María Cristina García. The Refugee Challenge in Post–Cold War America

María Cristina García’s The Refugee Challenge in Post–Cold War America is an important book. It fills a major gap in the historical literature as the first comprehensive examination of U.S. refugee policy after the Cold War. Even though much archival material on this subject remains classified, García assembles an impressive array of sources, including presidential papers, congressional documents, court cases, advocacy organization records, and oral histories, to produce a highly nuanced account of the political and social actors who shaped U.S. refugee law. The Refugee Challenge is also a timely book, providing essential context for recent policy changes. While these changes, including a cut in refugee admissions to forty-five thousand per year (the lowest quota in three decades) and tougher screening procedures, are said to mark a break with the past, the politics that informed them are not new. As García’s book reveals, politics, rather than principle, have played the primary role in defining U.S. refugee policy

Context (archaeology · Foreign policy · Garcia · Humanities · Political science · Politics · Presidential system · Refugee · Historical Studies and Socio-cultural Analysis · History · Law · Migration, Refugees, and Integration · Vietnamese History and Culture Studies