Immigration and Intergovernmental Relations: How Immigration is Redrawing the Lines of Federalism

Posted: September 5, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: Public Administration, Sociology | Tags: , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

In May 2007, Encarnacion Bail Romero, mother of Carlitos Romero, and an undocumented worker in Missouri, was arrested at a poultry plant by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents during an immigration raid (Gigler, Ross, & Hill, 2012).   While Romero was incarcerated for an immigration-related law that the Supreme Court later struck down as unconstitutional, the State of Missouri terminated Romero’s parental rights and granted the adoption of Carlitos to a Missouri couple (Cambria, 2012).  After Romero exhausted all legal options, the adoption was upheld by a Missouri Juvenile Court (Ross & Hill, 2012).  Romero’s case is not an isolated incident, as Wessler (2011) found that more than 46,000 parents of U.S. citizen children were removed from their children in the first half of 2011, and at least 5,100 children of detained or deported undocumented immigrants are in U.S. foster care.  These types of cases highlight the complexity of intergovernmental relations in a federalist system, existing precisely because of the gaps between the patchwork of federal, state, and local immigration laws and policies.  Immigration policy gaps exist because federal, state, and local policymakers disagree over both the aims and means of immigration policy and because federal policy consequences are borne by state and local governments in the form of an unfunded mandate, giving rise to immigrant federalism caused by active state and local governments seeking to create change.

Hoefer, Rytina, and Baker (2012) estimate that there are 11.5 million unauthorized immigrants living in the United States, the majority of which are from Mexico and Central America.  Extreme estimates by conservative, anti-immigration think tank FAIR, suggest that undocumented immigrants cost $113 billion annually, 76% of which is borne by state and local governments (Martin & Ruark, 2010).  Although, the Congressional Budget Office (2007) found that while the costs to state and local governments exceeded the revenues from undocumented immigrations, the budgetary impact was modest.  Furthermore, and Shafritz, Russell, and Borick (2011) and Hanson (2007) both recognize that undocumented immigrants are positive for the U.S. economy.  Why then are state and local governments more active in the legislation and regulation of immigration?

While the lack of reliable statistics give fuel to differing partisan perspectives on the immigration debate, the unequal budgetary burden placed on state and local governments make illegal immigration “the mother of all unfunded mandates” (Shafritz, et al., 2011, p. 164).  It is therefore, little surprise, given both the economic burden and a lack of clear direction from the federal government, that state and local governments are seeking a rearrangement of immigrant federalism (Huntington, 2008).  In fact, Huntington (2008) argues that the immigration debate should be considered through a lens of federalism to determine proper allocation of power between the various levels of government, rather than having the federal government preempt all immigration law and policy decisions.  Huntington’s (2008) perspective echoes the notion of incremental decision making inherent in a federal system that Shafritz, et al. (2011) consider “integral to democracy” (p. 140).  Indeed, the tendency towards incrementalism may be one of key reasons for lack of clear immigration policy from the federal government.

Shafritz, et al. (2011) note that in 2007, “at least 1,100 immigration bills were submitted by state lawmakers” (p. 164).   Some of the new legislation is aimed at making illegal immigration less favorable in the jurisdictions of local lawmakers, while other localities enact legislation to make illegal immigration more favorable (Huntington, 2008).  Where some lawmakers are seeking to discourage illegal immigration to reduce the economic consequences of the unfunded mandate, others are seeking to encourage immigration in order to grow their local economies.  There are also some who consider anti-immigration a thinly, veiled attempt to advance a nativist and ultimately racist agenda (Zeskind, 2005).  Indeed, history would suggest that immigration policy has it roots in a discriminatory agenda (U.S. Commission On Civil Rights, 1980).  It is clear that differing policy actors have conflicting views on the aims of U.S. immigration policy, and likely the means.  It is equally clear that the federal government must consider the various policy aims of constituent governments, while also assuring the needs and interests of minority or weaker groups are protected.   It appears to this author that the federalist system of government is both the cause of the slow progress in immigration reform, and responsible for the benefits of the existing immigration policy to various constituents.

