The underpinnings of immigration and the limits of immigration policy

Cornell International Law Journal

Volumn 41, Issue 1, 2008, Pages 83-100

  Pfeffer, Max J ^a  

^a Cornell University ^*  (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 42149196061     PISSN: 00108812     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Review

References (150)

1. JEFFREY S. PASSEL, PEW HISPANIC CTR, THE SIZE AND CHARACTERISTICS OF THE UNAUTHORIZED MIGRANT POPULATION IN THE U.S.: ESTIMATES BASED ON THE MARCH 2005 CURRENT POPULATION SURVEY i (2006), available at http://pewhispanic.org/files/reports/61.pdf.
2. Id.
3. Janet Hook, Border Security an Issue for GOP, L.A. TIMES, Nov. 27, 2005, at A2.
4. Alex Kotlowitz, Our Town, N.Y. TIMES, Aug. 5, 2007, at F30.
5. PASSEL, supra note 1, at 2.
6. See generally Ernest Rubin, The Demography of Immigration to the United States, 367 ANNALS AM. ACAD. POL. & SOC. SCI. 15 (1966) (providing a historical overview of major periods of immigration to the United States).
7. MARY M. KRITZ & DOUGLAS T. GURAK, IMMIGRATION AND A CHANGING AMERICA 8 (2004).
8. Id. at 4.
9. Id. at 8.
10. Id. at 10 (noting that about 12% of the U.S. population is foreign-born today, compared with about 15% in the early twentieth century).
11. Id. at 11.
12. See DVD: The Census 2000 Migration Data DVD (U.S. Census Bureau 2003) (on file with author).
13. See PASSEL, supra note 1, at 2.
14. PASSEL, supra note 1, at 4.
15. KRITZ & GURAK, supra note 7, at 9-10.
16. See PASSEL, supra note 1, at 2.
17. Id.
18. Id. at i.
19. Id. at 3.
20. Id.
21. Id. at 4.
22. Id. at 5.
23. KRITZ & GURAK, supra note 7, at 13.
24. See Randal C. Archibold, With Immigration Bill Stalled, Advocates Push Forward, N.Y. TIMES, June 14, 2007, at A24.
25. Max J. Pfeffer & Pilar A. Parra, New Yorfeers' Perceptions of Immigrants and Immigration, RES. & POL'Y BRIEF SERIES (Cmty. & Rural Dev. Inst., Ithaca, N.Y.), Mar. 2007, at 1.
26. PEW HISPANIC CTR, AMERICA'S IMMIGRATION QUANDARY (2006), available at http://pewhispanic.org/files/reports/63.pdf.
27. MAX J. PFEFFER & PILAR A. PARRA, IMMIGRANTS AND THE COMMUNITY: COMMUNITY PERSPECTIVES 5 (2005), available at http://rnyi.cornell.edu/ document/pdf/Immigrant%20Report%20IV1.pdf.
28. Id.
29. Id. at 4.
30. See Randal C Archibold, Reactions Run Gamut, but Immigrants Work on, N.Y. TIMES, June 30, 2007, at A1.
31. Julia Preston & Marjorie Connelly, Immigration Bill Provisions Gain Wide Support in Poll, N.Y. TIMES, May 25, 2007, at A1.
32. CBS NEWS/N. Y. TIMES POLL, IMMIGRATION REFORM 12 (2007), available at http://www.cbsnews.com/htdocs/pdf/052407_immigration.pdf.
33. Preston & Connelly, supra note 31.
34. Id.
35. Id.
36. Id.
37. Jeff Zeleny, An Issue Without Borders: The Immigration Debate, Resonating in Political Campaigns from Texas to Iowa, Creates Special Problems for the Republican Party, CHI. TRIB, Mar. 25, 2006, at 1.
