The post-1965 surge in immigration has prompted a steadily increasing flow of books and articles. Here is a selection of recent publications for further reading:

* Alien Nation: Common Sense About America's Immigration Disaster, by Peter Brimelow (Random House, 327 pp.; $24, hardcover). Whatever your views on immigration, you should read this book. Brimelow's brilliant polemic offers the most forceful public statement of the case against continued high rates of immigration.

* Immigration and Immigrants: Setting the Record Straight, by Michael Fix and Jeffrey S. Passel (The Urban Institute, Washington, D.C., 104 pp.; $10, paper). A clear overview intended to provide a starting point for informed debate. Focuses on the economic impact of immigration.

* Postwar Immigrant America: A Social History, by Reed Ueda (Bedford Books/St.Martin's Press, 182 pp.; $10, paper). What is missing from much of the talk about immigration is any sense of historical context. Ueda's book, a marvel of concision, supplies that vital element. Well-chosen statistics illuminate the exposition.

* Strangers at Our Gates: Immigration in the 1990s, edited by John J. Miller (Manhattan Institute/Pacific Research Institute, 128 pp.; free with $5 shipping and handling, paper; order from Center for Equal Opportunity, 1010 Massachu-setts Ave. NW, Suite 220, Washington, D.C. 20001). A provocative collection of essays by distinguished contributors providing diverse and sometimes sharply differing perspectives on recent immigration. Concludes with "The Index of Leading Immigration Indicators," 20-plus pages of useful data.

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