Gatekeepers In Ethnoloinguistic Communities Book

Insightful introduction to the legal and cultural bind of Middle Eastern-origin communities. The short of it - that while individuals of Middle Eastern ancestry have become quite visible in the US, their ancestry is almost always ignored in mainstream discussions and the desire of many immigrants and their children to fit into the mainstream has likewise created a sort of national invisibility until post-Sept. 11th. This has made it more difficult for Middle Eastern peoples to politically organize themselves in the current era of Islamophobia and immigration raids.

The author is a legal scholar and approaches the subject as a scholar - with a lot of legal terms and footnotes. Not the most friendly book for non-academics.

I also gave it only 3 stars because it's proposed solutions to Middle Easterner social problems is limited to short-term solutions, some legal and some political, but all within the narrow confines allowed by the relatively conservative legal/social system of the US.