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Review Essays
AMERICAN IMMIGRATION:
NEW IDEAS, OLD PREJUDICES
Lockout: Why America Keeps Getting Immigration Wrong When Our Prosperity Depends on Getting It Right. By Michele Wucker. New York: PublicAffairs, 2006. ix + 285 pp. Notes, bibliography, and index. $25.95 (cloth).
Debating Immigration. Edited by Carol M. Swain. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007. ix + 316 pp. Tables, graphs, notes, and index. $70.00 (cloth); $19.99 (paper).
Immigration and America's Future: A New Chapter. By Doris Meissner, Deborah W. Meyers, Demetrios G. Papademetriou, and Michael Fix. Washington, DC: Migration Policy Institute, 2006. xxii + 153 pp. Map, tables, graph, notes, appendices, Member Comments, and Dissenting Comment. $14.95 (paper).
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The current immigration debate is intertwined with deeply held values, national security issues, and issues of race and ethnicity in America. Most people concerned with immigration understand that the issues are complex. Finding a solution that is fair, sustainable, and equitable for all involved poses many challenges. One aspect of this issue is that many industries depend upon the contributions made by immigrants, a large number of whom are undocumented. Thus, one significant challenge is to align immigration policy with actual labor practices. Another difficulty is the growing anti-immigrant climate in America. The one thing most people can agree upon is that current immigration policies are broken and the time to fix the situation is long overdue. What is the right thing to do regarding America's immigration policy? |
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The books considered in this review each attempt to address this question. Michele Wucker examines the stakes for American competitiveness if we keep "getting immigration wrong"; Carol M. Swain provides us with a collection of essays mostly from an academic perspective; and, finally, the authors of Immigration and America's Future offer a comprehensive set of practical policy suggestions. Before summarizing the major perspectives in each book, it is important to put them in the broader context of the immigration debate in America. |
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There is nothing particularly rational regarding current discussions about immigration, which are increasingly mired in the terrain of symbolic politics. Immigrants are not widely accepted in America—regardless of legal status. There are many myths espoused by politicians and the media that contribute to this, with negative consequences for today's immigrant communities. For example, much of the current immigration debate focuses on how different today's immigrants are from previous groups. However, fears that immigrants threaten to divide the United States culturally or that they refuse to assimilate and reject core American values are not new. The same was said of eastern and southern European immigrants in the nineteenth century who were predominately Catholic or Jewish and who did not speak English as a first language. In the present, a result of these rehashed arguments is that many immigrants in America are currently experiencing prejudice, discrimination, cruelty, and mistreatment. On November 20, 2007, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Hate Crimes Statistics Report indicated there had been a 25 percent increase in anti-Hispanic hate crimes from 2004 to 2006. According to the 2006 FBI report, Hispanics comprised 62.8 percent of reported hate crime victims. It is amidst this context that our immigration debate is taking place. |
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In Lockout, Michele Wucker—a senior fellow at the World Policy Institute at the New School in New York City—calls for removing ideologues from the immigration debate by pointing out how common misperceptions about immigration have led to failed policies. The immigration debate must be held in an atmosphere of "knowledge and pragmatism" (p. 9). Instead, Wucker believes, it is mired in "emotion and patriotism" rather than in economic knowledge or understanding (p. 101). Wucker warns that if the debate is not redirected in a more knowledgeable and pragmatic direction, our continued failed policies will result in declining U.S. competitiveness that will ultimately hurt America's prosperity and global positioning. |
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