Geopolitics and Prospects for Racist Immigration Policy

• In Event: 510 - Section on Political Sociology Paper Session. The Politics of Immigration and Citizenship

Abstract

Post-national accounts of migration and citizenship are difficult to reconcile with contemporary efforts to limit immigration. A global and historical approach to immigration policy shows that migration control is an enduring interest of state organizations, and that the key question is how states select immigrants. A study of immigration and nationality laws in 22 countries of the Americas since 1790 reveals that for most of this period states have selected newcomers by origin. Racist laws have been more common among countries with greater political inclusion, whether democratic or populist. If there is no inherent reason why democracies would eschew racialized selection, could we experience a return to such discrimination in immigration and nationality law? This paper examines the relative weight and interactions of domestic and international political factors that make a return to overt ethnic discrimination unlikely in immigrant destinations. The international political system is the strongest deterrent to overt ethnic selection in countries like the United States and Canada. Corollaries of this geopolitical hypothesis include that any return to ethnic selection will likely take the form of policies that appear neutral but have a deliberately differential impact across groups. Those categorizations in practice involve judgments about ascribed as well as achieved statuses. The politics of immigration is often so intense because it involves either open or hidden fears about ethnic change. We are not living in a post-ethnic world.

Authors

• David A. Cook-Martín, Grinnell College

• David Scott FitzGerald, University of California-San Diego