38. See PETER ANDREAS, BORDER GAMES: POLICING THE U.S.-MEXICO DIVIDE (2000);
39. JOSEPH NEVINS, OPERATION GATEKEEPER: THE RISE OF THE "ILLEGAL ALIEN" AND THE REMAKING OF THE U.S.-MEXICO BOUNDARY 2-3 (2002);
40. Douglas S. Massey, Beyond the Border Buildup: Towards a New Approach to Mexico-U.S. Migration, IMMIGR. POL'Y IN FOCUS, Sept. 2005, at 1, 2-3, available at http://www.ailf.org/ipc/infocus/ 2005_beyondborder.pdf; Sergio Chavez, The Making of a Border Labor Migration System: Government Policies, Labor Markets, and Social Networks in Tijuana (2007) (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Cornell University) (on file with Cornell University, Development Sociology Department).
41. See Massey, supra note 38, at 1, 8.
42. Id.
43. Alejandro Portes, Migration, Development and Segmented Assimilation: A Conceptual Review of the Evidence, 610 ANNALS AM. ACAD. POL. & SOC. SCI. 73, 79 (2007);
44. see DOUGLAS S. MASSEY ET AL. BEYOND SMOKE AND MIRRORS: MEXICAN IMMIGRATION IN AN ERA OF ECONOMIC INTEGRATION (2002);
45. Massey, supra note 38, at 8-9.
46. Pilar A. Parra & Max J. Pfeffer, New Immigrants in Rural Communities: The Challenges of Integration, SOC. TEXT, Fall 2006, at 81, 85-86.
47. Id. at 86;
48. Massey, supra note 38, at 8-9.
49. See Parra & Pfeffer, supra note 42, at 85-89.
50. See PASSEL, supra note 1, at 8. An unauthorized family is a family unit in which the family head or spouse is an unauthorized immigrant. Id. About 41% of all unauthorized families include children, and children make up 16% of the entire unauthorized population. Id. at 7-8.
51. See Douglas S. Massey, Why Does Immigration Occur? A Theoretical Synthesis, in THE HANDBOOK OF INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION: THE AMERICAN EXPERIENCE 34, 43-44 (Charles Hirschman et al. eds., 1999).
52. Massey, supra note 38, at 1.
53. See Massey, supra note 46, at 49-50.
54. See Massey, supra note 38, at 6.
55. Id. at 5-6.
56. Id. at 6.
57. See, e.g., Pia M. Orrenius & Madeline Zavodny, Do Amnesty Programs Reduce Undocumented Immigration?; Evidence from IRCA, 40 DEMOGRAPHY 437, 448 (2003) (examining effect of IRCA on flows of undocumented immigrants and finding that amnesty programs do not appear to encourage undocumented immigration);
58. Steven Greenhouse, Labor Urges Amnesty for Illegal Immigrants, N.Y. TIMES, Feb. 17, 2000, at A26 (discussing the AFL-CIO call for blanket amnesty for immigrant workers).
59. Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, Pub. L. No. 99-603, 100 Stat. 3359 (codified as amended in scattered sections of 8 U.S.C).
60. See Katherine L. Vaughns, Restoring the Rule of Law: Reflections on Fixing the Immigration System and Exploring Failed Policy Choices, 5 U. MD. L.J. RACE, RELIGION, GENDER & CLASS 151, 164-65, 184-85 (2005).
61. Orrenius & Zavodny, supra note 52, at 437.
62. See id.
63. See, e.g., U.S. CITIZENSHIP & IMMIGRATION SERVS, WELCOME TO THE UNITED STATES: A GUIDE FOR NEW IMMIGRANTS 41, 91 (2005), available at http://www.uscis.gov/files/nativedocuments/M-618.pdf.
