Immigration and the American Backlash

De: John Tirman

Narrado por: Jim Sartor

Illegal immigration continues to roil American politics. The right-wing media stir up panic over "anchor babies", job stealing, welfare dependence, bilingualism, al-Qaeda terrorists disguised as Latinos, even a conspiracy by Latinos to "retake" the Southwest. State and local governments have passed more than 300 laws that attempt to restrict undocumented immigrants' access to hospitals, schools, food stamps, and driver's licenses. Federal immigration authorities stage factory raids that result in arrests, deportations, and broken families - and leave owners scrambling to fill suddenly open jobs. And yet polls show that a majority of Americans support some kind of path to citizenship for those here illegally. What is going on? In this book, John Tirman shows how the resistance to immigration in America is more cultural than political. Although cloaked in language about jobs and secure borders, the cultural resistance to immigration expresses a fear that immigrants are changing the dominant white, Protestant, "real American" culture.

Tirman describes the "raid mentality" of our response to immigration, which seeks violent solutions for a social phenomenon. The current "round them up, deport them, militarize the border" approach, Tirman shows, solves nothing.

©2015 John Tirman (P)2017 Redwood Audiobooks

Reseñas de la Crítica

" Immigration and the American Backlash bravely wades into the complexities of this mosaic to offer a tessellated, theoretical understanding informed by social science research." ( Times Higher Education)

"Anyone struggling to come to grips with immigration reform will gain insight from this thoughtful book, which sheds light on the nuances about immigration that hide behind the headlines." ( Los Angeles Daily Journal)

Good review of a difficult problem.

With an issue that dominates American Politics this is a Audio book that can give you insight to a very old problem


The headlines never seem to change pick a date in American history and the issues that stir so many emotions rears
its ugly head in the United States.


With a good performance by the Narrator all listeners will gain knowledge into an issue that will never be solved in America.



This book was given to me for free at my request and I provided this voluntary review.

New to the genre

Interesting interpretation of history
History was told and handled tastefully in a manner that made me want to turn the page and find out what happened next

Human Dignity--Left or Right Wing Issue?!?

I walked into Immigration and the American Backlash thinking I'd be hit with a barrage of left-wing arguments, something that I, as a slightly left-of-center person might find to be a slight affront (and perhaps I should say here that I swing more to the right the older I get). And it certainly does make some arguments that someone who thinks from the right might find infuriating, but overall one finds that the book is mostly about humans making their way.
Make no mistake: The Left gets some heavy-duty whonking on the head, as the problem comes across as starting off from neo-Liberal policies of the 90s (think NAFTA and super cheap labor depressing a living wage), and it goes on to slight it as being a lot of hand-wringing now.
Still, I can see where the people on the Right would dislike the book: It's heavy on immigrants keeping some of their culture alive and well even as they live in this country. It suggests that Mexican-American studies aren't all that bad (and what other way to introduce the culture to citizen students to immigrants so that they aren't perpetually viewed as The Other?). It asks that we look at how our own policies, economic, social, political, have undermined the fabric of society in the countries that are seeing the most emigration. This is never fun stuff to listen to, I assure you.
But the book really highlights the immigrants as human beings. It over and over shows people working truly wretched jobs for truly wretched wages.
Jim Sartor does a capable job narrating the book, and while I sometimes found his narration to be over-enthusiastic, it never got in the way of the whole shebang.
Mostly the book just reminds us of one salient fact: We're talking about people here, and since when have human dignity, human rights been an awful thing? (okay! okay! since forever--still--worthy of a listen!)

I received this audiobook for free in exchange for an honest and unbiased review

author did a good job covering all sides of the issue

Clearly very well researched this was an interesting look at our current issues with immigration. The author did a good job covering all sides of the issue, which I really appreciated. Definitely worth a listen.

I was voluntarily provided this free review copy audiobook by the author, narrator, or publisher.

Insightful and Interesting

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes, it delved into a controversial topic of immigration but presented it in an unbiased manner and gave the reader good insight on the topic.

Any additional comments?

This review copy audiobook was provided by the author, narrator, or publisher at no cost."