Writings on the subject of immigration over the years vary widely in motivation, viewpoint, approach, and quality. Publications in the CRL collections run the gamut, from 19th century tracts designed to promote ethnic prejudice and bias, to those that use sophisticated metrics of modern social and behavioral science. A keyword search of the CRL online catalog under “immigration” yields several hundred primary sources. Here are a few.

The American Culture Series, a massive 627-reel microform set published by University Microfilms, is a collection of American political and cultural literature of the 19th century, rich in early writings on immigration. The massive collection contains a number of key works of the virulent anti-Irish and anti-Catholic ideology of the Nativist movement that arose in the northeastern US during the antebellum period. Among them are two 1835 polemics by Samuel F. B. Morse, better known for introducing the telegraph, and others:

• Samuel F. B. Morse. Foreign conspiracy against the liberties of the United States. New York: Leavitt, Lord; and Boston: Crocker & Brewster.
• Samuel F. B. Morse. Imminent dangers to the free institutions of the United States through foreign immigration. New York: E. B. Clayton.
• Samuel C. Busey Immigration: its evils and consequences. New York: De Witt & Davenport, 1856.
• Arthur B. Stout. Chinese immigration and the physiological causes of the decay of a nation. San Francisco: Agnew & Deffebach, 1862.

American Culture also includes early writers who took a historiographical approach to the subject:

• William Jeremy Bromwell. History of immigration to the United States, exhibiting the number, sex, age, occupation, and country of birth, of passengers arriving . . . by sea from foreign countries, from September 30, 1819 to December 31, 1855; compiled entirely from official data: with an introductory review of the progress and extent of immigration to the United States prior to 1819, and an appendix, containing the naturalization and passenger laws of the United States. New York: Redfield, 1856.
• Jesse Chickering. Immigration into the United States. Boston: C. C. Little and Brown, 1848.
• Jesse Chickering. A statistical view of the population of Massachusetts, from 1765 to 1840. Boston: Little and Brown, 1846. Washington: Union Office, 1856.

CRL holdings of later 19th and early 20th century American sociological literature document the attempts—some more progressive than others—of American thinkers and scholars to come to grips with the impact of the great tides of immigrants from Ireland, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. Some of these authors saw the various migrating ethnic groups in terms of social Darwinist hierarchies. Others advocated public policy solutions based on quantitative, scientific observation of socialization processes among the new populations. The works of the latter signal the beginnings of social engineering in the United States.

A few of the works:

• Emory Stephen Bogardus. Essentials of Americanization. Los Angeles: J. R. Miller, 1923.
• Maurice R. Davie. A constructive immigration policy. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1923.
• Henry Pratt Fairchild, Immigration: a world movement and its American significance. New York: Macmillan, 1919.
• Howard B. Grose. Aliens or Americans? New York: Young People’s Missionary Movement, 1909.
• Alonzo G. Grace. Immigration and community Americanization. Minneapolis: Acme Printing & Publishing Co., 1921.
• Georgia Elma Harkness. The church and the immigrant, with an introduction by G. W. Tupper. New York: George H. Doran Company, 1921.
• Jeremiah Whipple Jenks. The immigration problem; a study of American immigration conditions and needs, 1856–1929. New York and London: Funk & Wagnalls company, 1917.
• Philip Marshman Rose. The Italians in America, with an introduction by Charles Hatch Sears. New York: George H. Doran Company, 1922.

Immigration is a perennial interest of scholars in disciplines ranging from history to political science. CRL’s dissertation collection includes numerous studies of the nature, causes, and impact of immigration on France, Israel, the Caribbean, Canada, and the United States. Some of the titles held by CRL:

• Simone Bonnafous. Immigrés et immigration dans la presse politique française de 1974 à 1984: analyse de discours. Lille: A.N.R.T, Université de Lille III, 1989.
• Pierre Feuillie. La politique d’immigration de l’etat d’Israel (1948–1952). Paris: Nouvelles Presses Mondiales, 1957.
• Cecil Ashton Goodridge. Land, labour and immigration into Trinidad, 1783–1833. University of Cambridge, 1969.
• F.M. Bahti. East Indian immigration into Canada, 1905–1973. University of Surrey, 1974.
• Liang Chi Shad. The changing size and changing character of Chinese immigration to the United States. Singapore: Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences, College of Graduate Studies, Nanyang University, 1976.