Dear America: Notes of an Undocumented Citizen - Softcover

Vargas, Jose Antonio

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0062860976 ISBN 13: 9780062860972

Publisher: Collins, 2018

Synopsis

"The movement of people--what Americans call 'immigration' and the rest of the world calls 'migration'--is among the defining issues of our time. Technology and information crosses countries and continents at blistering speed. Corporations thrive on being multinational and polyglot. Yet the world's estimated 244 million total migrant population, particularly those deemed 'illegal' by countries and societies, are locked in a chaotic and circular debate about borders and documents, assimilation and identity. An issue about movement seems immovable: politically, culturally and personally. Dear America: Notes Of An Undocumented Citizen is an urgent, provocative and deeply personal account from Jose Antonio Vargas, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who happens to be the most well-known undocumented immigrant in the United States. Born in the Philippines and brought to the U.S. illegally as a 12-year-old, Vargas hid in plain-sight for years, writing for some of the most prestigious news organizations in the country (The Washington Post, The New Yorker) while lying about where he came from and how he got here. After publicly admitting his undocumented status--risking his career and personal safety--Vargas has challenged the definition of what it means to be an American, and has advocated for the human rights of immigrants and migrants during the largest global movement of people in modern history. Both a letter to America and a window into Vargas's America, this book is a transformative argument about migration and citizenship, and an intimate, searing exploration on what it means to be home when the country you call your home doesn't consider you one of its own"--

About this title

About the Author

Jose Antonio Vargas is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, Emmy-nominated filmmaker, and Tony-nominated producer. His work has appeared internationally in Time magazine, as well as in the San Francisco Chronicle, The New Yorker, and the Washington Post. In 2014, he received the Freedom to Write Award from PEN Center USA. A leading voice for the human rights of immigrants, he founded the non-profit media and culture organization Define American, named one of the World's Most Innovative Companies by Fast Company. An elementary school named after him will open in his hometown of Mountain View, California in 2019.

From the Back Cover

I was born in the Philippines. At age 12, my mother sent me to the United States to live with her parents. While applying for a driver's permit, I found out my papers were fake. More than two decades later, I am still here illegally, with no clear path to American citizenship. To some people, I am the "most famous illegal" in America, but I am only one of an estimated 11 million human beings whose uncertain fate is under threat in a country I call my home.

This book--at its core--is not about immigration at all. This book is about the unsettled, unmoored psychological state that undocumented immigrants like myself find ourselves in. This book is about what it means to not have a home.

Edition details

• Publisher: Collins
• Publication date: 2018
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0062860976
• ISBN 13: 9780062860972
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 304