64. See FRANK D. BEAN & GILLIAN STEVENS, AMERICA'S NEWCOMERS AND THE DYNAMICS OF DIVERSITY 48 (2003).
65. See PANEL ON HISPANICS IN THE U.S., NAT'L RESEARCH COUNCIL, MULTIPLE ORIGINS, UNCERTAIN DESTINIES: HISPANICS AND THE AMERICAN FUTURE 64-66 (Marta Tienda & Faith Mitchell eds., 2006);
66. see generally Jack G. Dale et al. Language and the Migrant Worker Experience in Rural North Carolina Communities, in LATINO WORKERS IN THE CONTEMPORARY SOUTH 93, 93-104 (Arthur D. Murphy et al. eds., 2001) (examining how language proficiency relates to housing, employment, education, and health care for Hispanic migrant workers in North Carolina);
67. James D. Engstrom, Industry and Immigration in Dalton, Georgia, in LATINO WORKERS IN THE CONTEMPORARY SOUTH, supra, at 44, 44-56 (examining the interconnections among immigrants, industry, labor markets, and place);
68. Greig Guthey, Mexican Places in Southern Spaces: Globalization, Work, and Daily Life in and Around the North Georgia Poultry Industry, in LATINO WORKERS IN THE CONTEMPORARY SOUTH, supra, at 57, 57-67 (finding that Mexican immigrant populations in northern Georgia have become more stable and will likely have greater influence on the rural areas where they are located);
69. John D. Studstill & Laura Nieto-Studstill, Hospitality and Hostility: Latin Immigrants in Southern Georgia, in LATINO WORKERS IN THE CONTEMPORARY SOUTH, supra, at 68, 68-81 (discussing the sudden influx of Mexican immigrants in southern Georgia and the socio-cultural changes that have accompanied their arrival);
70. Victor Zúñiga & Rubén Hernández- León, A New Destination for an Old Migration: Origins, Trajectories, and Labor Market Incorporation of Latinos in Dalton, Georgia, in LATINO WORKERS IN THE CONTEMPORARY SOUTH, supra, at 126, 126-135 (describing the social process of migration and incorporation of Mexican and Latino immigrants to the labor market in Dalton, Georgia).
71. See Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 § 111, 8 U.S.C. §§ 1325-26 (2000).
72. See id. § 101, 8 U.S.C. § 1324(g)(2).
73. See Phillip Martin, Immigrants Change the Face of Rural America, ISSUE REP. (Farm Found, Oak Brook, 111.), Jan. 2005, at 1, 2, available at http://www.farmfoundation.org/ Issue%20Reports/documents/FinalFInalIssueReportJanuary05.pdf; Massey, supra note 38, at 4.
74. See Massey, supra note 38, at 4.
75. See Martin, supra note 62, at 2;
76. Massey, supra note 38, at 4;
77. see generally Pia M. Orrenius, The Effect of U.S. Border Enforcement on the Crossing Behavior of Mexican Migrants, in CROSSING THE BORDER: RESEARCH FROM THE MEXICAN MIGRATION PROJECT 281 Gorge Durand & Douglas S. Massey eds., 2004) (investigating the impact of increased border enforcement on undocumented migrants' choice of crossing site).
78. See Parra & Pfeffer, supra note 42, at 85.
79. Dorte Verner, Activities, Employment, and Wages in Rural and Semi-Urban Mexico 2 (World Bank, Policy Research Working Paper No. 3561, 2005).
80. See Andy Gutierrez, Codifying the Past, Erasing the Future: NAFTA and the Zapatista Uprising of 1994, 4 HASTINGS W.-NW. J. ENVTL. L. & POL'Y 143, 151-52 (1998).
81. Parra & Pfeffer, supra note 42, at 84.
82. See Ranko Shiraki Oliver, In the Twelve Years of NAFTA, the Treaty Gave to Me . . . What, Exactly?: An Assessment of Economic, Social, and Political Developments in Mexico Since 1994 and Their Impact on Mexican Immigration into the United States, 10 HARV. LATINO L. REV. 53, 85-89 (2007).
