The Immigration Crucible

Transforming Race, Nation, and the Limits of the Law
1. Auflage 2012
ISBN: 978-0-231-15761-2
Verlag: Columbia University Press

Buch, Englisch, 232 Seiten, Format (B × H): 154 mm x 230 mm, Gewicht: 320 g

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.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Kretsedemas, Philip (Assistant Professor, University of Massachusetts Boston)

Kretsedemas, Philip

Fachgebiete

• Rechtswissenschaften Ausländisches Recht Common Law (UK, USA, Australien u.a.)
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Regierungspolitik Migrations- & Minderheitenpolitik

Inhaltsverzeichnis

List of TablesPreface1. 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 Law2. 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 Statelessness3. 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 Enforcement4. Concerned Citizens, Local Exclusions: Local Immigration Laws and the Legacy of Jim Crow Local Enforcement and Local Immigration Laws: The Policy ContextSegregation 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 Law5. 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 Dilemma6. Conclusion: The Immigration Crucible Immigration Policy and Enforcement Under the Obama Administration Immigration Policy, National Identity, and the Limits of Executive AuthorityNotesBibliographyIndex

Über Autor(innen)

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.