The Immigration Crucible

Philip Kretsedemas is associate professor of sociology at the University of Massachusetts, Boston. He is the coeditor of Keeping Out the Other: A Critical Introduction to Immigration Enforcement Today and Immigrants, Welfare Reform, and the Poverty of Policy.

List of Tables Preface 1. Introduction: An Untimely Intervention on the U.S. Immigration Debate Puzzling Evidence: The Contradictions of Immigration Enforcement and the Politics of Immigration Policy Immigrants and State Power: On the Margins of the Law 2. A Different Kind of Immigration, a New Kind of Statelessness Almost Stateless: Migrant Marginality in an Era of "Nonimmigration" Policing Professional-Class Migrant Workers Racial-Ethnic Disparities and Nonimmigrant Flows Permutations of Statelessness 3. The Secret Life of the State On Necessity, Revolution, and the Modern State The Expansion of Executive Authority Under the Modern Presidency "Populist Rebellion" and the Neoliberal State Executive Authority, Globalization, and Immigration Policy Applying Executive Discretion to Immigration Enforcement 4. Concerned Citizens, Local Exclusions: Local Immigration Laws and the Legacy of Jim Crow Local Enforcement and Local Immigration Laws: The Policy Context Segregation or Coercive Integration? The Political Dynamics and Outcomes of Local Exclusionary Laws Interpreting the Law: Egalitarian Norms/Inegalitarian Practices Racial Disparities, Local Enforcement, and the Silence of the Law 5. Race, Nation, Immigration: Stranded at the Crossroads of Liberal Thought Beyond the Limits of the Law Cultural Pluralism, Ethnicity Theory, and the Problem of Laissez-Faire Racism Unlikely Convergences: Liberal Multiculturalism and Cultural Conservatism Looking Beyond the Cultural Primordialist vs. Social Constructionist Divide The Immigrant as an Agent of Transformation A Nietzschean Critique of "Race Thinking" The Problem with Practicality Rethinking the Nation: A New American Dilemma 6. Conclusion: The Immigration Crucible Immigration Policy and Enforcement Under the Obama Administration Immigration Policy, National Identity, and the Limits of Executive Authority Notes Bibliography Index