Immigration and American Democracy

Subverting the Rule of Law
1. Auflage 2009
ISBN: 978-0-415-99617-4
Verlag: Routledge

Buch, Englisch, 240 Seiten, Format (B × H): 157 mm x 235 mm, Gewicht: 504 g

While the idea of immigration embodies America’s rhetorical commitment to democracy, recent immigration control policies also showcase abysmal failures in democratic practice. Immigration and American Democracy examines these failures in terms of state sovereignty, neoliberalism, and surveillance-based techniques of social control.

The ideological argument for privatization is not new. But immigration has provided a laboratory for replicating on American soil the sorts of outsourcing travesties that have occurred in America’s war in Iraq. As an outcome, abusive executive powers—many delegated to state and local governments and private actors—are manifested every day in data collection, spying, detention, and deportation hearings, and in many cases bypassing the Constitution. The practice of privatization extends this leviathan immigration state by clamping down on civil liberties without having to oblige the courts.

Ultimately, Koulish examines the contested terrain between democratic and undemocratic forces in the immigration policy domain and concludes with recommendations for how democratic forces might well still win out.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Koulish, Robert

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziale Arbeit/Sozialpädagogik Soziale Arbeit/Sozialpädagogik: Minderheiten
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Spezielle Soziologie Soziologie von Migranten und Minderheiten
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politische Systeme Demokratie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1. Introduction 2. Framing "Illegal Aliens": Sovereignty, Plenary Powers, and Discretion 3. Criminalizing Immigration 4. Neoliberalism, Surveillance and Immigration Control 5. Privatization of Immigration Control 6. Race, Class and the Border Fence Fiasco 7. The Federalization of Sovereign Control 8. Immigrant Resistance or Immigrant Control? 9. President Obama’s New Emphasis on Immigration Control 10. Conclusion

Über Autor(innen)

Robert Koulish is Associate Professor of Law & Society at Philadelphia University.