Mexican DREAMers Use Fiction to Share Their Immigration Reality
Paper plays an outsized role in Amalia Rojas’ life. A lack of papers – or at least a lack of the right ones – diverted her college dreams when, at 18, she found out she hadn’t been born in the U.S. and didn’t have the legal status she needed to apply for financial aid. Six … Read more
How a Venezuelan Playwright Conquered Broadway
Leer en español One evening in September, while sitting in a cab in midtown Manhattan, Moisés Kaufman got a phone call telling him he’d been selected to receive the National Medal of Arts, the U.S.’ government’s highest artistic honor. “The first thing I said was ‘Are you sure you got the right number?’” Kaufman told AQ … Read more
The Trump-ification of Venezuela
Welcome to the Trump-ification of Venezuelan politics. By closing one of the busiest sections of the border with Colombia, and launching mass deportations of citizens from that country, the government of President Nicolás Maduro has actually implemented what the Republican presidential candidate only dreams of doing. Indeed, Maduro’s policies constitute a low point in the … Read more
Undocumented in the Ivy League
Sitting in one of New Haven’s trendy coffee shops, Yale freshman Alejandro Sánchez has exciting news. Along with some of his classmates, he was conditionally accepted into a prestigious summer program to study economics abroad. But unlike his friends, it isn’t guaranteed that he can ever come back. Alejandro is an undocumented immigrant, one of an estimated … Read more
AQ Slideshow: Central American Migrants Protest in Mexico
On April 18, as the sun rose high into the sky, a group of several dozen Central American migrants marched along with the Viacrucis Migrante (Migrant Stations of the Cross) towards the Basílica de Guadalupe in Mexico City. The group, led by migrant outreach activist Padre Alejandro Solalinde, sought to draw attention to the problems … Read more
AQ Slideshow: NYC Immigrants March for Reform on May Day
Immigrant and workers’ rights activists and union members gathered in New York City last week to celebrate International Workers’ Day on May 1—also known as May Day. Representatives from unions like Local 375 NYC Board of Education Employees (AFSCME) and the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, and immigrant rights groups like New Immigrant Community Empowerment … Read more
[i]AQ[/i] Q&A: Marcelo M. Suárez-Orozco on Mixed-Status Immigrant Families
Marcelo M. Suárez-Orozco, AQ author and Courtney Sale Ross University Professor of Globalization and Education at New York University’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, & Human Development, speaks with Americas Quarterly about the “legal, policy, economic, and ethical considerations” that result from an estimated 5.5 million children and adolescents growing up in the United States … Read more
Alabama HB 56: Which Way Will The Ruling Lean?
On Wednesday, at the Hugo Black courthouse in Birmingham, Alabama, federal judge Sharon Blackburn and approximately 200 others in attendance heard a full day’s worth of arguments to determine whether Blackburn should enjoin Alabama’s controversial immigration law, HB 56. The proceedings lasted longer than expected as a result of the judge’s decision to hear jointly … Read more
The Georgia and Alabama Anti-Immigration Laws
As draconian immigration bills pass state houses, it’s comforting to know that we have the courts. Arizona’s SB 1070 has been rebuffed twice in federal court, and Alabama and Georgia’s copycat laws in Alabama (HB 56) and Georgia (HB 87) will face similar legal challenges. But while the courts are critical for protecting minority rights, … Read more
Argentina’s Migration Solution
Most Latin American countries have regarded immigration policy as a function of border protection, using approaches that emphasize security and law enforcement, including strict regulation of work and residency permits. Nevertheless, such policies have not only failed in recent years to curb the growth of undocumented migrants; they have also clashed with resolutions adopted in … Read more
Policy Wonk Corner: The New Europeans
Latin Americans are migrating to Europe in increasingly larger numbers. As a result, immigration has come to loom large on the European public policy agenda—much as it has in the United States. Experts have warned that, as the numbers continue to grow, European government policies are likely to get less “immigrant-friendly.” At a December 2008 … Read more
The Politics and Business of Immigrant Integration
It is time to change the focus of the U.S. debate over immigration. Competing interests and ideologies have narrowed the issue to the question of how to deal with undocumented workers. While reform of the U.S. immigration system is certainly important, there is a greater challenge. How will the growing population of Hispanics be integrated … Read more
The War on Immigrants: Stories from the Front Lines
The U.S. Government’s War on Terror has transgressed into a War on Immigrants. Since September 11, 2001, Washington’s attempt to secure the nation’s borders has not only sent waves of fear through the immigrant community but has undermined the nation’s long-standing principles of providing shelter and refuge to those fleeing tyranny, intolerance and hunger.1
Moving the Debate Forward: What California Can Teach Us
California, America’s most populous state—with the dimensions, economy, power, and international ties, if not the sovereignty, of a nation—can and should play a leading role in attempting to break the U.S. legislative impasse on immigration policy and in forging policies to integrate immigrants more successfully into twenty-first century America.
NAFTA’s Exaggerated Promise for Immigration
The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) created an intentionally unequal system for the entry of Canadian and Mexican professionals to the U.S. while flatly rejecting calls by some for including broader migration in the pact. Taking such migration off the table was in deference to U.S. Congressional opposition and that body’s jealously guarded plenary power over immigration—as well as to the expectation of popular furor over its inclusion.