Despite the history of incrementalism inherent in a federalist system, the immigration debate has started a new chapter in what appears to be a continual redefinition of federalism to determine where legislative and administrative power resides in immigration policy.  As federal immigration policy consequences are largely borne by state and local governments, the last decade has seen the rise of immigrant federalism creating a patchwork of federal, state, and local immigration laws that clearly disagree over both the aims and means of national immigration policy.   While the immigration federalism policy debate appears far from over, the urgency to improve immigration policy is clear, because existing policy allows the U.S. citizen children to be involuntarily taken from their undocumented immigrant parents, a situation that should never occur in a country built on the principles of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

References

Cambria, N. (2012, July 19, 2012). Judge gives Missouri couple custody of illegal immigrant’s child  Retrieved August 4,, 2012, from http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/judge-gives-missouri-couple-custody-of-illegal-immigrant-s-child/article_8d7ca32d-94e9-54f4-91a8-7512476da753.html

Congressional Budget Office. (2007). The Impact of Unauthorized Immigrants on the Budgets of State and Local Governments.  Washington DC: U.S. Congress: Congressional Budget Office Retrieved from http://www.cbo.gov/sites/default/files/cbofiles/ftpdocs/87xx/doc8711/12-6-immigration.pdf.

Gigler, L., Ross, B., & Hill, A. M. (2012, February 1, 2012). Adoption Battle Over 5-Year Old Boy Pits Missouri Couple Vs. Illegal Immigrant  Retrieved August 4, 2012, from http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/adoption-battle-year-boy-pits-missouri-couple-illegal/story?id=15484447 – .UB1uVI6_FLo

Hanson, G. H. (2007). The economic logic of illegal immigration. Council on Foreign Relations, 26(April 2007), 1-52.

Hoefer, M., Rytina, N., & Baker, B. (2012). Estimates of the Unauthorized Immigrant Population Residing in the United States: January 2011.  Washington, DC: Department of Homeland Security Retrieved from http://www.dhs.gov/xlibrary/assets/statistics/publications/ois_ill_pe_2011.pdf.

Huntington, C. (2008). The consistutional dimension of immigration federalism. Vanderbilt Law Review, 61(3), 787-853.

Martin, J., & Ruark, E. (2010). The fiscal burden of illegal immigration on United States taxpayers (pp. 1-95). Washington DC: Federation for American Immigration Reform.

Ross, B., & Hill, A. M. (2012, July 18, 2012). Tug-of-Love: Immigrant Mom Loses Effort to Regain Son Given to US Parents  Retrieved August 4, 2012, from http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/immigrant-mom-loses-effort-regain-son-us-parents/story?id=16803067 – .UB1t-o6_FLo

Shafritz, J. M., Russell, E. W., & Borick, C. P. (2011). Introducing public administration (7th ed.). Boston: Longman.

U.S. Commission On Civil Rights. (1980). Historical dimiscrimination in the immigration laws. In R. Fiske-Rusciano (Ed.), Experiencing race, class, and gender in the United States (5th ed.). Boston, Mass.: McGraw-Hill Higher Education.

Wessler, S. F. (2011). Shatter Families: The Perilous intersection of immigration Enforcement and the Child Welfare System: Executive Summary (pp. 1-10). New York, New York: Applied Research Center.

Zeskind, L. (2005, October 23, 2005). The new nativism. The American Prospect  Retrieved August 10, 2011, from http://prospect.org/cs/articles?articleId=10485

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Growing up Guatemalan in the United States

Posted: August 19, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: Sociology | Tags: , , , , , , | Leave a comment

In 1964, Guatemala was being run by a military junta, violence was a part of every day life, the economy was in shambles, and jobs were scare (Rock, 2011).  It was in this setting that a young man, my future father-in-law, took a chance at a better life for he and his family.  Enticed by rumors of prosperity in the United States, Alex and his brother Rene saved their money to journey to Chicago, leaving their families behind in a search for hope that was borne of desperation.  Alex left his wife Ruth with 20 Guatemalan Quetzal, the equivalent of $20 dollars, and their three children, Vivien, 5, Ingrid, 3, and Marvin, a newborn baby.  What experience lay in store for he and his family?  How would they fare in an unknown country, without family, friends, assets, or even command of the language?  Their experience, like so many immigrants, was one of lifetime poverty, sacrifice, and hard work, for the opportunity that living in the United States promised for their children.

