Yemenis make up one of the smallest and most exotic immigrant groups to the United States — some 10,000 in all. Most of the immigrants are concentrated in three areas — Detroit, Buffalo, and the San Joaquin Valley in California—where they work, respectively, in automobile factories, steel factories, and fruit and vegetable fields. Their experience is brought to life by the quite wonderful pictures in this lavish volume (for which the University of Utah Press should be congratulated, especially at so reasonable a price). In particular, the illustrations show the stark contrast between the splendid geography in Yemen and the utter tawdriness of the Yemeni life in the United States; and how the men who stand proud in 'Amran, Yemen, turn into the most common manual laborers in Lackawanna, New York. Most of the chapters document this small community; in the most analytic effort, Georges Sabbagh and Mehdi Bozorgmehr show the almost imperceptible ways by which single male transients eventually become settler families.
If Yemeni immigrants almost disappear in the vastness of the United States, Manfred W. Weiner shows that Yemeni emigrants are a very major phenomenon. One-fourth of the adult male population is estimated to have left North Yemen, and its absence has deeply affected virtually every aspect of life in the country, including the role of agriculture, investment patterns, the place of women, demographics, social mobility, and foreign policy. It is clear that whatever the short-term benefits, such heavy dependence on outside employment holds great dangers for the Yemenis.
