Illegal Migrations and the Huckleberry Finn Problem

John S.W. Park is an Associate Professor of Asian American Studies at the University of California at Santa Barbara. He also serves as the Associate Director of the University of California Center for New Racial Studies.

• Part I  STATUS AND ILLEGALITY IN AMERICAN PUBLIC LAW AND CULTURE 1 The Huckleberry Finn Problem2 Race, Law, and Personhood in Huckleberry FinnPart II  THE COMPANY OF OTHERS 3 Slavery and Wage Slavery4 Illegal Workers5 Immigrant Activism in the Shadow of LawPart III  GETTING AN EDUCATION 6 The Bread of Knowledge7 Race, Immigration, and the Promise of Equality8 Undocumented and UnafraidPart IV  UNLAWFUL MIGRATIONS IN AMERICAN LAW AND SOCIETY 9 Utopian Visions and the Unlawful OtherAcknowledgmentsNotesSelected Books Cited Index

"Park proposes a unique and innovative way to approach the quagmire of immigration reform. He uses the framework that Mark Twain used when presenting the dilemma of what is the proper response to a runaway slave and a young abandoned boy. It is Park's contention that there is much to be learned from comparing the current problems of illegal immigrants with those of fugitive slaves in antebellum America... He finds interesting linkages between the past mistreatment of people of color and what is happening today. The author pays some attention to the legal, educational, moral, and labor repercussions of the treatment of 'illegals.' Park's work is timely, well written, and extensively documented. It should find a wide audience among academics and the general population. Summing Up: Recommended."--Choice, January 2014