November 13 1995

ARTICLE TOOLS

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Immigration continues to be a contentious issue (CT cover story, May 15, 1995; see also CT, Feb. 6, 1995, p. 42, on the fallout from California's Proposition 187). At this writing, the Judiciary Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives is debating a bill that would significantly reduce the number of immigrants entering under the heading of "family reunification." Adult children of U.S. citizens and brothers and sisters of U.S. citizens would no longer receive preferential consideration.

Knowledge of the history of immigration does not resolve all the issues that policymakers and ordinary citizens must wrestle with, but it should be brought to bear on the debate. Thus the publication of the fourth edition of "Ethnic Chicago: A Multicultural Portrait," edited by Melvin G. Holli and Peter d'A. Jones (Eerdmans, 648 pp.; $29.99, paper), is particularly timely. While certain chapters reflect the distinctive character of Chicago's ethnic mix (Anita Olson on the Swedes, for instance, and Edward Kantowicz on the Poles), this collection is really an ethnic history of America in microcosm. Thus, chapters on European immigrant groups and African Americans are followed by studies of Latino Chicago ("By the year 2000, one of every four Chicago residents will be Hispanic, demographers predict") and of the city's Chinese, Japanese, Asian Indian, and Korean communities. The bulk of the volume is devoted to such profiles of individual groups, but there is also a section on "Ethnic Institutions," including a fine essay on the ethnic church (which touches on church architecture as well).

In their introduction, the editors write, " 'Ethnic democracy' in a multicultural, ideologically egalitarian society such as ours emerges only with painful ...