Immigration and the Law

Immigration and the Law is a timely and important book addressing a critical matter of our era: immigration. Framed by an introduction and conclusion written by the editors, eleven essays give comprehensive and diverse perspectives on the current state of immigration to the United States. The contributors—lawyers, historians, sociologists, geographers, anthropologists, journalists and advocates—represent a vast body of scholarship, expertise, and knowledge to offer well-researched, thoughtful analyses of the historical, legal, political, and economic dimensions of contemporary immigration. Emphasizing recent migrations, especially Latinos crossing the southern border, the essays document effects of shifting legal, political, and racial structures confronting these immigrants. As the introduction suggests, “changing dynamics of immigration,” shaped by the war on terrorism and the war on drugs, led to “more aggressive laws, including stepped up deportations, workplace raids,” and the passage of more than “three hundred state laws and local ordinances restricting access to employment, housing, driver’s licenses, education, hospitals, public assistance” (5). The editors write, “this book seeks to provide a comprehensive account of the interaction of historical and contemporary forces in shaping the immigrants’ experience over time as well as to examine police-minority relations to better understand the current state of immigration and gain further insight into the future of immigration in a multiethnic, multiracial, multicultural society” (p. 20). The book explores these shifts, combining “historical, theoretical and empirical research” (p. 20) in order to help readers better understand the altered landscape for immigrants in the twenty-first century.

Citizenship · Criminology · Immigration · Immigration law · Immigration reform · Multiculturalism · Political science · Politics · Scholarship · Sociology · State (computer science) · Asian American and Pacific Histories · Gender Studies · Law