The Color of Law: How Race Hides in Global Migration Policies

• In Event: Race and Gender in International Relations

Abstract

In this paper, I investigate whether the racial composition of immigrant populations is associated with changes in the migration policies worldwide. Prior to decolonization, many states enacted discriminatory immigration policies to cultivate the racial compositions of their populations. The conventional wisdom is that these racist immigration policies largely vanished after decolonization. In other words, as explicit racism lost its social desirability in international politics, the immigration policies of states reflected this sea-change and became “colorblind.” However, case-specific evidence suggests that immigration policies continue to reflect this prejudice, even though policies no longer explicitly discriminate. The contribution of this paper is threefold. First, I provide evidence that immigration policies became less restrictive during decolonization, only to become more restrictive in the subsequent decades. Second, I find a strong relationship between the racial composition of immigrant populations and restrictive policy changes in subsequent years. Finally, I show that this relationship has become stronger over time. These results provide further evidence that dismantling explicitly racist policies is not sufficient to end racial inequality in migration policies.

Author

• Andrew S Rosenberg, University of Florida