The Immigration Crucible
Transforming Race, Nation, and the Limits of the Law
1st Edition
Published on 7. February 2012
232 pages
978-0-231-52732-3 (ISBN)
Description
In the debate over U. S. immigration, all sides now support policy and practice that expand the parameters of enforcement. Philip Kretsedemas examines this development from several different perspectives, exploring recent trends in U.S. immigration policy, the rise in extralegal state power over the course of the twentieth century, and discourses on race, nation, and cultural difference that have influenced politics and academia. He also analyzes the recent expansion of local immigration law and explains how forms of extralegal discretionary authority have become more prevalent in federal immigration policy, making the dispersion of local immigration laws possible.
While connecting such extralegal state powers to a free flow position on immigration, Kretsedemas also observes how these same discretionary powers have been used historically to control racial minority populations, particularly African Americans under Jim Crow. This kind of discretionary authority often appeals to "states rights" arguments, recently revived by immigration control advocates. Using these and other examples, Kretsedemas explains how both sides of the immigration debate have converged on the issue of enforcement and how, despite differing interests, each faction has shaped the commonsense assumptions defining the debate.
While connecting such extralegal state powers to a free flow position on immigration, Kretsedemas also observes how these same discretionary powers have been used historically to control racial minority populations, particularly African Americans under Jim Crow. This kind of discretionary authority often appeals to "states rights" arguments, recently revived by immigration control advocates. Using these and other examples, Kretsedemas explains how both sides of the immigration debate have converged on the issue of enforcement and how, despite differing interests, each faction has shaped the commonsense assumptions defining the debate.
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Philip Kretsedemas is associate professor of sociology at the University of Massachusetts, Boston. He is the coeditor of Keeping Out the Other: A Critical Introduction to Immigration Enforcement Today and Immigrants, Welfare Reform, and the Poverty of Policy.
Content
List of Tables
Preface
1. Introduction: An Untimely Intervention on the U.S. Immigration Debate
Puzzling Evidence: The Contradictions of Immigration Enforcement and the Politics of Immigration Policy
Immigrants and State Power: On the Margins of the Law
2. A Different Kind of Immigration, a New Kind of Statelessness
Almost Stateless: Migrant Marginality in an Era of "Nonimmigration"
Policing Professional-Class Migrant Workers
Racial-Ethnic Disparities and Nonimmigrant Flows
Permutations of Statelessness
3. The Secret Life of the State
On Necessity, Revolution, and the Modern State
The Expansion of Executive Authority Under the Modern Presidency
"Populist Rebellion" and the Neoliberal State
Executive Authority, Globalization, and Immigration Policy
Applying Executive Discretion to Immigration Enforcement
4. Concerned Citizens, Local Exclusions: Local Immigration Laws and the Legacy of Jim Crow
Local Enforcement and Local Immigration Laws: The Policy Context
Segregation or Coercive Integration? The Political Dynamics and Outcomes of Local Exclusionary Laws
Interpreting the Law: Egalitarian Norms/Inegalitarian Practices
Racial Disparities, Local Enforcement, and the Silence of the Law
5. Race, Nation, Immigration: Stranded at the Crossroads of Liberal Thought
Beyond the Limits of the Law
Cultural Pluralism, Ethnicity Theory, and the Problem of Laissez-Faire Racism
Unlikely Convergences: Liberal Multiculturalism and Cultural Conservatism
Looking Beyond the Cultural Primordialist vs. Social Constructionist Divide
The Immigrant as an Agent of Transformation
A Nietzschean Critique of "Race Thinking"
The Problem with Practicality
Rethinking the Nation: A New American Dilemma
6. Conclusion: The Immigration Crucible
Immigration Policy and Enforcement Under the Obama Administration
Immigration Policy, National Identity, and the Limits of Executive Authority
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Preface
1. Introduction: An Untimely Intervention on the U.S. Immigration Debate
Puzzling Evidence: The Contradictions of Immigration Enforcement and the Politics of Immigration Policy
Immigrants and State Power: On the Margins of the Law
2. A Different Kind of Immigration, a New Kind of Statelessness
Almost Stateless: Migrant Marginality in an Era of "Nonimmigration"
Policing Professional-Class Migrant Workers
Racial-Ethnic Disparities and Nonimmigrant Flows
Permutations of Statelessness
3. The Secret Life of the State
On Necessity, Revolution, and the Modern State
The Expansion of Executive Authority Under the Modern Presidency
"Populist Rebellion" and the Neoliberal State
Executive Authority, Globalization, and Immigration Policy
Applying Executive Discretion to Immigration Enforcement
4. Concerned Citizens, Local Exclusions: Local Immigration Laws and the Legacy of Jim Crow
Local Enforcement and Local Immigration Laws: The Policy Context
Segregation or Coercive Integration? The Political Dynamics and Outcomes of Local Exclusionary Laws
Interpreting the Law: Egalitarian Norms/Inegalitarian Practices
Racial Disparities, Local Enforcement, and the Silence of the Law
5. Race, Nation, Immigration: Stranded at the Crossroads of Liberal Thought
Beyond the Limits of the Law
Cultural Pluralism, Ethnicity Theory, and the Problem of Laissez-Faire Racism
Unlikely Convergences: Liberal Multiculturalism and Cultural Conservatism
Looking Beyond the Cultural Primordialist vs. Social Constructionist Divide
The Immigrant as an Agent of Transformation
A Nietzschean Critique of "Race Thinking"
The Problem with Practicality
Rethinking the Nation: A New American Dilemma
6. Conclusion: The Immigration Crucible
Immigration Policy and Enforcement Under the Obama Administration
Immigration Policy, National Identity, and the Limits of Executive Authority
Notes
Bibliography
Index
