Race and Ethnicity in US Politics
Interracial America:  Immigration

Viewpoints:  Immigration Threatens America's Unity
by William Booth vs. Immigration Benefits America by William J. Clinton

Both Booth and Clinton agree that US is experience unparalleled transformation

second peak of immigration

1st peak - 1900 -1921

2nd peak - 1990s


Yet, Booth argues that immigration leads to tensions between immigrants and native born Americans competing for jobs, neighborhoods, and political power

and that immigrants cling to their ethnic heritage and resist assimilation

creating divisions, conflict in US


Clinton argues that immigrants benefit America
    revitalize our inner cities
    connect us more firmly to global economy
    contribute to our economy (e.g. each pays average of $1800 more into system in taxes,         social security contributions that he/she draws out)


What evidence does Booth present to bolster his arguments?

Why, in his opinon, are current immigrants less assimilable?



Does Clinton think we should require current immigrants to assimilate into US culture?


If so, through what means?


 



Answers:

Booth argument/evidence
    groups now just not as assimilable
    too different, don't want to be assimilated

1790 - WASPs dominated
    English 48%
    African descent 19%
    Germans 7%
    Scots 7%                                                    =                                      74% WASP
    Scots-Irish 5%
    Irish 3%
    Dutch 3%
    Native Am 2%
    Fr, Swed. 2%


Leading Sources of Foreign Born Americans 1960
Germany
Canada
Poland
Soviet Union
Mexico
England
Ireland
Austria
Hungary
Czechoslovakia

What changed?  What groups figure most prominently and why?


Leading Sources of Foreign Born Americans 1996
Mexico
Philippines
China
Cuba
India
Vietnam
El Salvador
Canada
Korea
Germany


Again, what changed?  What are the push and pull factors that explain these patterns of immigration?




Are immigrants from Asia, Latin America harder to assimate?
Hint:  think about Huntington here

Booth on "labor niches"
What kind of workforce participation do we find among immigrants?


How do immigrant labor niches affect their assimilation?

What factors should ease their assimilation? 

What factors may impede it?



How does any group assimilate to American society?

What mechanisms, means??
hint:  what do Clinton, Huntington say?


What traits, values, beliefs do immigrants have that would make them more or less assimilable?


Should assimilation be our goal for immigrants today?


Why are nativists so concerned about immigration, failed assimilation?  Is it likely that these groups will (or have they already) gained political power in the US?  If they do, what are they likely to want, change?



How is this era of immigration different from previous eras?



Globalization


Identity politics


Maria Hsia Chang, Immigration from Mexico Encourages Ethnic Conflict


Aztlan
ancestral homeland of the Aztecs
CA, AX, TX, NM, NV, UT, CO

"Chicano nationalists" seek La Reconquista
the "reconquest" of Aztlan by La Raza
example of this argument found in next essay by Davis and Moctezuma

"culture of resistance"

see quote from Rodolfo "Corky" Gonzales
about Aztlan belonging to those who plant the seeds, water the fields, and gather the crops...the bronze continent

sounds Native American to me

Chang argues that Mexican immigrants are different
1) because they don't consider themselves immigrants;  it's their homeland; have myth of national origin, belonging to support this idea

2) proximity to Mexico allows them to live in both Americas

3) post-industrial society has "narrowed the paths to upward mobility"
rather than diamond shaped structure of economy, we have an hourglass
  
dropout rate among Hispanic youths is 30%; 3 times higher than for whites, twice that of blacks

Chicanos rate rises between second and third generation - why???

1996 Hispanic poverty rate outstrips blacks - why???

hard work not leading to socio-economic advancement


Davis and Moctezuma
Nativism Among Whites Encourages Ethnic Conflict

Borders as Social Systems
1847 US invasion of Mexico
ended in Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo 1848
"we didn't cross the border, the border crossed us."


The rigidity, permeability varies according to political, economic situation

US-Mexico border region as militarized zone today but
not until after Mexican Revolution of 1910

Intensified 1920s - keep out socialist, revolutionary ideologies
but the increased demand for labor led to loosening and then tightening during the Depression

Made more rigid by War on Drugs, terrorism (??)

Primera Frontera - the Rio Grande

Segunda Frontera - system of permanent checkpoints, detention facilities

Tercera Frontera - architectural and legal barriers between Anglo and Latino communities in the US

Two Americas
The New Separate and Unequal??