Immigrants and Politics Blog

There is a working group on Immigrants and U.S. Politics at the American Political Science Association in 2006. Click here for a listing of meetings and panels compiled by Margaret Gray (Assistant Professor, Adelphi University).

Title: “Gender Matters: Ethnographers Bring Gender from the Periphery toward the Core of Migration Studies.”
Journal: International Migration Review. Vol 40, No. 1, March 2006, p 27.
Authors: Sarah J. Mahler and Patricia R. Pessar

“Ethnographers from anthropology, sociology, and other disciplines have been at the forefront of efforts to bring gender into scholarship on international and transnational migration. This article traces the long and often arduous history of these scholars’ efforts, arguing that though gender is now less rarely treated merely as a variable in social science writing on migration, it is still not viewed by most researchers in the field as a key constitutive element of migrations. The article highlights critical advances in the labor to engender migration studies, identifies under-researched topics, and argues that there have been opportunities when, had gender been construed as a critical force shaping migrations, the course of research likely would have shifted. The main example developed is the inattention paid to how gendered recruitment practices structure migrations - the fact that gender sways recruiters’ conceptions of appropriate employment niches for men versus women.”

Download from Blackwell Synergy

Title: “Inside the Sending State: The Politics of Mexican Emigration Control.”
Journal: International Migration Review. Vol 40, No. 2, Summer 2006
Author: David Fitzgerald

“The social science of international migration has generally ignored labor emigration control policies. In the critical case of Mexico, however, the central government consistently tried to control the volume, duration, skills, and geographic origin of emigrants from 1900 to the early 1970s. A neopluralist approach to policy development and implementation shows that the failure of emigration control and the current abandonment of serious emigration restrictions are explained by a combination of external constraints, imposed by a highly asymmetrical interdependence with the United States, and internal constraints, imposed by actors within the balkanized Mexican state who recurrently undermined federal emigration policy through contradictory local practices.”

Link to IMR Current Issue

[KR - This article got front-page coverage in the NYT today. The research is pretty poor, especially in terms of the sociodemographics of the Pakistani community (why couldn’t they use Census data?), but the description of Devon Avenue and some of the anecdotes serve as good illustrations — but of what, one might ask. The piece is very inconclusive about what to expect.]

“Even so, members of the Pakistani immigrant community here find themselves joining the speculation as to whether sinister plots could be hatched in places like Devon (pronounced deh-VAHN) Avenue.

The most common response is no, at least not now, because of differences that have made Pakistanis in the United States far better off economically and more assimilated culturally than their counterparts in Britain. But some Pakistani-Americans do not rule out the possibility, given how little is understood about the exact tipping point that pushes angry young Muslim men to accept an ideology that endorses suicide and mass murder.

The idea of a relatively smaller, more prosperous, more striving immigrant community inoculating against terror cells goes only so far, they say.”

See article in New York Times

[Canadians of East Indian origins have broken into politics in a striking way over the past ten years. This article suggests a pattern of political engagement very different from the presumed need of political newcomers to “work their way up” the political ladder. IB]

Diversity at the grassroots
Brampton council “doesn’t reflect the demographics”
Punjabi-Canadians prefer to run for federal office
Aug. 17, 2006. 01:00 AM
SAN GREWAL
STAFF REPORTER, TORONTO STAR

Punjabi-Canadians have dominated federal ridings in Brampton for almost a
decade. Three of four are currently held by members of that community.

So why don’t they seem to care about local politics?

About a quarter of Brampton’s 400,000 residents are South Asian and the vast
majority of those are Punjabi. Many schools in areas such as Springdale -
nicknamed Singhdale - are dominated by Punjabi students; signs on stores
throughout the city are written in Punjabi.

But a Punjabi-Canadian represents not one of the 10 city council wards, the
10 regional council wards or the mayor’s office.

