Immigration and Migration

“Eaton has done invaluable work in documenting the revitalization of communities across the U.S. by immigrants and refugees” (David Bacon, author of Illegal People).
 
In recent years, politicians in a handful of local communities and states have passed laws and regulations designed to make it easier to deport unauthorized immigrants or to make their lives so unpleasant that they’d just leave. The media’s unrelenting focus on these ultimately self-defeating measures created the false impression that these politicians speak for most of America. They don’t.
 
Integration Nation takes readers on a spirited and compelling cross-country journey, introducing us to the people challenging America’s xenophobic impulses by welcoming immigrants and collaborating with the foreign-born as they become integral members of their new communities. In Utah, we meet educators who connect newly arrived Spanish-speaking students and US-born English-speaking students, who share classrooms and learn in two languages. In North Carolina, we visit the nation’s fastest-growing community-development credit union, serving immigrants and US-born depositors and helping to lower borrowing thresholds and crime rates alike.
 
Giving a voice to people who choose integration over exclusion, who opt for open-heartedness instead of fear, Integration Nation is a desperately needed road map for a nation still finding its way beyond anti-immigrant hysteria to higher ground.
 
“This useful book provides models for civic organizations that want to tackle immigration challenges, and it paints a vivid picture of some real successes.” —Publishers Weekly
 
“Presents in discrete essays an array of compelling and persuasive regional efforts across the country . . . From Indiana to Georgia to Maine, these intelligent model programs should inspire others.” —Kirkus Reviews

A myth-busting account of the tragedies, trials, and successes of undocumented immigration in the United States.
 
For decades now, America’s polarizing debate over immigration revolved around a set of one-dimensional characters and unchallenged stereotypes. The resulting policies—from the creation of ICE in 2003 to Arizona’s draconian law SB 1070—are dangerous and profoundly counterproductive.
 
Based on years of research into the lives of ordinary migrants, Living “Illegal” offers richly textured stories of real people—working, building families, and enriching their communities even as the political climate grows more hostile. In the words of Publishers Weekly, it is a “compassionate and well-reasoned exploration of why migrants come to the U.S. and how they integrate into American society.”
 
Moving beyond conventional arguments, Living “Illegal” challenges our assumptions about who these people are and how they have adapted to the confusing patchwork of local immigration ordinances. This revealing narrative takes us into Southern churches (often the only organizations open to migrants), into the fields of Florida, onto the streets of major American cities during the immigrant rights marches of 2006, and across national boundaries—from Brazil to Mexico and Guatemala.