Читать книгу The Politics of Immigration (2nd Edition) - David Wilson - Страница 8

Introduction

THE FIRST EDITION OF THIS BOOK was written in the wake of the massive demonstrations, strikes, and walkouts that immigrants and their supporters carried out in the spring of 2006, and as churches across the United States were banding together to forge a new “sanctuary” movement in support of immigrants and their families resisting deportation.

That resistance has continued, taking new forms. Thousands of immigrant youth who grew up in the United States—sometimes referred to as “dreamers”—have forced a major shift in public perception by “outing” themselves as “undocumented, unafraid and unapologetic” and adopting increasingly radical tactics of active nonviolence. When civil disobedience actions like blocking streets, occupying politicians’ offices, or camping out in front of government buildings didn’t win their demands, these young activists upped the ante: some deliberately turned themselves in to immigration enforcement authorities in order to reject fear and organize resistance within the detention centers where they were locked up, and some left the country and returned en masse to nonviolently confront border authorities and demand reentry to the country where they came of age.

This kind of grassroots organizing and mobilizing is often effective, but it can also provoke backlash. A major goal of this book is to diminish that backlash by addressing people’s concerns about immigration.

Since the first edition of this book was published, we have facilitated numerous dialogues on immigration with students, activists, and others in communities throughout the United States. These dialogues have reinforced our impression that many people are open to a deeper understanding of immigration and the forces that drive it.

As we said in 2007: “Every day, more people are realizing that immigrants are here to stay. They are our friends, our parents, our partners, our neighbors, ourselves. Either we condemn them to live as a permanent underclass, or we look for ways to integrate them into a more just and inclusive society.”

This is not an easy task. The problems with our immigration system grow out of the history and legacy of slavery and colonialism, and are closely linked to the systems of labor exploitation and imprisonment that remain in effect today.

Following the gains of the civil rights movement in the 1960s, overtly racist rhetoric grew less acceptable within our legal framework, so policymakers claimed to be “colorblind” as they developed new systems to maintain the old racist structures. Politicians and the media shifted from openly slurring specific ethnicities and nationalities to branding groups of people as “criminals,” “welfare queens,” “gangsters,” “illegals,” “invaders,” and “terrorists.” These and many other labels are used to keep people “in their places” as racial others: behind walls, in cages, and stripped of power on the job in fields, forests, homes, and restaurants.

This book challenges such labels. We start with a demographic overview in chapter 1: what does the data say about who comes to the United States, from where, and how many? In chapter 2, we explore why people come here: what are the circumstances that impel them to leave their countries? Chapter 3 takes a look at how our country has treated refugees, now and in the past. Chapters 4 and 5 address questions about “illegality”: what does it mean, why do so many people end up without legal status, and what challenges do they face? We then discuss the impact of immigration on the economy (chapter 6), and on health, environment, and culture (chapter 7). Chapter 8 challenges the myths that paint immigrants as criminals or terrorists. In chapter 9 we consider various approaches to immigration enforcement, both at the border and in the country’s interior: how do these systems work, what do they accomplish, and at what cost? Because harsher enforcement often comes packaged with “softer” measures like amnesty and guest worker programs, we move in chapter 10 to the impact of such programs. In chapter 11, we return to enforcement, focusing on detention and deportation practices. We finish the book by considering the meanings of “open borders” and imagining what a more open immigration policy might look like in practice.

We hope this book contributes to deep, critical dialogues about the ways in which racism, exclusion, and exploitation are embedded within the politics of immigration in the United States. We believe such dialogue can help to strengthen movements that resist oppression, build solidarity, and develop strategies toward a more just political system.