Description
Book SynopsisThis collection of twenty essays provides an integrated view of migration in North America—within and between Canada, the Caribbean, Mexico, and the United States—during the past two centuries.
Trade Review“The introductory essay by Hoerder… is exemplary…. Replete with innovative maps, his account decries the ‘Westward ho’ trope of the continent’s migration history distilled into an advance of civilization from the Atlantic coast across the prairies, to the neglect of population movements in the northern and southern US borderlands and of trans-Pacific immigration.” -
Population and Development Review“For such a large topic, each contributor does an excellent job of summarizing his or her field, and the book comes together to present a swirling depiction of relocating populations that is complex yet understandable…. Overall, it is a well-written, enlightening account of dozens of population movements across modern North America that puts together current scholarship on migration in an interesting, readable manner.” - Zachary Adams,
Southwestern Historical Quarterly“The significance of creating scholarly dialogue between the ever-expanding fields of migration history in the Caribbean, Mexico, Canada, Central America, and the United States, not to mention studies of the southwestern borderlands, should not be overlooked. For scholars already well versed in current migration theory, this comparative aspect represents the volume’s greatest strength.” - Matthew Casey,
Hispanic American Historical Review“Its most satisfying theme is the broad and varied challenge to traditional understandings of North American immigration experiences. By introducing under-studied immigrant groups, reversing directions in studies of immigrant travel, and otherwise forcing readers to reconsider various topics, this volume makes a strong statement…The various growing fields of transational history need scholarship that decentres the US-centric model and expands beyond borders, regions, directions, and peoples that have dominated this field of inquiry. This volume makes a strong contribution in that direction.” - Brendan Rensink,
Canadian Journal of History“This collection achieves a feat of thematic and conceptual integration. It explores the demographic, socioeconomic, political, and symbolic role of migration in the formation of North American nations. Yet it transcends national borders and categories with examinations of the local, regional, borderlands, and hemispheric mobility of indigenous peoples, Asians, Europeans, Afro-descendants, Latinos, and Anglo- and French-Canadians, among other sub- and supra-national groups. The result is a combination of macro- and micro-perspectives that illuminates both the forest and the trees.”—
José C. Moya, author of
Cousins and Strangers: Spanish Immigrants in Buenos Aires, 1850–1930“This excellent collection is easily the best effort to date to interpret North American migrations. It takes seriously the inclusion of the Caribbean and Central America in its purview, successfully integrates analyses that range from the micro- to the macro-levels, and incorporates a long-term perspective that connects studies of ‘pre-historic’ Native America and the early-modern slave trade to modern studies of ‘immigration’ and ‘refugees.’ Best of all, it provides readers with a marvelous introduction to the ways that a North American perspective on human movement differs, often remarkably so, from the national perspectives developed within the historiographies of the United States, Canada, and Mexico.”—
Donna R. Gabaccia, author of
Immigration and American Diversity: A Social and Cultural History“For such a large topic, each contributor does an excellent job of summarizing his or her field, and the book comes together to present a swirling depiction of relocating populations that is complex yet understandable…. Overall, it is a well-written, enlightening account of dozens of population movements across modern North America that puts together current scholarship on migration in an interesting, readable manner.” -- Zachary Adams * Southwestern Historical Quarterly *
“The introductory essay by Hoerder… is exemplary…. Replete with innovative maps, his account decries the ‘Westward ho’ trope of the continent’s migration history distilled into an advance of civilization from the Atlantic coast across the prairies, to the neglect of population movements in the northern and southern US borderlands and of trans-Pacific immigration.” * Population and Development Review *
“The significance of creating scholarly dialogue between the ever-expanding fields of migration history in the Caribbean, Mexico, Canada, Central America, and the United States, not to mention studies of the southwestern borderlands, should not be overlooked. For scholars already well versed in current migration theory, this comparative aspect represents the volume’s greatest strength.” -- Matthew Casey * Hispanic American Historical Review *
Table of ContentsList of Maps xi
Preface / Dirk Hoerder and Nora Faires xiii
Introduction. Migration, People's Lives, Shifting and Permeable Borders: The North American and Caribbean Societies in the Atlantic World / Dirk Hoerder 1
Part I. Intersocietal Migrations
1. Mirando atrás: Mexican Immigration from 1876 to 2000 / Jaime R. Aguila and Brian Gratton 49
2. Through the Northern Borderlands: Canada-U.S. Migrations in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries / Bruno Ramirez 76
3. The Making and Unmaking of the Circum-Caribbean Migratory Sphere: Mobility, Sex across Boundaries, and Collective Destinies, 1840–1940 / Lara Putnam 99
Part II. Connecting Borderlands, Littorals, and Regions
4. Population Movements and the Making of Canada-U.S. Not-So-Foreign Relations / Nora Faires 129
5. Greater Southwest North America: A Region of Historical Integration, Disjunction, and Imposition / Carlos G. Vélez-Ibáñez with Dirk Hoerder 150
6. Independence and Interdependence: Caribbean-North American Migration in the Modern Era / Melanie Shell-Weiss 174
7. Migration to Mexico, Migration in Mexico: A Special Case on the North American Continent / Delia González de Ruefels with Dirk Hoerder 188
8. The Construction of Borders: Building North American Nations, Building a Continental Perimeter, 1890s–1920s / Angelika E. Sauer 210
9. The United States-Mexican Border as Material and Cultural Barrier / Omar S. Valerio-Jiménez 228
Part III. Complicating Narratives
10. Migration and the Seasonal Round: An Odawa Family's Story / Susan E. Gray 253
11. Market Interactions in a Borderland Setting: A Case Study of the Gila River Pima of Arizona, 1846–1862 / Dan Killoren 264
12. Paying Attention to Moving Americans: Migration Knowledge in the Age of Internal Migration, 1930s–1970s / James N. Gregory 277
13. The Black Experience in Canada Revisited / Sarah-Jane (Saje) Mathieu 297
14. Circumnavigating Controls: Transborder Migration of Asian-Origin Migrants during the Period of Exclusion / Yukari Takai 313
15. Migration and Capitalism: The Rise of the U.S.-Mexican Border / John Mason Hart 333
Part IV. Contemporary and Applied Perspectives
16. Central American Migration and the Shaping of Refugee Policy / María Cristina Garcia 347
17. Central American Transmigrants: Migratory Movement of Special Interest to Different Sectors within and outside Mexico / Rodolfo Casillas-R. 364
18. Interrogating Managed Migration's Model: A Counternarrative of Canada's Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program / Kerry Preibisch 377
19. 1867 and All That . . .: Teaching the American Survey as Continental North American History / Angelika Sauer and Catherine O'Donnell 391
About the Contributors 399
Index 401
