American immigrants are often considered symbols of hope and promise. Presidential candidates point to their immigrant roots, Ellis Island is celebrated as a national monument, and the melting pot remains a popular, if somewhat tarnished, American analogy. At the same time, images of impoverished Mexicans swarming across the Mexican-American border and boatloads of desperate Haitian and Cuban refugees depict America as a nation under siege. While governments and business interests generally welcome aliens for the economic benefits they generate, the success of these groups paradoxically stirs distrust and envy, leading to discrimination, oppression, and, in some cases, eviction. Surveying the political and economic history of American immigration, Thomas Muller compellingly argues that the clamor at America's gate should be a cause of pride, not anxiety; a sign of vigor, not an omen of decline. Illustrating that recent waves of immigration have facilitated urban renewal, Muller emphasizes the many ways in which aliens have lessened our cities' social problems rather than contributing to them. Los Angeles, New York, Miami, and San Francisco, traditional gateways to other continents, have all benefited from the contributions of immigrants. To assess perceived and actual costs of absorbing the new immigrants, Muller examines their impact on city income, housing, minority jobs, public services, and wages. But Muller argues that noneconomic concerns (such as recent attempts to formalize English as the country's official language) frequently mirror deeply-rooted fears that could explain the cyclical pattern of American attitudes toward immigrants over the last three centuries. The nation, he contends, may again be turning inward, initiating a period of growing hostility toward the foreign-born. Nonetheless, higher entry levels for skilled immigrants would improve the technological standing of the U.S., increase the standard of living for the middle class, and facilitate the resurgence of our inner cities.

This volume of The ANNALS brings together a leading set of scholars to present new research on trends in the spatial forms of immigration that are transforming the American landscape—the effects of "the world in a city." With a distinct analytic focus, the volume takes a comparative approach, examining recent immigration trends, disaggregating by ethnicity or immigrant type wherever possible, focusing on core features of the nation's social fabric (e.g., violence, legitimacy of social institutions, governance, economic well-being), and empirically going beyond the big cities of traditional concern to a host of smaller cities and towns reaching into far-flung pockets of the country. The lineup includes papers on both familiar cities such as New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Miami; as well as places as different as San Antonio; Nashville; Boston; Dublin; Hazleton, Pennsylvania; and St. James, Minnesota. While the places studied and features of their social fabric may differ, the social processes underlying the spatial forms of immigration are shown to be largely the same. This volume will be of interest to social scientists from a broad range of disciplines who engage in research and teaching on issues related to immigration; policy-makers; and individuals working on immigration-policy research.

Looks at the explosive growth of American cities caused by the industrial revolution, the arrival of new immigrants, and lack of work in rural areas of the United States.

David Ward examines the geographical relationship between migrants and the inner city and the creation of slums and ghettos.

The new immigrants who have poured into the United States over the past thirty years are rapidly changing the political landscape of American cities. Like their predecessors at the turn of the century, recent immigrants have settled overwhelmingly in a few large urban areas, where they receive their first sustained experience with government in this country, including its role in policing, housing, health care, education, and the job market. Governing American Cities brings together the best research from both established and rising scholars to examine the changing demographics of America's cities, the experience of these new immigrants, and their impact on urban politics. Building on the experiences of such large ports of entry as Los Angeles, New York, Miami, Houston, Chicago, and Washington D.C., Governing American Cities addresses important questions about the incorporation of the newest immigrants into American political life. Are the new arrivals joining existing political coalitions or forming new ones? Where competition exists among new and old ethnic and racial groups, what are its characteristics and how can it be harnessed to meet the needs of each group? How do the answers to these questions vary across cities and regions? In one chapter, Peter Kwong uses New York's Chinatown to demonstrate how divisions within immigrant communities can cripple efforts to mobilize immigrants politically. Sociologist Guillermo Grenier uses the relationship between blacks and Latinos in Cuban-American dominated Miami to examine the nature of competition in a city largely controlled by a single ethnic group. And Matthew McKeever takes the 1997 mayoral race in Houston as an example of the importance of inter-ethnic relations in forging a successful political consensus. Other contributors compare the response of cities with different institutional set-ups; some cities have turned to the private sector to help incorporate the new arrivals, while others rely on traditional political channels. Governing American Cities crosses geographic and disciplinary borders to provide an illuminating review of the complex political negotiations taking place between new immigrants and previous residents as cities adjust to the newest ethnic succession. A solution-oriented book, the authors use concrete case studies to help formulate suggestions and strategies, and to highlight the importance of reframing urban issues away from the zero-sum battles of the past.

The American city and the American movie industry grew up together in the early decades of the twentieth century, making film an ideal medium through which to better understand urban life. Exploiting the increasing popularity of large metropolitan cities and urban lifestyle, movies chronicled the city and the stories it generated. In this volume, urbanist James A. Clapp explores the reciprocal relationship between the city and the cinema within the dimensions of time and space.A variety of themes and actualizations have been repeated throughout the history of the cinema, including the roles of immigrants, women, small towns, family farms, and suburbia; and urban childhoods, family values, violent crime, politics, and dystopic futures. Clapp examines the different ways in which the city has been characterized as well as how it has been portrayed as a character itself.Some of the films discussed include Metropolis, King Kong, West Side Story, It's a Wonderful Life, American Beauty, Rebel without a Cause, American Graffiti, Blade Runner, Gangs of New York, The Untouchables, LA Confidential, Sunrise, Crash, American History X, Breakfast at Tiffany's, The Deer Hunter, and many more. This work will be enjoyed by urban specialists, moviegoers, and those interested in American, cultural, and film studies.

Sheds light on what the city is and does by analyzing what its citizens think it should be and do.

This set of readings presents useful insights into urbanization and provides a fresh perspective on American cities and their inhabitants. Advancing the premise that it is not possible to understand how people live in cities without understanding how they think of them, the editor presents historical and contemporary materials that illustrate vividly the variety of ways in which Americans have viewed their cities, and urbanization in general.This book sheds light on what the city is and does by analyzing what its citizens think it should be and do. Its lively, readable selections include contributions from businessmen, ministers, journalists, reporters, city planners, and reformers, as well as sociologists. Strauss shows that Americans' views of cities have been profoundly influenced by their history of continental expansion, successive waves of immigration, massive industrialization and similar objective developments. He points out that certain perspectives or themes relations of social classes within the city, of country to city, of small city to big city, of city to region, etc.persist regardless of the social or historical perspective of the writer.The author's comprehensive introduction and his introductions to each section of the book delineate the thematic structure of the readings and guide the reader toward the insights and principles illuminated in the different sections. A fruitful contribution to courses in urban sociology, the book is a useful addition to the libraries of sociologists, political scientists, planners, and city officials who wish to understand more fully the contemporary urban milieu.

This new volume of original essays focuses on the presence of European ethnic culture in American society since 1830. Among the topics explored in Immigrant America are the alienation and assimilation of immigrants; the immigrant home and family as a haven of ethnicity; religion, education and employment as agents of acculturation; and the contours of ethnic community in American society.