Collision Course: The Strange Convergence of Affirmative Action and Immigration Policy in America (Hardcover)

by Hugh Davis Graham (Author) "In the early 1990s, against a backdrop of economic recession and rising job insecurity in the United States, controversy over affirmative action and immigration policy..." (more)
Key Phrases: hard affirmative action, chain immigration, employer sanctions law, United States, Philadelphia Plan, Civil Rights Act (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"In his probing new book, [Graham] pulls the two topics together and concludes that immigration poses a mortal threat to existing civil-rights policy.... Graham believes the explosive growth in affirmative-action eligibility, thanks to immigration, now threatens the future of a program designed originally to empower blacks."--John J. Miller, The Wall Street Journal
"A concise, informative history of two much-debated policies, made richer by Graham's insight into their obvious relationship to each other."--Terry Eastland, Commentary
"There is no better guide for understanding civil rights history and politics than Hugh Davis Graham. With the broad vision, balance, and rigor that are his trademarks, Collision Course explains America's inexplicable civil rights politics at the century's turn. Boldly original, provocative, and utterly fascinating."--John D. Skrentny, University of California, San Diego, and author of The Ironies of Affirmative Action
"Combining shrewd political analysis with scholarly rigor, Hugh Graham packs more into these 200 pages than most of us could in 400. His analysis of the unanticipated interaction of immigration and affirmative action policies is tough-minded but scrupulously balanced. And by forcing us to think carefully about two issues that have been debated not only separately but irrationally, Graham helps us to understand our racial and ethnic past--and future."--Peter Skerry, Claremont McKenna College and the Brookings Institution
"Graham's account suggests that while immigration's future in America remains bright, affirmative action as we have known it is probably doomed. This book is essential reading for anyone interested in either." --Peter H. Schuck, Yale University Law School


Product Description
When the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1965 were passed, they were seen as triumphs of liberal reform applauded by the majority of Americans. But today, as Hugh Graham shows in Collision Course, affirmative action is foundering in the great waves of immigration from Asia and Latin America, leading to direct conflict for jobs, housing, education, and government preference programs. How did two such well-intended laws come to loggerheads? Graham argues that a sea change occurred in American political life in the late 1960s, when a system of split government--one party holding the White House, the other holding Congress--divided authority and enhanced the ability of interest groups to win expanded benefits. In civil rights, this led to a shift from nondiscrimination to the race-conscious remedies of hard affirmative action. In immigration, it led to a surge that by 2000 had brought 35 million immigrants to America, 26 million of them Asian or Latin American and therefore eligible, as "official minorities," for affirmative action preferences. The policies collided when employers, acting under affirmative action plans, hired millions of immigrants while leaving high unemployment among inner-city blacks. Affirmative action for immigrants stirred wide resentment and drew new attention to policy contradictions. Graham sees a troubled future for both programs. As the economy weakens and antiterrorist border controls tighten, the competition for jobs will intensify pressure on affirmative action and invite new restrictions on immigration. Graham's insightful interpretation of the unintended consequences of these policies is original and controversial. A short, focused, and even-handed narrative, it illuminates many of the issues that vex the United States today.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (April 4, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195143183
• ISBN-13: 978-0195143188
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,556,372 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding history, frightening future, July 8, 2003

By	Steve Sailer (Chicago) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Graham was a distinguished historian and political scientist at Vanderbilt and UC Santa Barbara. Sadly, he died just as it was time to go do a book tour in promotion of Collision Course, so the book got little publicity. As an expert on Congress and the workings of the federal bureaucracy, he is able to recreate just how we managed to stumble unintentionally into the current, highly contradictory, immigration and affirmative action systems. At a time when the nation was finally intending to help African-Americans, why did it suddenly import tens of millions of low wage workers to drive blacks from many workplaces? And if affirmative action was intended as compensation for slavery and Jim Crow, why was it extended to new immigrants, even illegal ones? And what does this portend for the future, when the "racial ratio" of beneficiaries from quotas compared to those who must shoulder the burden mounts ever higher?