European Immigrants in the United States, 1906-1986 offers one of the first histories of illicit European migration to the United States and the laws and policies that were created to legalize their status. Due to these measures, thousands of European immigrants were spared from deportation and deemed eligible for US citizenship. Through a socio-legal approach, the manuscript follows several undocumented European migrations across the nation’s land and sea borders and five legal remedies that were developed in response to their irregular presence. The book also explains how these policies served as the foundations for the legalization provisions of the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, the most prominent adjustment of status measure of the twentieth century, and compare the experiences of undocumented European migrants of the early twentieth century with those of Latino/a immigrants in the late twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

Associated Products

Legalizing the Impossible Subject: The White Russian Refugees and the Development of American Immigration and Refugee Law during the Great Depression (Conference/Institute/Seminar)
Title: Legalizing the Impossible Subject: The White Russian Refugees and the Development of American Immigration and Refugee Law during the Great Depression
Author: S. Deborah Kang
Abstract: This conference paper provides a history of the White Russian refugees in the United States and discusses the implications of that history for the development of American immigration and refugee law.
Date Range: November 8, 2019
Location: Center for the Study of International Migration, UCLA
Primary URL: https://www.international.ucla.edu/migration/event/14013

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