Migration, Mobility, Transculturation: Homework for Week 1b (3/2)

Cornelius, Controlling Immigration, Chapter 1: The Ambivalent Quest for Immigration.

Convergence hypothesis: there is a growing similarity among industrialized, laborimporting countries in terms of (1) the policy instruments chosen for controlling
immigration, especially unauthorized immigration and refugee flows from less developed
countries; (2) the results or efficacy of immigration control measures; (3) social
integration policies (measures adopted by the government that affect the extent and rate
of social, economic, and political integration among immigrants who become long-term
residents; and (4) general-public reactions to current immigrant flows and evaluations of
government efforts to control immigration.
Gap hypothesis: the gap between the goals of national immigration policy (laws,
regulations) and the actual results (policy outcomes) is wide and growing wider in all
major industrialized countries, thus provoking greater public hostility towards immigrants
in general and putting intense pressure on government officials to adopt more restrictive
policies.
o Efficacy of immigration control measures is declining.
Key problem: employer demand for foreign labor (weakening immigration policies).
o Reducing the ''demand-pull'' factors is extremely difficult.
o The ''supply-push'' factors cannot be done on a short-term basis.
What are the long-term implications of current immigration flows from Third World
countries for maintenance of national culture, identity, and language?
Difference between being illegal and unwanted.
Current agenda of anti-immigration forces:
o Curtail the access of illegal immigrants to tax-supported public services.
o Take symbolically important steps to discourage permanent settlement.
The assimilation of large numbers of culturally different resident aliens is an unwanted
challenge and a result of years of importing foreign labor.
The international mobility of workers creates a new dynamic in international relations.
Demand-pull migration had unexpected consequences.
Biggest forms of immigration: family reunification (Europe) and illegal labor (U.S.)
How many migrants to accept, from which countries, and what rights and services to
provide to them?
o Change in democratic politics: rights-based politics.
Can you exclude certain individuals / groups from membership in society?