In a world of mutually exclusive nation-states, international migration constitutes a fundamental anomaly. Such states have been inclined to select migrants according to their origins; the result is ethnic migration. But Joppke shows that after World War II there has been a trend toward non-discriminatory immigration policies across Western states.

Preface 1. The Problem of Ethnic Selectivity 2. Toward Source-Country Universalism in Settler States: The United States and Australia 3. Europe's Postcolonial Constellations, Northwestern and Southwestern 4. Resilience versus Demise in the Diaspora Constellation: Israel and Germany 5. The Liberal State between De- and Re-Ethnicization Notes References Index

This is an impressive and important book. Joppke’s analysis ischaracterized by a wealth of empirical detail and nuance (impossible to convey in a short review such as this), yet he never loses sight of the bigger picture and manages to link together a wide range of cases into a coherent argument. Selecting by Origin is at once an exemplary comparative historical analysis and a powerful contribution to theoretical debates about ethnicity in the liberal state.

This trenchantly argued exploration of the ways in which states use ethnicity to select among potential immigrants elucidates a basic tension between the universalist commitments of liberal democratic nation-states and the inescapable particularity of their histories, cultures, and populations. -- Rogers Brubaker, The University of California at Los Angeles, and author of Ethnicity without Groups This well-written book makes a major contribution to scholarship about immigration and liberal democracy. Joppke succeeds in doing two things outstandingly well. First, he provides a cogent theoretical argument about the nature of ethnic migration and how it has changed over time, and the constraints now confronting any efforts to shift government policy towards greater selectivity, even though such illiberal pressures endure and are often created by liberal governments. Second, he provides a detailed and informed empirical account, rooted in comparative, historical analysis, of the three types of ethnic migration. -- Desmond King, Oxford University and author of, Making Americans: Immigration, Race, and the Origins of the Diverse Democracy