Book Assignment Part 3 - Essay Example

While not so different from traditional villages in its desire to engage in a free exchange of ideas, the global village is one that thrives on the communication and transportation infrastructure that seems to be binding the world into one 'large, happy family'. The basic metal and cultural setup of a country is formed by it inhabitants and the people who come forth to call it home. Throughout history, there have been numerous examples of how immigrants have been an important part of the people as a whole when it comes to contribution to the cultural and basic climate of a country.

(Massey et al, 2001) The case for this paper is that of America. As a country, America has been blessed with the great 'salad bowl' syndrome, wherein it enjoys a plethora of people who have come to the shores of this great country in search of opportunity. The basic reason for people migrating to a certain part of the world is the lure of opportunity as opposed to whatever threat might have met them in their home land. In this regard, the paper will discuss the book Beyond Smoke and Mirrors: US Immigration Policy in the Age of Globalization, as the authors set about describing the mindset of the immigrants as well as the hosts who came to set up homes in America.

According to the authors, immigration policies and principles have been one of the most important aspects of public policy in the US. This is a part of their history. It has been mentioned by the authors that the nation had passed through perhaps the single most significant transformative period in its history by those who lived through the Civil War and Reconstruction. The great questions of slavery, sectionalism, and national supremacy that had plagued the Americans for nearly eight decades had been resolved through a combination of the force of arms and the constitutional and legal change made possible by military victory.

Irrespective of the fact that most Americans believed that these issues had been permanently resolved, this period posed new challenges to American values and assumptions which in term have influenced their take on immigration policy. Three intertwining themes define the evolution of the US Immigration Policy and perspectives in the same as garnered from the book: (Massey et al, 2001)(i) industrialization - the rise of the industrial economy and of accompanying issues of law, governance, and public policy; (ii) urbanization - the dramatic growth of the nation's cities as focal points for population growth and demographic change, and as centers of commerce, culture, education, news, and politics; and (iii) integration through immigration - the effects on American identity, politics, and culture of the great waves of immigration from eastern, central, and southern Europe and from Asia.

The interaction of these themes added richness and complexity to late nineteenth-century American history. In order to further understand the implications set forth by the writers in this book, it is important to understand the motives behind the immigration of various groups of people so as to understand the evolution of the Immigration Policy. This has been garnered by the book as follows:MexicansJust as labor's response to industrialization seemed threatening to prized American values of individualism, free enterprise, and social