A nation of strangers

Today Asia provides four times as many newcomers to America as does all of Europe, and millions of other would-be U.S. citizens pour in yearly from throughout the non-European world. That is a stunning new reality whose ramifications affect every facet of American life. How this situation has evolved and what the next chapter holds are subjects that touch everyone who has ever wondered whether a nation professing to believe in human equality can create harmony among. Peoples fundamentally dissimilar--in color, culture, means, and expectations. In reviewing more than two hundred years of the American experience, A Nation of Strangers shows that many of the questions raised by America's newest immigrants are identical to those raised by earlier waves. How many newcomers can the country comfortably absorb? What should be required of those seeking admission? Will the native-born suffer if foreigners come in? Every generation has grappled. With such questions. The result has been a constant tension between the desire to welcome and the impulse to exclude. On one hand, America has taken in more immigrants than any other nation on earth. Yet, she has repeatedly given in to xenophobia and