Partners in Gatekeeping: How Italy Shaped U.S. Immigration Policy over Ten Pivotal Years, 1891–1901 (Politics and Culture in the Twentieth-Century South) - Softcover

Braun-Strumfels, Lauren

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0820365408 ISBN 13: 9780820365404

Publisher: University of Georgia Press, 2023

Synopsis

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.

About this title

About the Author

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.

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Georgia Press
• Publication date: 2023
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0820365408
• ISBN 13: 9780820365404
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 224