Immigrants and Politics Blog

[KR - Here is a great op-ed in the New York Times today about illegal immigration as the foundational basis of westward expansion in the U.S.  This begs the question of what makes King George’s claims legitimate, apart from a “might makes right” doctrine, but an interesting read nonetheless.]
December 27, 2006
Our Founding Illegals
By WILLIAM HOGELAND
EVERY nation is a nation of immigrants. Go back far enough and you’ll find us all, millions of potential lives, tucked in the DNA of our African mother, Lucy. But the immigrant experience in the United States is justly celebrated, and perhaps no aspect of that experience is more quintessentially American than our long heritage of illegal immigration.

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[KR: I’ve been wondering recently whether the recent raids by Homeland Security are part of an attempt by the administration to make sure that the guest worker proposals get an upper hand over more liberal proposals for amnesty once the Democrats take over Congress. If so, the recent calls by LULAC and other groups for a guest-worker program seem to be in line with that “Rove-ian” playbook.

The question still remains, however, if some groups will push for no bill over something short of legalization. On the one one hand, bill passage would help with the deportation problem and take immigration off the table in 2008, but it’s also a suboptimal solution for those seeking bigger social and political rights or those not wanting to give GWB a political victory.]

Here’s a blurb from a recent, relevant story: “The groups, which included LULAC, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, the Hispanic National Bar Association, and the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials, sent letters to U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, urging a halt to the raids.

They also called on Congress to quickly to approve immigration legislation that would allow for “guest workers” to remain in the United States.” Quoted in AP Story, ” Hispanic groups call for moratorium on work raids.”

Click “more” for full story.
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[MB: The Latino National Survey (LNS) team provides a comprehensive review of the state of Latino politics research in this important contribution to the APSR Centennial Volume. Congratultions!]

Title: “Su Casa Es Nuestra Casa: Latino Politics Research and the Development of American Political Science”
Journal: American Political Science Review. Vol 100, No. 4, November 2006, pp 515-21.
Authors:Luis R. Fraga, John A. Garcia, Rodney E. Hero, Michael Jones-Correa, Valerie Martinez-Ebers, and Gary M. Segura

“Since the 1970s, Latino politics research has evolved, alternately responding to real-world political events and demographic changes, embracing new and emerging trends in the broader discipline, and offering new insights of its own that contribute to the development of political science. In so doing, there have emerged both an intellectual foundation and a growing body of empirical results, each of which challenges long-held theories and findings in the discipline more broadly. Thus, Latino politics research is central in refining and broadening our understanding of American politics. Immigration, social marginality, and their uncertain status as a racial or ethnic minority make this population unique and raise important obstacles in applying existing interpretations and orthodoxies from the discipline’s other traditions to this emerging and rapidly growing segment of American society. The major contributions of this line of inquiry are identified in five key areas: pluralism, group identity and mobilization, political participation, institutions and representation, and assimilation.We conclude with some thoughts regarding how the evolution of American society and its Latino population will pose important questions for future generations of political scientists.”

Download from APSA website

[MB: Hot off the presses…. December 2006 article in SSQ on group consciousness among Asian and Latino Americans. This article is one of the first to provide a comparative study, not only between API and Latinos but also within each category, looking at national origin differences. Kudos to SSQ for continuing to publish high quality work in this area.]

Title: “Together They Become One: Examining the Predictors of Panethnic Group Consciousness Among Asian Americans and Latinos”
Journal: Social Science Quarterly. Vol 87, No. 5, December 2006, pp 993-1011.
Author:Natalie Masuoka

“Objective. This article examines panethnic consciousness as it applies to the two fastest-growing minority groups in the United States: Asian Americans and Latinos. Given the challenges of diversity and immigration faced by these two communities, I examine the individual-level factors that help strengthen their panethnic group identity.
Methods. Drawing from data provided by the 2000 Pilot National Asian American Political Survey and the 1999 National Survey on Latinos, I use ordered probit models to determine the predictors of panethnic consciousness among both Asian Americans and Latinos.
Results. The models confirm that for Asian Americans, high income, involvement in Asian-American politics, being a Democrat, and the role of racial discrimination encourage panethnic consciousness. For Latinos, the important factors are higher levels of education, gender, being foreign born, involvement in Latino politics, and perceptions of discrimination.
Conclusions. The findings here stress the importance of social contextual factors such as racial discrimination on the formation of panethnic identity.”

