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Introduction International Migration and Immigration Research: The State of the Field THE LAST DECADES of the twentieth century have witnessed a revival of large-scale immigration to the United States. The rise in the number ofimmigrants and the dramatic change in their national origins are revealed in a simple comparison between the 1950s and the 1980s. More than two-thirds of the 2.5 million immigrants admitted during the 1950s were from Europe, while more than 80 percent of the 7.3 million immigrants who arrived in the 1980s were from Latin America and Asia (Rumbaut 1996,25). At century's end, the proportion of persons of foreign birth is inching closer to 10 percent of the total U.S. population (Schmidley and Alvardo 1998). More than 50 million Americansone -fifth of the total population-are immigrants or the children ofimmigrants. As high as these figures may seem to contemporary eyes, a high level of immigration is not an uncommon situation in American history. From the founding days of the republic to present times, international migration has been the defining attribute of American society. The language and political ideals of the early English settlers, as well as their land hunger and frequent disregard for Native American rights, set the stage for later arrivals. The eighteenth-century American economy was built with the labor of free immigrants, indentured servants, and slaves from Europe, Mrica, and the Caribbean. During the nineteenth century, immigrants played a disproportionate role in settling the frontier and later contributed much of the labor and consumer demand that fed the industrial revolution. The twentieth century opened with a fierce political and cultural debate that culminated in the closing of the door to free immigration in the 1920s. The low levels of immigration during the following forty years, from the mid-1920s to the mid-1960s, were unusual in American history (Massey 1995). The last third of the twentieth century has seen a return of immigration to center stage in the American drama. Although the popular version of American history emphasizes continuity from colonial times to the present, the lineage is primarily cultural, not genealogical. The simple fact is that the United States is largely populated by persons whose ancestors lived elsewhere two centuries ago.l This country 's culture, as well as its politics and economy, has been continually expanded and remolded by successive waves of immigrants. It is hard to imagine any part ofAmerican history or popular culture that has not been touched by immigration. The Statue of Liberty is perhaps the most widely understood cultural icon ofAmerican society, both at home and abroad. The role of immigrants in American society and their cultural contributions are often celebrated in Hollywood movies. The notion that almost any person from anywhere can "make it in America" has had a powerful impact on the image of America abroad and at home. As the renewal of immigration has reverberated through American society over the last thirty years-demographically, economically, politically, and culturally-there has been a resurgence of scholarship on immigration in every branch of the social sciences. Taking stock of this fast-moving field is the aim of this volume. In particular, the chapters in this compendium assess the state oftheories of international migration, the incorporation ofimmigrants and their descendants into American society, and the economic, social, and political responses to immigration. Theories are interpretative frameworks that try to make sense of the many "facts," often incomplete and confusing, that emerge from empirical research. Theories also offer conceptual maps that orient scholars to important research questions and modes of inquiry. By addressing the state oftheories in the field ofimmigration research, our objective is to see the big picture -where we have been and where we are going. In this introduction, we provide a glimpse of some of the significant issues that await the reader. We also explain how this volume came to be and compare the project with another Social Science 2 The Handbook ofInternational Migration Research Council initiative on international migration in the 1920s. We conclude with a discussion of the boundaries of the field of international migration and immigration studies, the links between social science and social policy, and a few thoughts on the future of the field. THEN AND Now It is virtually impossible to understand the present age of renewed immigration to the United States without some historical context. Are the numbers of immigrants too high? Can the United States absorb the newcomers? Has the political...

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