Immigrant Work and Wage Experience in the United States

            When Alex and Rene first came to Chicago, they were able to secure a job at a local Chicago candy factory, where they were responsible for cleaning the candy belts.  While they made less than the minimum wage, they earned enough to bring their families to the United States.  Alex stayed in Chicago for 7 years working the same job for the same low pay, never improving his situation because of constant fear of deportation.  In fact, often immigrants without legal status face similar forms of subjugation, where the fear of deportation forces them to remain in low-wage jobs that don’t meet basic needs (Coutin, 2000)

During their years in Chicago, Alex and Ruth had two more children, Ruth and my wife, Orpha, both born U.S. citizens. Ruth and Orpha, so-called “anchor babies”, allowed Alex and Ruth to apply for and obtain Green Cards, allowing the family to remain in the United States permanently.  Freed from the constant fear of deportation, Alex moved his family to Los Angeles, where his family would better fit, given the large Hispanic population.  In Los Angeles, Alex obtained a job with Pan-American Underwriting Company as a file clerk, making roughly $1000 per month.  Alex worked there for twenty years, without receiving a promotion or raise, before finally being laid off without receiving any retirement benefits.  My wife cries as she recounts how she helped her father to get a job as a delivery driver where she worked, after he had been laid of at Pan-American; she cries in a mix of emotions that include anger, embarrassment, shame, and deep anguish for her father’s wounded pride (Rock, 2011).  Alex’s experience is like so many immigrants in the United States, where uncertain legal status combined with other factors, like language barriers serves to lock them into low-wage jobs that often lack benefits (Massey, Durand, & Malone, 2002).  While living in poverty in the United States was an improvement over the situation in Guatemala, Alex’s status as illegal immigrant and poor command of the English language all but assured a life of poverty in the United States.

Health Care

            My wife is quite capable of handling many basic health care needs all on her own.  Growing up without access to health care due to Alex’s lack of benefits required the use homeopathic treatment techniques handed down from previous generations.  Traditional health care was simply not an option given the high cost of treatment.  Vaccines were provided by the local welfare office, while for dental work and medications, the family would drive down to Mexico where the care was affordable.  My wife recalled that for years, her mother Ruth had severe undiagnosed chest pains and she and the family would regularly light a candle and pray for the pain to go away (Rock, 2011).  Once my wife entered the work force, she paid for a doctor’s visit where her mother was diagnosed with Angina and given a prescription for nitroglycerin, which eased her suffering (Rock, 2011).   Ruth is not alone in her silent suffering, as many immigrants lack access to health care and will not seek health care even when needed (Menjivar, 2002).

Home Ownership

Home ownership is part of the American Dream and yet, for so many in poverty, home ownership can appear to be only a dream.  Alex and Ruth lacked the income to be considered for a mortgage, particularly in such a heavily populated area such as Los Angeles, where average home prices often exceed the national average.  Although, they eventually purchased an 848 square foot home in Tujunga, California, a low-rent suburb of Los Angeles, by combining their resources as a family.  According to my wife, it is part of the Hispanic culture to have many kids so that they can take care of their parents.  In order to purchase the home, Alex and Ruth, along with their oldest daughter Vivien, her husband Mike, and the other two working children, Ingrid and Marvin, all co-signed the bank loan, while Vivien and Mike came up with the down payment.  Pooling resources was the only way the family could hope to own a home given their modest income, a fact that made secondary education a distant dream as well.

