Desperate crossings : seeking refuge in America

This work provides an examination of US refugee policy since the 1960s, particularly as it has been applied to Cuba, Haiti and Central America. The authors also address world-wide refugee problems, proposing ideas for the 21st century.

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Although the writing is clear, the story interesting and the research solid, this treatment of the refugee is rooted in the past. Most of the book examines the influence of "a troika of interestsforeign policy, the costs of resettlement and domestic pressures" on U.S. refugee policy for Cuba and Haiti. Few would deny that the refugees from Haiti under the Duvaliers had fears that were at least as legitimate as the ones haunting those fleeing Castro's Cuba, but various administrations, guided by Cold War thinking, were grotesquely inequitable when it came to granting refuge. The author also touches on the same dichotomy in the U.S.'s treatment of refugees from Nicaragua and those from Salvador or Guatemala. The Zuckers (The Guarded Gate) trace how America changed the ground rules in response to the fall of the U.S.S.R., new domestic pressure (both from a Cuban community that was no longer monolithic and from Anglos and African Americans) and increasing concern about costs. The book would have been more helpful if it then addressed truly current concerns. The authors mention only briefly African refugees and not at all the increasingly important cases of genital mutilation of African girls and the mass rape of Bosnian women (if the latter is termed a war crime, the women are eligible for refugee status; if called simply violence, they are not). Clearly this is aimed at the converted (the Zuckers admit that "Americans' concerns over jobs and taxes were legitimate" but go no further), but most readers already concerned about refugees will want to know more about the future. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

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The Zuckers analyze and critique US refugee policy in an excellent companion piece to the reference handbook Refugees in America in the 1990s, ed. by David W. Haines (CH, Jan'97). The authors emphasize that American policy vis-a-vis refugees is driven more by politics than by humanitarian considerations. The US approach has been influenced by differences between "admissionists," who want an open door, and "restrictionists," who want it closed. The result has been legislation favorable to refugees but policies to implement the law that are often inconsistent with the humanitarian impulse that motivated the legislation in the first place. The inconsistency is underscored in different approaches to the influx of Cuban and Haitian refugees. Largely domestic political considerations accounted for the generally favorable response to the Cubans and the hostility shown the Haitians. Refugees from Central and Latin America were often victims of US foreign policy that helped make them refugees, then rejected them, as in the case of El Salvador. The authors conclude their critique with a chapter, "Chartering a New Course," offering recommendations to ameliorate the discrepancies and inconsistencies in US policy. All levels. D. Peretz emeritus, SUNY at Binghamton

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