Interview with Michael C. LeMay, Author of Transforming America: Perspectives on U.S. Immigration

What prompted you to write Transforming America: Perspectives on U.S. Immigration? What "message" do you want to communicate?

I have previously authored eight books on the subject which I have been researching and writing about since 1980.  In part I was prompted by a request from ABC-CLIO to consider doing a series of books. I was especially intrigued by the approach of many authors with different academic affiliations and disciplinary perspectives, and the opportunity to engage not only well-established scholars, but also to mentor and encourage younger scholars just beginning their publishing careers.  I think the most important message for readers of this set of three books is that immigration is a very complex process, and immigration policy is a thorny and at times difficult policy arena within which to enact legislation to cope with it. I think, also, readers will begin to appreciate how and why it is challenging to “get it right” in enacting immigration laws, which inevitably have unforeseen and unanticipated consequences.

What was the highlight of your research? In the course of your research, what discovery surprised you the most? What surprises readers/others the most about your research?

I think for most readers, and to a great extent even for me, the most surprising aspect of my research relates to how intractable immigration policy remains to be; and how decade after decade, immigrant group after immigrant group, the issues and controversies tend to be the same despite many changes in the law dealing with the issues.

How did your research change your outlook on immigration?

I think the greatest lesson from my research pertaining to my own outlook on immigration is that as a scholar I must be extraordinarily careful not to fall into the trap of thinking I know what is best for policy and thereby to become a policy advocate; to prescribe policy options rather than to describe and analyze them.  This realization as to the complexity of the issue that emerges from these volumes, and from my research, is a humbling experience.  Even a long-time “student” of the subject learns something new every time one studies it, and learns to appreciate the fact that even a scholar who is relatively an “expert” on the issue does not have all the answers.

How have people reacted to your book and/or the ideas you set forth? Is it what you hoped for, or is there more work to be done?  

I have not yet had reaction to this latest series of books. In the past, with regard to other books on the subject I have authored, I am gratified that they have been well received by other scholars and academicians, and that students have reacted to me by expressing how interesting the books have been—how engaging the topic is to them.  Many have expressed sentiment to the effect that after reading one of my books on the topic, they appreciate how the “bumper sticker” or “sound bite solutions” to the problem so often offered by politicians, will simply not work. The issue is too complex to be resolved by any approach or idea that can fit on a bumper sticker!

What's next for you?

I hope to polish and revise a manuscript dealing with immigration policy and the rise of public health in the United States.  My next research and writing project will be to explore other policy areas to which immigration policy is so inextricably related.  I would like to expand to book length a few of the topics I covered in a relatively brief essay in this three-volume set. I would like to do a book-length treatment of immigration and industrialization. I would like to do a book relating the experiences of “exceptional immigrants” whose contributions have made “American exceptionalism.”  I would also like to co-author, with a particular industry expert or insider, the relationship between specific immigrant persons and groups and the development of their industry: for example, the wine industry, the brewery industry, the timber industry, the canning industry, and so on.

Michael LeMay is Professor Emeritus from California State University-San Bernardino, having retired as a full professor, former chair of his department, as Assistant Dean. He has previously sole-authored numerous books, for example: The Perennial Struggle, 3e. Upper-Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 2009; Illegal Immigration. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2007; Guarding the Gates: Immigration and National Security. Westport, CT.: Praeger Security International, 2006. 

Interview with Mary Stout, Author of Native American Boarding Schools

What prompted you to write Native American Boarding Schools? What "message" do you want to communicate?

I was interested in writing Native American Boarding Schools because it was a topic that had been largely ignored until recently; it didn’t seem as if there was a lot of information available for non-Natives, and it didn’t appear as though it was a part of the national conversation, even though it was such a critically important policy historically, with an impact that still reverberates today.

In writing the book, I was hoping to make the existing research about Native American boarding schools more easily accessible to everyone, and to bring it into the national conversation.  It is a controversial topic which needs to be studied and discussed.

What was the highlight of your research? In the course of your research, what discovery surprised you the most? What surprises readers/others the most about your research?

Most of the published research on this topic consists of either scholarly surveys of the history of Native American education, or biographies and autobiographies of Native Americans who recount their boarding school years in the first person.  Probably the most fascinating part of the research was reading the autobiographies, and being given a glimpse of their lives in boarding school by the people who lived it.  

The biggest surprise for me, since today it is generally accepted that the policy of forced assimilation in boarding schools for Native American youth was tantamount to cultural genocide, and was one of the most ill-conceived, longstanding social policies in this country, was that the individual responses to boarding schools varied so broadly.  Some students hated boarding school, but some students loved it, and still others were ambivalent.  Also, the fact that today, some of the Native American boarding schools still exist, but have been completely transformed by the Native American community into schools which celebrate and promote Native American language and culture, which is the exact opposite of what they were originally designed to accomplish, just delights me.  It feels like the boarding schools have come full circle.

How did your research change your outlook on Native American boarding schools?

My research showed me that boarding school experiences were not all the same, and the issues surrounding boarding schools were complex and long-lasting.  Boarding school life is a huge part of the collective Native American history, and the social ills of some Native American communities can be traced to that experience.  The rise of pan-Indian political and social groups which act as strong advocates for the Native American community also have their roots in the boarding school experience.  For me, the boarding school experience cannot simply be labeled “good” or “bad.”  It is way too complex for labels.

How have people reacted to your book and/or the ideas you set forth? Is it what you hoped for, or is there more work to be done?

It became clear to me that there was much more work to be done on this topic.  Although several of the boarding schools have histories that have been published; more of them do not, and we need a history of each boarding school.  Also, we need more first-person accounts of boarding school life, particularly boarding school life after 1950.  The long-term effects of boarding schools on the Native American communities, both positive and negative, still need to be studied.

Mary A. Stout is a recently retired academic librarian and freelance writer. She holds an MA in American Indian studies from the University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ. Her published works include Geronimo: A Biography and Cree from the Native American Peoples series.