Education

            So many lower and working class families often hope for intergenerational class mobility as the way out of poverty, hoping that through education, their children can have a better life than they did (Hodson & Sullivan, 2008).  Unfortunately, economic circumstances force young adults into the workforce at an early age, particularly when cultural forces have a strong influence, as was the case with my wife’s family.  While all of the Cuevas children graduated from high school, most did not seek secondary education.  When I asked my wife why she never considered college, she said that it was never really an option.  Her parents never encouraged college; both because of the high-perceived costs and the need to have the children contribute to the economic well being of the family.  Additionally, she felt that her parents lacked the needed language schools to work cooperatively with teachers on their children’s educational attainment and were ignorant of how to take advantage of financial aid, scholarships, or grants (Rock, 2011).  The Cuevas family missed out on the best opportunity for intergenerational class mobility they had because of language, cultural, and economic barriers.

Cultural Significance of Growing up Guatemalan

            When my wife Orpha was a small child, she used to pretend her name was Kim, that she lived in a two-story house, and her mother had blonde hair.  She grew up trying to hide being Hispanic, instead choosing to blend in with her American friends, rejecting her cultural heritage, because of the shame of their poverty and her embarrassment of their social class (Rock, 2011).  Her parents had also rejected Guatemala because of all it represented; the violence, extreme poverty, repressive regimes, all they had chosen to leave behind, often telling people they were Puerto Rican.   In many ways, the shared experience as United States has forever marked the Cuevas family, making them both quintessential Americans and yet wholly unique.

Conclusion

            The experiences of the Cuevas family are similar to the experiences of so many other Hispanic immigrants to the United States, whose act of immigration and ethnic background confer upon them a lower class than most Americans, due to the economic hardships associated with immigration, questionable legal status, language barriers and other factors. Many have difficulty improving their social class, lacking even intergenerational class mobility because of pervasive economic and cultural barriers that prevent that attainment of secondary education.  In many ways, this paper has been harder for my wife that it has for me.  She softly weeps as she tells me that not until adulthood, did she realize how proud she was of her parents, for their bravery at risking everything for a chance at a better life and for their years of sacrifice to make a better life reality for their family (Rock, 2011).   I try to comfort her, but know that my words will be inadequate, when compared with the experiences of growing up Guatemalan in the United States.

 

 

References

Coutin, S. (2000). Legalizing moves: Salvadoran immigrant’s struggle for U.S. residency. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.

Hodson, R., & Sullivan, T. A. (2008). The social organization of work (4th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.

Massey, D. S., Durand, J., & Malone, N. J. (2002). Beyond smoke and mirrors: Mexican immigration in an era of economic integration. New York: Russel Sage Foundation.

Menjivar, C. (2002). The ties that heal: Guatemalan immigrant women’s networks and medical treatment. International Migration Review, 36(2), 437-466.

Rock, O. (2011, Juy 30, 2011). [Personal Communication].

 

 

The More Things Change

Posted: August 18, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: Sociology | Tags: , , , , , , | 2 Comments

The United States is a country that is based on the triumph of the ideals of Western tradition; a tradition founded on the democratic principles of liberty, equality, and freedom that has given rise to variety of myths about America’s destiny, goodness, opportunity, and place in the world.   American exceptionalism, “Manifest Destiny”, and the American Dream are but a few, that describe the cultural narrative of the United States, and can be considered the yardstick by which each citizen measures themselves.   These myths are both true and false simultaneously; at times, true for the dominant class and equally false for nearly everyone else throughout our long and storied history.  Since the early European settlers arrived in the United States, the dominant class has been white, heterosexual, males, who through economic, military, legal, political, religious, and social power, have maintained their class position for more than 300 years.  The result is an American story that can be considered at odds with the experiences of so many of its inhabitants, who have been victims of genocide, slavery, servitude, discrimination, deportation, prejudice, and yet continue to struggle for the opportunity and equality proffered by our myths and laws.  Despite the progress women and minorities have made to gain equal treatment and opportunity in American society, societal norms still serve to prevent equal access to resources, opportunities, wealth, and privilege for those that differ from the dominant class majority, while American myths serve to devalue their class experiences.

