A Return to a National Origin Preference? Mexican Immigration and the Principles Guiding U.S. Immigration Policy

2011 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 567-569
Author(s):  
Louis DeSipio
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Immigration Policy ◽  
Mexican Immigrants ◽  
The United States ◽  
National Origin ◽  
Immigration Policies ◽  
Mexican Immigration ◽  
Mexican Immigrant ◽  
Mexican Migrants ◽  
History Of

The provocative question raised by Rogers Smith's “Living in a Promiseland? Mexican Immigration and American Obligations” is whether the tortured history of U.S.-Mexican relations and the racialized context of Mexican immigrant reception can best be ameliorated through targeted immigration policies that would create added opportunities for Mexican migrants relative to others. I argue that the current, more universally-principled system of U.S. immigration policy, supplemented by an inclusive legalization program, can better serve the needs of potential Mexican migrants and Mexican immigrants resident in the United States. Also, I am more skeptical than Smith is about the depths of Mexico's commitment to seeking binational strategies to address the needs of its émigrés abroad.

Emotion, Colonialism and Immigration Policy

2018 ◽  
pp. 37-50
Author(s):  
Ala Sirriyeh
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Immigration Policy ◽  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
The United States ◽  
Immigration Policies ◽  
British Colonialism ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Creation ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Second Wave

This chapter examines the connection between colonialism and the emotion of compassion in contemporary immigration policy by reviewing key discourses present in the colonial and immigration histories of Australia, the UK and the United States. It first provides an overview of the history of British colonialism and how it gave rise to the ‘civilising process’, along with the rise of the discourse of ‘benevolent colonialism’ during the second wave of empire. It then considers the emergence and development of exclusionary immigration policies from the 1890s to 2000s, focusing on the links made between race and immigration in these periods, the creation of a distinction between ‘deserving’ refugees and ‘undeserving’ asylum seekers, and the criminalisation of migration. The chapter shows how anxieties and fears about immigration have shaped the emotional regimes of immigration policy and how such regimes have been constructed around attempts to identify and exclude undesirable immigrants.

Pathways to Legalization: Undocumented Mexican Immigrants in the US/Mexico Borderlands, 1942–1956

2015 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ana Elizabeth Rosas
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Family Relationships ◽  
Mexican Immigrants ◽  
Extended Family ◽  
The United States ◽  
Mexican Immigrant ◽  
Agricultural Laborers ◽  
The Us ◽  
Us Government ◽  
Contract Laborers

In the 1940s, curbing undocumented Mexican immigrant entry into the United States became a US government priority because of an alleged immigration surge, which was blamed for the unemployment of an estimated 252,000 US domestic agricultural laborers. Publicly committed to asserting its control of undocumented Mexican immigrant entry, the US government used Operation Wetback, a binational INS border-enforcement operation, to strike a delicate balance between satisfying US growers’ unending demands for surplus Mexican immigrant labor and responding to the jobs lost by US domestic agricultural laborers. Yet Operation Wetback would also unintentionally and unexpectedly fuel a distinctly transnational pathway to legalization, marriage, and extended family formation for some Mexican immigrants.On July 12, 1951, US president Harry S. Truman’s signing of Public Law 78 initiated such a pathway for an estimated 125,000 undocumented Mexican immigrant laborers throughout the United States. This law was an extension the Bracero Program, a labor agreement between the Mexican and US governments that authorized the temporary contracting of braceros (male Mexican contract laborers) for labor in agricultural production and railroad maintenance. It was formative to undocumented Mexican immigrant laborers’ transnational pursuit of decisively personal goals in both Mexico and the United States.Section 501 of this law, which allowed employers to sponsor certain undocumented laborers, became a transnational pathway toward formalizing extended family relationships between braceros and Mexican American women. This article seeks to begin a discussion on how Operation Wetback unwittingly inspired a distinctly transnational approach to personal extended family relationships in Mexico and the United States among individuals of Mexican descent and varying legal statuses, a social matrix that remains relatively unexplored.

Repeat Migration in the Age of the “Unauthorized Permanent Resident”: A Quantitative Assessment of Migration Intentions Postdeportation

2018 ◽  
Vol 52 (4) ◽  
pp. 1186-1217 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel E. Martínez ◽  
Jeremy Slack ◽  
Ricardo D. Martínez-Schuldt
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Immigration Policy ◽  
Social Factors ◽  
Multivariate Analyses ◽  
The United States ◽  
Complex Nature ◽  
Mexican Migrants ◽  
Permanent Resident ◽  
Repeat Migration ◽  
The Impact

Drawing on postdeportation surveys ( N = 1,109) with Mexican migrants, we examine the impact of immigration enforcement programs and various social factors on repeat migration intentions. Our multivariate analyses suggest immigrants with strong personal ties to the United States have higher relative odds of intending to cross the border again, even when controlling modes of removal from the United States. Our findings highlight the inevitable failure of immigration policy and enforcement programs when placed against the powerful pull of family and home. These findings shed greater insight on the complex nature of unauthorized migration in an era of increased securitization and deportation.

