I would recommend you check out Rogers Smith's CIVIC IDEALS: CONFLICTING VISIONS OF CITIZENSHIP IN U.S. HISTORY (Yale 1997). It's about much more than immigration, but does discuss throughout how immigration policy was shaped by beliefs about what nationalities could be trusted to be "republican", and beliefs about which belonged to the "white race". Smith argues that doctrines of white supremacy were an enduring intellectual force, with an independent impact on immigration policy quite distinct from employers pursuit of cheap labor. At 11:44 AM 8/11/98 -0400, you wrote: >I'm looking for a good book or two on the history of U.S. immigration >policy: when did they start regulating immigration and why? How did >employers use immigration (if they did) to divide the workforce and push >down wages? What were the successive structures of immigration policy in >the late 19th and early 20th centuries? Any advice? > >Doug > >