Gender Identity and Class Experience

            Women in the United States have sought to improve their rights in society for more than a century, advocating for property rights, voting rights, and even the right to control what happens to their own bodies.  Gender role socialization is likely a significant causal factor in continued gender equality as traditional gender roles are taught and reinforced across societal institutions like “ language, education, mass media, religion, laws, medical institutions and mental health systems, occupational environments, [and] intimate relationships” (Fiske-Rusciano, 2009, p. 60).

A great example of the way in which U.S. institutions continue to exert influence in gender equality issues is the abortion debate.  While the landmark Supreme Court case, Roe v. Wade, made abortion a constitutional guarantee, the debate still rages with special interest groups, politicians, and religious organizations, seeking to influence a change in the law (PBS, 2006).  While women are treated with greater equality today than at any time in recent history, there remain significant gaps in gender equality, particularly as it relates to work, due to occupational discrimination, occupational segregation, and societal expectations for women to align to traditional gender roles (Rock, 2011).

The result of gender inequality in the workplace is a continued gender wage gap, where, despite the Equal Pay Act of 1963, women continue to earn on average, 81% the earnings of men (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2011).   In order to create greater gender equality and improve women’s class experience in the United States, continued efforts to close the wage gap and to change gender role expectations, particularly as it relates to childrearing, must be at the forefront of issues addressed by the modern women’s movement.

Sexual Identity and Class Experience

            Traditional gender roles, idealized into beliefs, are a source of widespread attitudes towards sexual identity, serving to stigmatize lesbians, bi-sexual, gay and trans-gender persons in U.S. society.   Kite and Whitley (1996) found a link between heterosexual’s beliefs about the characteristics that men and women should have and their attitudes towards lesbians and gay men, suggesting that the strength of dislike is related to the strength of their beliefs.  Whitley and Aegisdottir (2000) later find that gender beliefs are further used to legitimize popular myths about homosexual persons in order to justify prejudicial attitudes held by the socially dominant class.  “The social dominance perspective holds that people who possess social status and power are motivated to preserve the status quo that provides that status and power” (Whitley & Aegisdottir, 2000, p. 951).

This phenomenon plays out often in the popular press, where recently a lesbian couple attempted to enter the Dollywood theme park and were barred entry for wearing a t-shirt that promoted gay marriage (Clark, 2011).  There can be far more serious consequences for LBGT persons than being barred from opportunities, including overt discrimination, aggression, and even violence.  Stearns (2009) describes the discrimination that led to her termination as an airline pilot after undergoing gender reassignment surgery; and who can forget the violent killing of Matthew Shepard, who in 1998, was beaten to death simply for being gay?  It is likely that existing gender belief system held by the socially dominant class, namely white males, are threatened by persons whose sexually identity challenges the norm, and as result is the basis for the exclusion of lesbians, bi-sexual, gay, and trans-gender persons from mainstream U.S. societal institutions.

Racial and Ethnic Identity and Class Experience

            U.S. history can be considered a history of the triumph of the Western tradition at best and a triumph of white privilege at worst.  The social construct of racism has been present in the United States since before the birth of the country and persists today.  Non-whites, including African-Americans, Hispanics, Asians, Jews, Native Americans, and others have all suffered as victims of racism at the hands of the dominant social class (Zinn, 2003).  Racism, or the legacy of racism, continues to be a pervasive problem as ethnic minorities continue to be disadvantaged compared to the dominant social class in terms of income, wealth, and access to opportunities (Elkin, 2011; Kochhar, Fry, & Taylor, 2011; U.S. Census Bureau, 2010).  In modern America, racism is often cloaked, in rhetoric, restrictive policies or laws, or fundamental myths about America.