Download from Blackwell Synergy

[MB: I just ran across this article doing a search for Arab/Muslim Americans and political participation, a topic that is woefully under-researched (as we all know). While the model specifications could use some improvement (where is income?), this is a terrific first step in understanding Muslim civic engagement here in the U.S. that scholars of immigrant politics and minority politics should build on.]

Title: “The Political Participation and Engagement of Muslim Americans: Mosque Involvement and Group Consciousness.”
Journal: American Politics Research. Vol 33, No. 4, April 2005, pp 521-544.
Author:Amaney Jamal

“Although studies on civic and political engagement highlight the importance of religious institutions in the political mobilization of Americans, few studies have examined the role of religious institutions in ethnic or minority communities. Furthermore, little is known about the causal mechanisms that link minorities in religious institutions to broader forms of political participation. Through an examination of patterns of Muslim American political behavior and their levels of mosque participation, the author argues that the mosque, similar to other religious institutions in the United States, takes on the multifaceted role of mobilization vehicle and school of civic participation. The author also discovers that mosques promote and foster a sense of group consciousness among Arab and Black Muslims.”

Download from Sage Journals Online

[Story in the Wall Street Journal about trends and motivations for dual citizenship, with an India focus]
Pledging Allegiances: Indian Passport Law Reflects Global Trend

By BARRY NEWMAN
December 15, 2006

HOBOKEN, N.J. — Sudhir Parikh is about to become a citizen of India. Again.

Dr. Parikh, a 59-year-old allergist, arrived in the U.S. 32 years ago and became an American citizen in 1986. By Indian law, his citizenship of India lapsed the instant he took the oath. But this year India had a change of heart about its fallen-away citizens. With some hesitancy, it has become the biggest and latest addition to a lengthening list of countries that allow their citizens to be citizens of other countries at the same time.

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Story in New York Times, December 14

[..] With France’s presidential election four months away, Mr. Sarkozy and the other leading candidates are campaigning hard to seduce the country’s alienated and disadvantaged ethnic populations.

One goal, certainly, is to persuade the largely ethnic Arab and African populations that live in the suburbs to register and vote. But a much larger aim is to convince the French electorate as a whole that the country’s economic, social and cultural divide can be narrowed and that people can feel confident abut the future.

“Five years ago, immigration and integration were not campaign issues of the mainstream parties,” said Vincent Tiberj, a sociologist. “This time, the French are questioning the failure of integration and asking themselves about their capacity to integrate new foreigners. The debate has changed.”

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[KR: Doesn’t seem to be much happening in terms of employer sanctions compared to these well-publicized raids. I wonder how difficult it is to prove that someone knowingly hired unauthorized immigrants — see, for instance, the court order mentioned below.]
Raids in 6 states may be largest ever
JENNIFER TALHELM, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - More than 1,200 people were arrested in meatpacking plants in six states during raids that federal officials said amounted to the largest-ever workplace crackdown on illegal immigration.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said Wednesday the investigation uncovered a “disturbing front” in the war against illegal immigration, in which illegal immigrants are using the identities of U.S. citizens to obtain jobs.
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In U.S., fear and distrust of Muslims runs deep
By Bernd Debusmann, Special Correspondent
Fri Dec 1, 9:05 AM ET

WASHINGTON - When radio host Jerry Klein suggested that all Muslims in the United States should be identified with a crescent-shape tattoo or a distinctive arm band, the phone lines jammed instantly.  The first caller to the station in Washington said that Klein must be “off his rocker.”  The second congratulated him and added: “Not only do you tattoo them in the middle of their forehead but you ship them out of this country … they are here to kill us.”

Another said that tattoos, armbands and other identifying markers such as crescent marks on driver’s licenses, passports and birth certificates did not go far enough. “What good is identifying them?” he asked. “You have to set up encampments like during World War Two with the Japanese and Germans.”

At the end of the one-hour show, rich with arguments on why visual identification of “the threat in our midst” would alleviate the public’s fears, Klein revealed that he had staged a hoax. It drew out reactions that are not uncommon in post-9/11 America.
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