Expelling the Poor
Atlantic Seaboard States and the Nineteenth-Century Origins of American Immigration Policy
Hidetaka Hirota

• First sustained study of immigration control conducted by states prior to the introduction of federal immigration law in the late nineteenth century.
• Argues that the origins of American immigration control were in cultural prejudice against the Irish and, more essentially, economic concerns about their poverty, rather than anti-Asian racism.
• Challenges long-standing idea that immigration was unregulated prior to passage of federal immigration legislation.
• Connects nativist politics to US deportation policy.
• Includes immigrants' post-deportation experiences in Europe.

Oxford University Press