83. See Verner, supra note 66, at 4, 11.
84. See id. at 11.
85. See Portes, supra note 41, at 75.
86. Marcela Cerrutti & Douglas S. Massey, Trends in Mexican Migration to the United States, 1965 to 1995, in CROSSING THE BORDER: RESEARCH FROM THE MEXICAN MIGRATION PROJECT 17, 22-26 Qorge Durand & Douglas S. Massey eds., 2004);
87. Augustin Escobar Latapi, The Connection at Its Source: Changing Socioeconomic Conditions and Migration Patterns, in THE CALIFORNIA-MEXICO CONNECTION 66, 66-67 (Abraham F. Lowenthal & Katrina Burgess eds., 1993),
88. Robert C Smith, Mexicans: Social, Educational, Economic, and Political Problems and Prospects in New York, in NEW IMMIGRANTS IN NEW YORK 275, 278-81 (Nancy Foner ed., 2001);
89. see Maria da Gloria Marroni de Velázquez, Los granos básicos en México: Una historia de modernizaciones recurrentes y crisis permanente, in LA CRISIS PRODUCTIVA Y FINANCIERA MEXICANA 337, 360-61 (Alfredo Sánchez Daza ed., 1997);
90. see also Marilyn Gates, The Debt Crisis and Economic Restructuring: Prospects for Mexican Agriculture, in NEOLIBERALISM REVISITED: ECONOMIC RESTRUCTURING AND MEXICO'S POLITICAL FUTURE 43, 45-55 (Gerardo Otero ed., 1996) (describing the failures in agricultural policy of different Mexican administrations during the 1980s and 1990s).
91. Demetrios G. Papademetriou, Migration Policy Inst., The Global Struggle with Illegal Migration: No End in Sight, MIGRATION INFO. SOURCE, Sept. 1, 2005, http://migrationinformation.org/ feature/print.cfm?ID-336;
92. see KRITZ & GURAK, supra note 7, at 8.
93. Oliver, supra note 69, at 99.
94. See Portes, supra note 41, at 77-79.
95. See id. at 79.
96. See id.
97. See Massey, supra note 38, at 2, 9.
98. See PASSEL, supra note 1, at 9.
99. See Massey, supra note 38, at 4, 8.
100. See Raúl Hernández-Coss, The U.S. -Mexico Remittance Corridor: Lessons on Shifting from Informal to Formal Transfer Systems 6, 30 (World Bank, Working Paper No. 47, 2005).
101. See id. at 30.
102. Id. at 4.
103. Indicators of Recent Migration Flows from Mexico, FACT SHEET (Pew Hispanic Ctr., Wash, D.C.), May 30, 2007, at 10, available at http://pewhispanic.org/files/factsheets/33.pdf.
104. Peter Brownell, The Declining Enforcement of Employer Sanctions, MIGRATION INFO. SOURCE, Sept. 1, 2005, http://www.migrationinformation.org/feature/print.cfm?ID-332.
105. Id.
106. Id.
107. Annette Bernhardt & Siobhán McGrath, Trends in Wage and Hour Enforcement by the U.S. Department of Labor, 1975-2004, ECON. POL'Y BRIEF (Brennan Ctr. for Justice, New York, N.Y.), Sept. 2005, at 1, 1, available at http://www.brennancenter.org/dynamic/ subpages/download_file_8423.pdf.
108. MICHAEL PARENTI, DIRTY TRUTHS 13 (1996).
109. AFL-CIO, NUMBER OF OSHA INSPECTORS BY STATE COMPARED WITH ILO BENCHMARK NUMBER OF LABOR INSPECTORS (2007), available at http://www.aflcio.org/issues/safety/memorial/upload/_40A.pdf.
110. Andreas E. Feldmann & Helena Olea, New Formulas, Old Sins: Human Rights Abuses Against Migrant Workers, Asylum Seekers, and Refugees in the Americas, in FROM THE MARGINS OF GLOBALIZATION 129, 136-37 (Neve Gordon ed., 2004).
111. Justin Pritchard, AP Investigation: Mexican Worker Deaths Rise Sharply Even as Overall U.S. Job Safety Improves, ASSOCIATED PRESS, Mar. 14, 2004, http://fmmac2.mm.ap.org/ polk_awards_dying_to_work_html/DyingtoWork.html.
