Impossible Subjects


Impossible Subjects: Illegal Aliens and the Making of Modern America, is a Frederick Jackson Turner Award-winning book by historian Mae M. Ngai published by Princeton University Press in 2004.

Synopsis

In part one, Ngai begins with discussing the implications of immigration restriction in the 1920s by particularly focusing on border patrol and immigration policy which she argues results in a changing discourse about race. In part II, she focuses on migrants from the Philippines and Mexico by discussing their role in the U.S. economy and how they challenged cultural norms about the traditional work force. In part III, Ngai examines the shift of regulations around Japanese-Americans and Chinese-Americans especially their eligibility for citizenship. She uses Japanese internment camps as evidence of their lack of legal and social inclusion in the United States. In part IV, she analyzes the next era in immigration policy which she suggests is embodied in the Hart-Celler Act. She discusses how immigration policy was affected during the years of 1945-1965 by World War II. She concludes part IV by showing how the immigration policies during the time period after 1965 contributed to increased illegal immigration and heightened a seemingly unsolvable problem going forward.

Background

Impossible Subjects was written by Mae M. Ngai and published in 2004 by Princeton University Press. Impossible Subjects was Ngai’s first full-length book, and she has also published a number of works in major newspapers and academic journals. Ngai graduated from Empire State College with a B.A. and went on to Columbia University where she earned her M.A. in 1993 and her Ph.D in 1998. Currently, Ngai is a professor of Asian American Studies and History at Columbia University in New York City and focuses on the invention of racial categories, specifically looking at the creation of Chinese racial categories. Impossible Subjects won six different awards, including the Theodore Salutos Prize, which was given to Ngai by the Immigration and Ethnic History society, and the Berkshire Conference of Women Historians First Book Prize. The book examines legislation, court cases, and attitudes in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries that affected immigration. Through Ngai’s analyses of these factors, readers are shown the long-lasting impacts these cases have had on the American public’s views on ‘illegal aliens’ and how ‘illegal aliens’ became “impossible subjects.”

Content

Introduction

"Illegal Aliens: A Problem of Law and History"

Ngai explains the purpose of the book saying, "immigrants are integral to the historical processes that define and redefine the nation." She breaks the introduction into three sections which are "Immigration and Citizenship," "Immigration Policy and the Production of Racial Knowledge," and "Nationalism and Sovereignty." She also begins to discuss several immigration laws that were enacted throughout the history of the U.S. including the Johnson-Reed Act of 1924. Lastly, she says that she does not want to resolve the problems of immigration policy, but rather to inform the reader of how flexible legislation and public opinion are. She frequently underlines how immigration laws created new race categories and were aimed at maintaining whiteness.

Part I: The Regime of Quotas and Papers

Chapter One: "The Johnson-Reed Act of 1924 and the Reconstruction of Race in Immigration Law"

Chapter one gives a detailed description of the context and lead up to the restrictive immigration laws that are subsequently covered in the book. It talks about how anti-immigrant nativist groups, influenced by an ending industrial revolution that negated the need for a constant source of cheap labor, began demanding and passing tough immigration laws that restricted or sometimes outright banned immigration from European and Asian countries. The chapter talks about how the national law that came from this sentiment, known as the Johnson-Reed Act of 1924, divided European peoples into differing levels of "whiteness" defined by nationality and based their quotas on that. Ngai includes a table of the U.S. immigration quotas based on national origin for the purpose of showing how the United States divided Europeans and non-Europeans into these differing levels of "whiteness." Ngai goes on to explain how Asians, most of whom were outright banned, took their cases to court but the bans however, remained law. This was all backed up by science and defined legal terminology, but both the scientific community and the supposedly definitive courts remained in dispute trying to justify their actions. The chapter ends by talking about how Mexicans and other Americans south of the United States were left unaffected by this law which, as their agricultural labor was still necessary, deemed them "white". Nevertheless, nativists would now turn their attention to them.

Chapter Two: "Deportation Policy and the Making and Unmaking of Illegal Aliens"

“Deportation Policy” provides a look at the laws and actions against illegal aliens in the United States following the passage of the 1924 Johnson-Reed Act and how these actions framed illegal aliens as “impossible subjects.” Within this chapter, Ngai discusses some of the moral outrage these new policies inspired. Ngai specifically looks at how immigrants were ranked in terms of social desirability to determine their deportation status, which also highlighted the racial undertones that existed in a political and legal context in the United States. She also shows how ideas of eugenics and morality were used to justify the deportation of illegal aliens to their homeland. Ngai’s work in this chapter helps to explain how Mexicans were defined as the “iconic illegal alien.”

Part II: Migrants at the Margins of Law and Nation

Chapter Three: "From Colonial Subject to Undesirable Alien: Filipino Migration in the Invisible Empire"

Following the Spanish–American War the United States acquired the Philippines as a colony. Justified by imperial thinking, and social Darwinism the West Pacific became viewed as means for expansion. The Philippines was denied statehood, through the legality of the Insular Cases, and viewed as uncooperative, and incapable of self-rule by American imperialists. Filipinos were thus granted limited rights based on their colonial status. However, because of this colonial status Filipinos were able to migrate to the United States regardless of quotas or exclusionary acts. During the 1920s there was the mass migration of Filipinos to major metropolitan areas. Throughout World War I employers recruited Filipino workers to work in mainland America.
As a result of this increase in the Filipino population was backlash, official efforts encouraged Filipinos to stay the Philippines. However, within the 1920s Filipinos replaced Japanese farmers and found employment within the service sector on the West Coast. However, Filipinos faced retaliation by whites who claimed Filipinos were saturating the agricultural section with cheap labor. Many Filipinos faced Anti-Filipino attacks, and institutionalized disregard for their safety and well-being. Filipinos faced wage discrimination.

Chapter Four: "Braceros, 'Wetbacks,' and the National Boundaries of Class"

Within Chapter Four: "Braceros, 'Wetbacks,' and the National Boundaries of Class", Ngai provides a chronological explanation on the buildup and beginnings of the bracero program, its difficulties, racial implications, and issues with illegal immigration over the span of two decades. Ngai explains the development of the modern Mexican-America class, a group that "did not belong," plagued by racial mistreatment, stereotypes, and threat detainment, interrogation, and deportation. Explained in depth are the policies and actions of the INS in regards to carrying out repatriation towards Mexican migrants, especially in regards to Operation Wetback.

Part III: War, Nationalism, and Alien Citizenship

Chapter Five: "The World War II Internment of Japanese Americans and the Citizenship Renunciation Cases"

Chapter Six: "The Cold War Chinese Immigration Crisis and the Confession Cases"

Part IV: Pluralism and Nationalism in Post-World War II Immigration Reform

Chapter Seven: "The Liberal Critique and Reform of Immigration Policy"

Critical reception

In his review in The New Yorker, Louis Menard praises Ngai's book for demonstrating how the categories of "legal" and "illegal" immigrants "are administrative constructions, always subject to change; they do not tell us anything about the desirability of the persons so constructed."

Awards