“It didn’t cross my mind, running for municipal office,” says Navdeep Bains,
Liberal MP for Mississauga-Brampton South, who was elected to a second
federal term last winter. “I wanted to represent local issues, but I also
wanted to represent Canada on an international level.”

The notion of grassroots political participation as a springboard to higher
levels of government isn’t part of the Punjabi political culture. Bains
admits the community hasn’t been able to get the same type of representation
locally as it has on the federal level.

Read rest of article in Toronto Star

[Others who know more about France’s history with undocumented immigration may be able to comment more intelligently on this, but this seems like a fairly large-scale expulsion for a G7 country. - KR]

Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy on Tuesday defended his decision to expel thousands of illegal immigrants this year, saying France needed an uncompromising immigration policy following recent rioting in its suburbs.

[..]Speaking on television, Sarkozy said officials had received almost 30,000 applications from families seeking residency papers when a deadline for requests expired at the weekend. This was some 10,000 more than had been expected, but despite the higher numbers, Sarkozy stuck to an earlier prediction that just 6,000 applications would be accepted.

Link to Reuters story

Organisations in the US representing Indians have criticised a Republican Senator from Virginia for his offensive comments against a young political activist belonging to the community even as the Indian American Republican Council defended the law maker.

At a campaign rally in southwest Virginia on Friday, George Allen pointed to 20-year-old student S R Sidarth working for his Democrat rival and repeatedly referred to him as “macaca,” also used for a monkey.

The Indian American Leadership Initiative slammed his “demeaning” comments against the student.  “It is unacceptable that Senator Allen used a racial slur to refer to a twenty-year old native Virginian of Indian descent. Senator Allen needs to explain himself, and he owes the Indian American community an apology,” President Jay Chaudhuri said in a statement.

Times of India article

[KR] This article (referencing the most recent Pew survey) suggests that perhaps neither party may benefit from the immigration issue since there is a decline associated with both parties on immigration policy issues among Latinos.
“You have a lot of undocumented whose kids are U.S. citizens. You’re not just reaching out to this generation, you’re reaching out to the following generation,” said John Perez, 50, a third-generation Mexican-American who leads the Hispanic outreach for Republican Kenneth Blackwell’s campaign for Ohio governor.

Communication with the segment of Hispanics who are citizens and registered to vote isn’t difficult because they often can be reached through Spanish-language media, festivals and Hispanic businesses, Perez said.

Blackwell’s opponent, Democrat Ted Strickland, has been canvassing in Hispanic neighborhoods and festivals and taking care to provide Spanish-language versions of campaign literature, campaign spokesman Isaac Baker said.

[..]

A June poll by the Pew Hispanic Center found that 16 percent of Hispanics support Republicans on immigration, down from 25 percent two years ago. Support for Democrats on the issue fell from 39 percent to 35 percent.

AP Story

Two Colorado Republicans were among only 33 lawmakers who voted against reauthorization of the landmark Voting Rights Act.

Reps. Joel Hefley, R-Colorado Springs, and Tom Tancredo, R-Littleton, were on the losing side of a 390-33 vote. They said their opposition stemmed from requirements for multilanguage ballots in some communities and extra regulations placed on jurisdictions with past histories of discrimination.

[..]Earlier, all four Republicans had supported a failed amendment that would have stripped away a requirement for ballots to be printed in multiple languages in places with concentrated populations of people not proficient in English.

Source: Rocky Mountain News

John Reid, the Home Secretary, yesterday gave his backing to an annual “optimum” limit to the number of immigrants to be allowed into Britain.

Mr Reid said the migration advisory committee would recommend an “optimum” level of migration which would be “beneficial in terms of enhancing the economy of this country commensurate with our social stability”.

The independent body would prevent immigration levels being used as a “party political football” and would provide a clear indication that the Government was listening to public concerns, he said. It is likely its recommendations will be taken as a guide rather than a fixed limit, but it could prove controversial.

Story in the Independent (UK)