Description
Book SynopsisConventionally, US immigration history has been understood through the lens of restriction and those who have been barred from getting in. In contrast, The Good Immigrants considers immigration from the perspective of Chinese elites--intellectuals, businessmen, and students--who gained entrance because of immigration exemptions. Exploring a century
Trade ReviewWinner of the 2017 Association for Asian American Studies Award for Best Book in History Winner of the 2016 Robert H. Ferrell Book Prize, Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations Winner of the 2015 Douglass C. North Research Award, Society for Institutional and Organizational Economics (SIOE) Runner-up for the 2016 Hamilton Book Awards, University Co-operative Society, University of Texas at Austin Winner of the 2015 Theodore Saloutos Memorial Book Award, Immigration and Ethnic History Society Honor Book, 2015 Asian/Pacific American Awards for Literature, Asian/Pacific American Librarians Association "Hsu's well-researched study focuses on the ways in which certain categories of the same ethnic group were designated as exempt and thus permitted admission... A worthy read, as it fills a gap in our understanding of the history of U.S. immigration policy and the implications of this policy in educational history."--Eileen H. Tamura, History of Education Quarterly "This book will ... provide relevant historical context for anybody formulating ideas about Europe's current debate on migration and asylum-seeking."--Charlotte De Blois, Asian Affairs "The Good Immigrants provides much insight on a variety of topics. Those who want to learn more about US immigration policies, cultural relations between the US and China during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Chinese refugees during the 1940s to 1960s, and Chinese transpacific migration will not want to miss it."--Chi-ting Peng, Pacific Affairs
Table of ContentsList of Illustrations ix List of Tables xi Abbreviations xiii Note on Transliterations xv Chapter 1 Gateways and Gates in American Immigration History 1 Chapter 2 "The Anglo-Saxons of the Orient" Student Exceptions to the Racial Bar against Chinese, 1872-1925 23 Chapter 3 The China Institute in America: Advocating for China through Educational Exchange, 1926-1937 55 Chapter 4 "A Pressing Problem of Interracial Justice" Repealing Chinese Exclusion, 1937-1943 81 Chapter 5 The Wartime Transformation of Student Visitors into Refugee Citizens, 1943-1955 104 Chapter 6 "The Best Type of Chinese" Aid Refugee Chinese Intellectuals and Symbolic Refugee Relief, 1952-1960 130 Chapter 7 "Economic and Humanitarian" Propaganda and the Redemption of Chinese Immigrants through Refugee Relief 166 Chapter 8 Symbiotic Brain Drains: Immigration Reform and the Knowledge Worker Recruitment Act of 1965 198 Chapter 9 Conclusion: The American Marketplace of Brains 236 Acknowledgments 251 Appendix 257 Notes 259 Bibliography 313 Index 325