112. Id.
113. Id.
114. U.S. COMM'N ON IMMIGRATION REFORM, U.S. IMMIGRATION POLICY: RESTORING CREDIBILITY (1994).
115. David Stmcox, Immigration and Free Trade with Mexico: Protecting American Workers Against Double Jeopardy, 14 POPULATION & ENV'T 159 (1992).
116. Immigration Enforcement Spending Since IRCA, IMMIGR. FACTS (Migration Policy Inst, Wash, D.C.), Nov. 2005, at 4, available at http://www.mlgrationpolicy.org/ITFIAF/FactSheet_Spending. pdf.
117. Cerrutti & Massey, supra note 73, at 31-32.
118. See RAJEEV GOYLE & DAVID A. JAEGER, CTR FOR AM. PROGRESS, DEPORTING THE UNDOCUMENTED: A COST ASSESSMENT 4, 7-8, 10 (2005), available at http://www.americanprogress.org/kf/ deporting_the_undocumented.pdf.
119. PASSEL, supra note 1, at 8.
120. See Portes, supra note 41, at 90.
121. Id. at 88.
122. PANEL ON HISPANICS IN THE U.S., supra note 59.
123. Id. at 13.
124. Id. at 20.
125. Id. at 82, 91;
126. see KRITZ & GURAK, supra note 7, at 22, 33-34.
127. See LEIGHTON KU & TIMOTHY WAIDMAN, HOW RACE/ETHNICITY, IMMIGRATION STATUS, AND LANGUAGE AFFECT HEALTH INSURANCE COVERAGE, ACCESS TO CARE, AND QUALITY OF CARE AMONG THE LOW-INCOME POPULATION 19-20 (2003), available at http://www.kff.org/unlnsured/upload/How-Race-Ethnlcity-Immigration- Status-and-Language-Affect-Health-Insurance-Coverage-Access-to-and-Quality-of- Care-Among-the-Low-Income-Population.pdf;
128. Marc L. Berk et al. Health Care Use Among Undocumented Latino Immigrants, HEALTH AFF, July /Aug. 2000, at 51, 51-64;
129. Olveen Carrasquillo et al. Eligibility for Government Insurance if Immigrant Provisions of Welfare Reform Are Repealed, 93 AM. J. PUB. HEALTH 1680, 1680-81 (2003);
130. Gilberto Granados et al., Health Care for Latino Children: Impact of Child and Parental Birthplace on Insurance Status and Access to Health Services, 91 AM. J. PUB. HEALTH 1806, 1806-07 (2001);
131. Ted Joyce et al. Welfare Reform and the Perinatal Health and Health Care Use of Latino Women in California, New York City, and Texas, 91 AM. J. PUB. HEALTH 1857, 1857-64 (2001).
132. See generally PANEL ON RACIAL & ETHNIC DISPARITIES IN MED. CARE, PHYSICIANS FOR HUMAN RIGHTS, THE RIGHT TO EQUAL TREATMENT: AN ACTION PLAN TO END RACIAL AND ETHNIC DISPARITIES IN CLINICAL DIAGNOSIS AND TREATMENT IN THE UNITED STATES (2003), available at http:// physiciansforhumanrights.org/library/documents/reports/report-rightequaltreat- 2003.PDF (discussing racial and ethnic disparities in medical care);
133. Ellen Percy Kraly et al, U.S. Immigration Policy and Immigrant Integration: Occupational Mobility Among the Population Legalizing Under IRCA, in IMMIGRATION TODAY: PASTORAL AND RESEARCH CHALLENGES 82, 106 (Lydio F. Tomasi & Mary G. Powers eds., 2000) (discussing immigrants' employment opportunities in the United States);
134. Arun Peter Lobo & Joseph J. Salvo, The Role of Nativity and Ethnicity in the Residential Settlement Patterns of Blacks in New York City, 1970-1990, in IMMIGRATION TODAY: PASTORAL AND RESEARCH CHALLENGES, supra, at 107 (discussing residential racial segregation).
135. Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996, Pub. L. No. 104-193, 110 Stat. 2105 (1996) (codified as amended in scattered sections of 7, 8, 21, 25, and 42 U.S.C.).
136. Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996, Pub. L. 104-208, Div. C, 110 Stat. 3009-546 to 3009-724 (1996) (codified as amended in scattered sections of 7, 8, 15, 18, 20, 22, 28, 32, 42, 50 U.S.C.) (minimizing judicial review of immigration decisions, expanding grounds for deportation and nonadmission of immigrants, and redefining concept of entry).
137. See Joyce et al., supra note 108, at 1857;
138. Sana Loue et al. The Effect of Immigration and Welfare Reform Legislation on Immigrants' Access to Health Care, Cuyahoga, and Lorain Counties, 2 J. IMMIGR. HEALTH 23, 23-24 (2000).
139. See generally Kareem Fahim, Should Immigration Be a Police Issue?, N.Y. TIMES, Apr. 29, 2007, at 14NJ (discussing immigration law enforcement in towns and small cities near New York City);
140. Kotlowitz, supra note 4, at F30 (discussing local governments' efforts to discourage illegal immigration).
141. See WILLIAM KANDEL & JOHN CROMARTIE, U.S. DEP'T OF AGRIC., NEW PATTERNS OF HISPANIC SETTLEMENT IN RURAL AMERICA iii-iv (2004), available at http://www.ers.usda.gov/ publications/rdrr99/rdrr99.pdf (noting growth of Hispanic populations in rural areas and the disproportionate number of undocumented immigrants from Mexico within this population);
142. Rachel L. Swarns, The Latino South: A County In Transition, N.Y. TIMES, Aug. 4, 2006, at A1 (describing the influx of Latin-American immigrants to small towns in Georgia).
143. See Swarns, supra note 114, at A1 (explaining that immigrants came to rural Georgia for agricultural work and settled permanently).
144. See Francisco L. Rivera-Batiz, English Language Proficiency and the Earning of Young Immigrants in U.S. Labor Markets, 11 POL'Y STUD. REV. 165, 173 (1992) ("English language deficiency acts to depress the wages of immigrants substantially below what their other human capital endowments-education, on-the-job-experience-suggest they should earn in the U.S. labor market.");
145. see also Hoyt Bleakley & Aimee Chin, What Holds Back the Second Generation?; The lntergenerational Transmission of Language Human Capital Among Immigrants 3 (Ctr. for Comparative Immigration Studies, Working Paper No. 104, 2004), available at http://repositories.cdlib.org/cgi/ viewcontent.cgi?article-1030&context3is (finding that parental English language skills can account for 60% of the difference in the drop out rate between non-Hispanic whites and second generation Hispanic immigrants).
146. See DORIS MEISSNER ET AL. MIGRATION POLICY INST, IMMIGRATION AND AMERICA'S FUTURE: A NEW CHAPTER 75-76 (2006) (listing advantages that English language competency provides for immigrants).
147. See JOSEPH FISHKIN ET AL. CONN. VOICES FOR CHILDREN, IMMIGRATION IN CONNECTICUT 9 (2005), available at http://www.ctkidslink.org/ publications/econ05immig01.pdf (listing economic advantages that immigrants bring to a state with an aging population);
148. PANEL ON HISPANICS IN THE U.S., supra note 59, at 60-64 (describing benefits of immigration of Hispanic youth).
149. See, e.g., Tyche Hendricks, Immigrant Advocates Blast Raids, Crackdown, S.F. CHRON, Feb. 22, 2007, at B1 (describing San Francisco's policy of giving sanctuary to illegal immigrants by forbidding city employees from using city resources to assist in the enforcement of federal immigration law);
150. Michele Wucker, A Safe Haven in New Haven, N.Y. TIMES, Apr. 15, 2007, at 14LI (contrasting New Haven's policy of providing municipal identification cards and educational services to undocumented immigrants with municipalities that have implemented more punitive policies).