you never heard of junot diaz ? you maybe european and this would be an excuse. nevertheless its worth reading his novel the brief wonderous life of oscar wao, which was published in september 2007. diaz is us-american and immigrated from the dominican republic when he was six years old. he became widely known by his collection of short stories about growing up on his old home island and in the u.s. this book is called drown and was published in 1996. he currently teaches at the massechusets institute of technology (mit).

it may be also be a good idea to listen to what mr. diaz has to say about identities of immigrants and the new phenomenon of cross-boarder movement. radioopensource published an interview with him (three parts) which can be downloaded from the open source website. junot diaz on us immigration:

(...) you could ban all immigration, and anyone who comes over here and gets caught the punishment is death, immediate death. and you could say: if you help an immigrant you can get in prison for twenty years. and you know what? the problem may not go away. the reality on the ground is how do you legislate against a wave? (...) you can´t legislate against that. you have to accept. guys, why don´t we stop legislate against the wave coming in and not try to figure out how to make that wave work in a way which preserves everything we do believe in this society and we admire without diminishing us and dehumanising other people. this country can´t run without immigrants, this country is de facto powered by illegal immigrant work (...)