From Booklist
Entries are organized around four main themes. The first theme encompasses the legal environment governing asylum and the asylum process, with an emphasis on laws and processes asylum seekers face when reaching the destination country. Entries here include Asylum, Carrier sanction, Nonconvention status (1951 UN Convention), Refugees, and U.S. immigration legislation: Post-1945. Also included within this theme are entries covering the largest refugee-producing regions. Countries as far-flung and diverse as Afghanistan, Bosnia--Herzegovina, El Salvador, Eritrea, Haiti, Rwanda, and Vietnam illustrate the political, social and economic conditions that result in mass emigration. A second theme focuses on major migrant groups in diaspora. Selection of groups was based on three related and often overlapping factors: the size of the migrant group relative to the country of origin (for example, Colombian diaspora, Irish diaspora); overall size of the diaspora (Chinese, Indian, and Polish diasporas); and size and political importance of the migrant group in one or more of the major North American or European destination countries (Dominican, Iraqi, Korean, Russian, and Turkish diasporas). Major destination countries are also profiled. Historical considerations underlie the third theme, which focuses on expulsions, ethnic cleansing, and other forced population movements. The final theme deals with the politics of migration, particularly in the U.S. Issues such as AIDS, crime, public health, racism, and trafficking are addressed.
Entries are arranged alphabetically. Unfortunately, there is no list of entries by theme, so readers will need to use the index to ensure that they find all entries relevant to a particular country or group. The third volume consists of primary source documents, including legislation, treaties, speeches, and UN documents. Although valuable, these documents lack context, and since they are not referenced in the index, readers may not see how they relate to topics discussed in the entries. Despite these weaknesses, this work will be a valuable resource for larger academic and public libraries. Jan Lewis
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