Book Review: Impossible Subjects: Illegal Aliens and the Making of Modern America

Book Review: Impossible Subjects: Illegal Aliens and the Making of Modern America (Politics and Society in Twentieth Century America)

 Impossible Subjects: Illegal Aliens and the Making of Modern America (Politics and Society in Twentieth Century America) (Hardcover), written by Mae Ngai, is a classic of recent books on the 20th-century American history of immigration. In this book, she mainly discusses about the problem of "illegal immigrants" in the United States and their living conditions. Since its publication, the illegal subject becomes a hot topic in American history and greatly attracted the attention by historians.

According to Mae Ngai, immigrants from Mexico were mainly drawn into the U.S. Southeast. But why there? Mae Ngai tells us that it is not only because the Southeast agricultural business, which can offer these illegal immigrants low-wage jobs, but also because the illegal subjects are living there. Although they are defined racially "foreign" immigrants, they can still survive in this place. It is possible that the American government knows this situation and the livng conditions of the illegal immigrants in these regions. And the American government makes its own Immigration Acts and highly restricted their rights and freedom. But as a matter of fact, it could not prevent the tendency of the illegal immigrants to come here.

It is so problematic a topic that it greatly attracts Mae Ngai’s attention. In this book, Mae Ngai argues that positive laws regarding to the American immigration policies, although they have enforced, have constructed the category of "illegal aliens." Moreover, Border Patrols and INS of the United States reinforced the labeling of racially alien immigrants, which made them a big topic in American history. Analyzing her topics from this perspective, Mae Ngai suggests that the American immigrant laws reconstituted the social formations. That’s to say, the shaping and the making of the illegal subjects.

I actually do not know whether her theories or interpretation could be applied to other topics in terms of immigrants in other countries. Personally speaking, I think Mae Ngai does a good job and helps us to deepen our understanding of the illegal immigrants in the American history and life.

It is a well-analyzed book. It is also readable. If you are interested in the American immigrant policies or conditions, it is a good book that you should take a look at it.