Immigration and Public Policy
Chapter 9 of Alejandro Portes and Rubén G. Rumbaut, Immigrant America: A Portrait. 4th ed. University of California Press, 2014
23 Pages Posted: 19 May 2016
Date Written: 2014
Abstract
This chapter aims to lay out the basis for a sound understanding of the origins of contemporary immigration and for viable policies toward it. Here we dissect the disconnect between the public perception of immigration and the underlying realities rooted in the political economy of the nation and in the historical linkages between the United States and immigrants' countries of origin. Two prevailing ideologies toward immigrants—to exclude them or assimilate them—seldom succeed in their intended goals, leading to a host of policy contradictions and unintended consequences. The social sciences have not been very good at predicting specific major events—the literature is littered with failed grand predictions—but we can anticipate with reasonable confidence other phenomena, such as steady states and trends, which we spell out in some detail. The importance of alternative outcomes will largely determine the extent to which the nation will be able to maintain its economic viability and political leadership in a changing global system.
Keywords: Immigration policy, policy contradictions, unanticipated consequences, assimilation vs. exclusion, public perceptions, nativism, xenophobia, integration policies
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