Unsuitable Suitors

Anti-Miscegenation Laws, Naturalization Laws, and the Construction of Asian Identities

Dados Bibliográficos

ID4085331
AutoresDeenesh Sohoni (William & Mary, autor correspondente)
Ano2007
Volume41
Fascículo3
Páginas587-618
Data de publicação2007-09-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoLaw & Society Review (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0023-9216 • E-ISSN: 1540-5893
EditoraCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1111/j.1540-5893.2007.00315.x
OpenAlexW2046189922
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas40
Referências citadas30

In this article, I use state-level anti-miscegenation legislation to examine how Asian ethnic groups became categorized within the American racial system in the period between the Civil War and the civil rights movement of the 1960s. I show how the labels used to describe Asian ethnic groups at the state level reflected and were constrained by national-level debates regarding the groups eligible for U.S. citizenship. My main point is that Asian ethnic groups originally were viewed as legally distinct-racially and ethnically, and that members of these groups recognized and used these distinctions to seek social rights and privileges. The construction of "Asian" as a social category resulted primarily from congressional legislation and judicial rulings that linked immigration with naturalization regulations. Anti-miscegenation laws further contributed to the social exclusion of those of Asian ancestry by grouping together U.S.-born and foreign-born Asians

Alien · Citizenship · Ethnic group · Immigration · Immigration law · Legislation · Naturalization · Political science · Politics · Sociology · State (computer science · Law · Migration and Labor Dynamics · Migration, Ethnicity, and Economy · Race, History, and American Society