For example, immigration reform is at the forefront of public debate with politicians and the media seeking to influence the public in a vitriolic debate aimed primarily at Hispanic immigrants.  Special interest groups such as the Federation for American Immigration Reform, that helped develop Arizona’s SB 1070 law, are framing the immigration debate for the U.S. Congress (FAIR, 2010) despite their white supremacist origins (The Pioneer Fund, 2011; Zeskind, 2005).  The pervasive misinformation has served to fuel fear and anti-Hispanic sentiment into the dominant social class, with many concerned of the effects of Hispanic immigrant use of services, tax evasion, criminality, and overall negative impact on the U.S. economy.  In this example, the debate appears to deem Hispanics as a causal factor preventing the pursuit if the American Dream by the dominant social class.

Conclusion

            The more things change, the more they appear to stay the same.  While the United States has become significantly more multicultural and laws have been created to allow multicultural citizens to live up to the ideals of liberty, equality, and freedom inherent in our national myth, the dominant social class remains the heterosexual white male.  Heterosexual white males overwhelmingly occupy positions of power, hold more wealth, and earn more income than women, LBGT persons, and ethnic minorities and are motivated to maintain their position of privilege.  Despite the march of progress, the societal norms of the dominant class still serve to prevent equal access to resources, opportunities, wealth, and privilege for those that differ, and our American myths support the ability of the dominant class to maintain the status quo.

References

Clark, J. (2011, August 4, 2011). Dolly Parton apologizes to lesbian couple over Dollywood T-shirt incident, USA Today. Retrieved from http://travel.usatoday.com/destinations/dispatches/post/2011/08/dolly-parton-apologies-to-lesbian-couple-over-dollywood-t-shirt-incident/413677/1

Elkin, A. (2011, July 27). Valedictorian sues school: Was she snubbed because of race?  Retrieved from http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/07/26/valedictorian-sues-school-was-she-snubbed-because-of-race/?iref=allsearch

FAIR. (2010). Federation for American Immigration Reform 2010 Annual Report (pp. 32). Washington DC.

Fiske-Rusciano, R. (2009). Experiencing race, class, and gender in the United States (5th ed.). Boston, Mass.: McGraw-Hill Higher Education.

Kite, M. E., & Whitley, B. E., Jr. (1996). Sex Differences in Attitudes toward Homosexual Persons, Behaviors, and Civil Rights: A Meta-analysis. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 22(4), 336-353.

Kochhar, R., Fry, R., & Taylor, P. (2011). Wealth Gaps Rise to Record Highs Between Whites, Blacks, Hispanics Pew Social & Demographic Trends. Washington DC: Pew Research Center.

PBS. (2006). Roe v. Wade and beyond. Frontline  Retrieved August 12, 2011, 2011, from http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/clinic/wars/cases.html

Rock, R. (2011). Reflections on the gender wage gap. Essay. Colorado State University. Denver.

Stearns, J. R. (2009). A transexual’s story. In R. Fiske-Rusciano (Ed.), Experiencing race, class, and gender in the United States (5th ed., pp. 94-107). Boston, Mass.: McGraw-Hill Higher Education.

The Pioneer Fund. (2011). The Founders  Retrieved August 10, 2011, from http://www.pioneerfund.org/Founders.html

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2011). Median weekly earnings of full-time wage and salary workers by detailed occupation and sex. In cpsaat39.pdf (Ed.). Washington DC: Bureau of Labor Statistics.

U.S. Census Bureau. (2010). Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2009. In p60-238.pdf (Ed.). Washington DC: U.S Census Bureau.

Whitley, B. E., & Aegisdottir, S. (2000). The Gender Belief System, Authoritarianism, Social Dominance Orientation, and Heterosexuals’ Attitudes Toward Lesbians and Gay Men. SEX ROLES, 42, 947-968.

Zeskind, L. (2005, October 23, 2005). The new nativism. The American Prospect  Retrieved August 10, 2011, from http://prospect.org/cs/articles?articleId=10485

Zinn, H. (2003). A people’s history of the United States : 1492-present ([New ed.). New York: HarperCollins.

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