Winner, Immigration and Ethnic History Society First Book Award
Whom We Shall Welcome examines World War II immigration of Italians to
the United States, an under-studied period in Italian immigration
history. Danielle Battisti looks at efforts by Italian American
organizations to foster Italian immigration along with the lobbying
efforts of Italian Americans to change the quota laws. While Italian
Americans (and other white ethnics) had attained virtual political and
social equality with many other groups of older-stock Americans by the
end of the war, Italians continued to be classified as undesirable
immigrants. Her work is an important contribution toward understanding
the construction of Italian American racial/ethnic identity in this
period, the role of ethnic groups in U.S. foreign policy in the Cold War
era, and the history of the liberal immigration reform movement that led
to the 1965 Immigration Act.
Whom We Shall Welcome makes significant contributions to histories of
migration and ethnicity, post-World War II liberalism, and immigration
policy.