Americans at the gate
Subtitle: the United States and refugees during the Cold War
By: Carl J. Bon Tempo.
Series: Politics and society in twentieth-century America
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Published: 2008
Place of publication: Princeton
Language: eng
Number of pages: 264
ISBN-13: 9780691123325
Subjects: Refugees -- Government policy -- United States -- History -- 20th century; Cold War
Description: Unlike the 1930s, when the United States tragically failed to open its doors to Europeans fleeing Nazism, the country admitted over three million refugees during the Cold War. This dramatic reversal gave rise to intense political and cultural battles, pitting refugee advocates against determined opponents who at times successfully slowed admissions. The first comprehensive historical exploration of American refugee affairs from the midcentury to the present, Americans at the Gate explores the reasons behind the remarkable changes to American refugee policy, laws, and programs. Carl Bon Tempo looks at the Hungarian, Cuban, and Indochinese refugee crises, and he examines major pieces of legislation, including the Refugee Relief Act and the 1980 Refugee Act. He argues that the American commitment to refugees in the post-1945 era occurred not just because of foreign policy imperatives during the Cold War, but also because of particular domestic developments within the United States such as the Red Scare, the Civil Rights Movement, the rise of the Right, and partisan electoral politics. Using a wide variety of sources and documents, Americans at the Gate considers policy and law developments in connection with the organization and administration of refugee programs.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Introduction : Americans at the gate; title: "The age of the uprooted man" : the United States and refugees, 1900 - 1952; title: "A mystic maze of enforcement" : the refugee relief program; title: "From Hungary, new Americans" : the United States and Hungarian refugees; title: "Half a loaf" : the failure of refugee policy and law reform, 1957-1965; title: "They are proud people" : the United States and refugees from Cuba, 1959-1966; title: "The soul of our sense of nationhood" : human rights and refugees, in the 1970s; title: Reform and retrenchment : the Refugee Act of 1980 and the Reagan administration's refugee policies; title: Epilogue : the United States and refugees after the Cold War.