Carl Bon Tempo

The Politics of American Refugee Policy, 1952-1980
Bon Tempo wrote his dissertation on the formation and implementation of the American government’s policies toward refugees between 1952 and 1980, arguing that the study of refugee policies provides an opportunity to examine how Americans (in and out of government) conceived of citizenship and “American-ness” in the post-World War II era - and that these conceptions vitally influenced the intent and character of specific refugee policies and programs. He displayed that post-World War II era American refugee policies and laws, and the contentious deliberations that produced them, resembled the larger debates about citizenship and national identity occurring during that period.