Inner Contradiction to Immigration Quagmire: A Response to Rogers Smith

2011 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 559-562
Author(s):  
Edwina Barvosa
Keyword(s):  
Identity Formation ◽  
Immigration Policy ◽  
Mexican Immigrants ◽  
The United States ◽  
Social Identities ◽  
Economic Downturn ◽  
Mexican Immigrant ◽  
The Social ◽  
Unresolved Conflict ◽  
The U.S

The question of how to understand and address longstanding—and at times violent—hostility toward Mexican immigrants in the United States remains pressing. In his essay, Rogers Smith attempts to describe a just immigration policy, one that could ease anti-immigrant conflict, based on obligations upon the U.S. government that arise from its coercive shaping of the social identities and aspirations of Mexican immigrants. Smith is correct to focus on the conflicts between intersecting and contradictory factors that affect identity formation among immigrants, but I argue that a focus on similar conflicts among those who hold strong anti-immigrant views suggests that such contradictions may also be animating anti-Mexican immigrant hostility. Among the most important of these may be those arising from the American dream—a formative narrative that encourages euphoria about socioeconomic possibilities but that cloaks underlying economic instabilities, exploitation, and widespread vulnerabilities. The pain of these contradictions, typically unacknowledged by those whom they affect, can spike in times of economic downturn, exciting anti-Mexican immigrant sentiments that provide an outlet for the rage and agony of unresolved conflict.

From Immigration to Refugee Redefinition: A History of Refugee and Asylum Policy in the United States

1992 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 54-70 ◽  
Author(s):  
Norman L. Zucker ◽  
Naomi Flink Zucker
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Immigration Policy ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Other ◽  
Refugee Policy ◽  
National Politics ◽  
Asylum Policy ◽  
History Of

Refugee policy in the United States is a recent offspring of American immigration policy. Like its parent, refugee admissions are firmly entangled in the thicket of national politics and are Janus-faced. One face presses for admission, the other urges restriction. While the gates of admission are always guarded, time and circumstance determine which face prevails.

Beyond Black and White

2000 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 697-726
Author(s):  
Silvia Pedraza
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Mexican Immigrants ◽  
Life Story ◽  
Black Americans ◽  
The United States ◽  
Mexican Immigrant ◽  
American Sociology ◽  
Black And White ◽  
Immigrant Experience ◽  
Paul Taylor

Research on immigrants and the eventual outcomes of immigration processes was at the very foundation of American sociology. But with the exception of a couple of studies on the Mexicans in the United States, such as Paul Taylor' (1932, 1934) monumental work on the life story of Mexican immigrant laborers in the Chicago and Calumet region during the late 1920s and early 1930s, Manuel Gamio' (1971 [1930], 1971 [1931]) anthropological studies of Mexican immigrants in the United States, and Edith Abbott'The Tenements of Chicago, 1908–1935(1936), Latinos were remarkably absent from such studies. Instead, these studies focused on the European immigrant experience and the experience of black Americans as newcomers to America' cities. Scholarship on Latinos (much lessbyLatinos) simply did not put down roots as early as scholarship on Afro-Americans. Perhaps this was partly due to the smaller size of the population back then, coupled with its being largely immigrant—composed of people who thought they would one day return to where they came from.

scholarly journals Canada’s Post 9/11 Security Environment: The State Of Immigration Policy And Border Management In Canada

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristina Brugger
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
National Security ◽  
Immigration Policy ◽  
The United States ◽  
The State ◽  
Immigration Policies ◽  
Cross Border ◽  
Security Environment ◽  
The Reformation

In the post 9/11 era the governments of Canada and the United States are faced with the challenge of enhancing national security while maintaining the flow of goods, services, and people. In addressing this matter, Canada has confronted some difficulty in the reformation of its security and immigration policies in attempting to strike a balance between meeting the demands of the United States, while also taking domestic considerations into account such as respect for human rights. Given the high levels of immigration seen in Canada, many believe that Canada is leaving itself open to cross border activities that pose threats to national security. As a result, it is questionable whether Canada’s border management initiatives are properly equipped to combat threats to national security considering the effects high levels of immigration can have on border management efforts.

Migratory Movements between Mexico and the United States, 1880–1934

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alanís Enciso Fernando Saúl ◽  
Russ Davidson
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
World War I ◽  
Mexican Immigrants ◽  
The United States ◽  
Mexican Immigration ◽  
Mexican Migration ◽  
The Great Depression ◽  
Communal Lands ◽  
Migratory Movements ◽  
The U.S

This chapter presents an overview of the flow of Mexican immigration to the United States between the years of 1880 and 1934. It notes that two main factors were responsible for the influx of Mexican immigrants to the United States over this period of time, these being: 1) the expansion of the U.S. economy and integration of the southwestern states into the union, and 2) the difficult social and economic conditions that Mexico faced as a result of the expropriation of village communal lands and a decrease in wages on rural estates. This chapter also outlines the timeline of Mexican immigration throughout this period, from the late 19th to the middle of the 20th century, and analyses how momentous events, such as World War I and the Great Depression, spurred or deterred Mexican migration to the U.S., as well as the Mexican government’s various attempts to both encourage and curb repatriation.

Immigration Policy and the Global Competition for AI Talent

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tina Huang ◽  
Zachary Arnold
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
United Kingdom ◽  
Best Practices ◽  
Immigration Policy ◽  
The United States ◽  
Immigration Policies ◽  
Global Competition ◽  
The United Kingdom

Current immigration policies may undermine the historic strength of the United States in attracting and retaining international AI talent. This report examines the immigration policies of four U.S. economic competitor nations—the United Kingdom, Canada, France, and Australia—to offer best practices for ensuring future AI competitiveness.

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