Deportation in the Americas: Histories of Exclusion and Resistance ed. by Kenyon Zimmer and Cristina Salinas (review)

In the years following the horrendous events of September 11, 2001, and the subsequent anti-immigrant sentiment that emerged amid the rubble of the twin towers in New York, aggressive and public deportation campaigns were carried out disproportionately among Mexican and Central American migrant communities throughout the United States. Although deportation has been a constant feature of immigration history in the United States and most immigrant nations, for that matter, historians began noting that the phenomenon they were witnessing had historical roots that predated even biblical stories like the Exodus. To their surprise they discovered that the movement of peoples does not take place in one direction, and is not simply push-pull, but is a simultaneous, multidirectional flow with multivariate logics that many are still trying to analyze and define. Deportations and mass expulsions continue to take place throughout the world, but oftentimes interpretations of these events address politics more and the logics of history less.

The essay collection Deportation in the Americas: Histories of Exclusion and Resistance is one of the many publications and edited volumes that attempt to make sense of the history surrounding these processes of deportation in the United States, Mexico, Russia, Guatemala, and the Caribbean. These essays, each of which discusses its own individual project without reference to the other chapters, is part of the Walter Prescott Webb Memorial Lecture Series and seem to be the outcome of a conference on deportations. Given Webb’s infamous reputation among some historians, this may be ironic. The introductory essay, “From Immigration History to Deportation History,” by Donna Gabbacia neatly summarizes each of the essays succinctly and skillfully. Gabbacia’s introduction is followed by a chapter that attempts to give a global dimension to American deportation practice from 1920 to 1935, and this essay is followed by a brief description of transnational policing regimes that focused primarily on Chinese immigrants to the Americas and Caribbean following the Chinese Exclusion Laws. These are then followed by two well-written essays on Mexico during the regime of Porfirio Díaz and its aftermath that focus primarily on an extradition case and then on Mexican xenophobic impulses following the Revolution of 1910. A very descriptive essay about America’s First Red Scare, which focuses on the deportation and disillusionment of Russian immigrants upon their return to Russia on the Buford, is followed by two closing essays on Mexican migrants during and after the two World Wars.

While some readers may quarrel with the inclusion or exclusion of certain groups or geographical areas and the surprisingly anachronistic terminology that appears a number of times, the editors of the volume should be commended for addressing the broader issues surrounding the histories of exclusion and resistance. Deportations, exclusions, removals, expulsions, and banishment all share a common human history, and interested readers will appreciate the editors’ efforts at historicizing these parts of our shared past.