The politics of immigration policy in Israel

"This article examines the policies adopted by the former Likud government--and largely continued by the present Labour-led coalition government which took office in the second half of 1992--to absorb the 400,000 new immigrants (most from the former Soviet Union) who arrived in Israel between 1989 and 1992. As part of that examination, we will critically review the major features of current absorption policies, such as the policy of 'direct absorption', the 'basket of absorption services' provided as a right to new immigrants, and immigration-related housing policies. In addition, we will explore the effects of employment policy on the new immigrant population." (SUMMARY IN FRE AND SPA)     

Modes of immigration politics in liberal democratic states

"The politics of immigration in liberal democracies exhibits strong similarities that are, contrary to the scholarly consensus, broadly expansionist and inclusive. Nevertheless, three groups of states display distinct modes of immigration politics. Divergent immigration histories mold popular attitudes toward migration and ethnic heterogeneity and affect the institutionalization of migration policy and politics....I begin by discussing those characteristics of immigration politics found in all liberal democracies. I then investigate the distinctive modes of immigration politics in the three subsets of Western democratic states with distinctive immigration histories. I conclude by considering whether these three patterns will persist or how they might change as a result of future migration pressures and the further institutionalization of immigration politics and policies in Europe." Comments by Rogers Brubaker (pp. 903-8) and a rejoinder by the author (pp. 909-13) are included.     

Harvest of confusion: immigration reform and California agriculture

"Agriculture was a major stumbling block to immigration reform [in the United States], largely because Congress was unwilling to assign explicit priorities to the competing goals of protecting American workers and admitting supplemental immigrant farmworkers. This article describes the Special Agricultural Worker or SAW legalization program that generated 700,000 applications in California and the hypothetical calculations required to determine whether Replenishment Agricultural Workers or RAWs will be admitted to the United States to do farmwork. The paper concludes that immigration reform did not resolve the century-old debate over agriculture's 'need' for alien workers; instead, SAWs and RAWs have contributed to the harvest of confusion on farm labor."     

Education reform and education politics in Japan

Since the 1980s, a new tide of education reform movements has emerged in many countries, including the United States and Japan, along with the rise of a consumer orientation and national concern over the quality of schooling. This has made parental choice into a major policy issue, along with accountability and independent control. Four forms of symbiosis are identified: embracive, segregated, civic and market-oriented. This article discusses the nature of current reforms, and argues that they place Japanese education at a threefold critical crossroads or in a state of crisis.     

The "albatross" of immigration reform: temporary worker policy in the United States

The author examines the history of U.S. labor and immigration policies, paying particular attention to the evolution of the temporary worker policy. Complications in the immigration reform process caused by efforts to admit more temporary workers are discussed. The position of the Reagan administration, Senate and House consideration of immigration and temporary worker bills, and the political controversies surrounding this issue are reviewed. The author points out that it was not until the major temporary worker proposals were finally removed from the Simpson-Rodino Act that passage of legislation was achieved, and he anticipates that efforts will eventually be made to revive temporary worker policy and thereby rekindle the debate     

The politics of Latino publics: Immigration reform,political participation and intention to vote

Latinos are the largest U.S. minority group and are poised to play an increasingly important role in U.S. society. Public relations practitioners who work in politics should be interested in what motivates young Latinos to participate in politics. This study reports the findings of a national nonprobability survey with young Latinos (N = 434). The analysis explores how demographic variables, acculturation, political ideology and media use predict perceptions of the importance of immigration reform, reported political participation, and vote likelihood in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Of the dependent variables, findings show that acculturation (β = ?0.13) only predicts perceptions of the importance of immigration reform, suggesting acculturation’s effects are issue specific. Interest in politics is the largest influential factor in predicting all of the dependent variables.     

The political consequences of contemporary immigration

This article synthesizes research on political outcomes associated with increasing immigration, with an emphasis on cross‐national studies of European countries, where immigration is a relatively newer phenomenon compared to the United States and other traditional immigrant destinations. We begin with explanations of and research on anti‐immigrant sentiment, not a political phenomenon in itself but considered an important precursor to other relevant political attitudes. Next, we review scholarship on the relationship between immigration and support for the welfare state, as well as exclusionary attitudes regarding immigrants' rights to welfare benefits. Then, we review research on immigration and political party preferences, in particular radical right parties, whose platforms often combine anti‐immigration and welfare chauvinistic positions. We conclude by discussing how these processes may ultimately shape social policies, which may in turn influence immigration itself.     

The economic determinants of Canada's multicultural immigration

The economic factors that have affected immigration and immigration policy in Canada over time are considered. The important contribution of immigrants from many cultural backgrounds to the economic development of the country is noted. The resulting multiethnic composition of the population is also discussed. (summary in FRE, SPA)     

Diversity in sociology and social policy analysis: Education reform and the immigration act of 1990

Against the criticism of extreme specialization in sociology, it is argued that such specialization can prove insightful to the implications that social policy in one area may have for social policy in other areas. Such insight derives from sociologists straddling two or more areas of specialization. The example of the implications that the Immigration Act of 1990 has for education policy, in relation to social class and race, is used to illustrate the argument. Earlier versions of parts of this paper were presented at the Association For Humanist Sociology 16th Annual Meeting, October 26, 1991, Ottawa, Ontario; and at the Eastern Sociological Society 62nd Annual Meeting, April 4, 1992, Washington.     

The law,immigration and human rights: changing the Australian immigration control system

This paper examines the structure of the present system of immigration control in Australia in the context of its origin, evolution, and responses to current human rights and anti-discrimination standards. The system has serious shortcomings because it confers broad discredionary powers on immigration officals and provides no comprehensive system of judical review. Since the 1970s the system has been gradually losing its legitimacy and has become a subject of challenges by various groups; its efficiency has been undermined and it breeds social conflict and systematic human rights violations. The 1958 Migration Act contains a level of discretion unknown in other "machinery" legislation, conferring a wide range of discretionay power on 1) the minister, 2) authorized officers, 3) officers, and 4) prescribed authorities. The current review system, in response to political pressure and in the context of administrative law reforms, provides for limited access to judicial review under the Administrative Decisions Act of 1977. The ethnic gains of the 1970s were achieved when Australian society was going through a period of profound liberal changes. The 1980s have brought continuing high unemployment and high inflation rates, a large budget deficit and associated restraints in government expenditure, as well as a substantial cut in the immigrant intake after the Labor Victory of March, 1983. Overall, an entirely new immigration control system should be developed that will aim at providing a better balance between stability, predictability, and fairness of the system on the one hand, and the need for government to maintain its ability to adapt its program to fluctuations in economic and social conditions both within and outside Australia on the other hand.     

The recent evolution of immigration in Venezuela

Recent trends in immigration to Venezuela are reviewed. Data are from official sources, including the 1981 census and a 1981 survey of migrants. An analysis of migrants by major country or region of origin is presented that includes consideration of geographic distribution, migrant characteristics, and the characteristics of illegal immigration.     

The politics of rescue

In December 2002 the UN adopted a definition of ‘trafficking’ that critics worry discounts female agency in commercial sex and migration. This definition was already being used in Bosnia-Herzegovina (BiH) and Kosovo to tackle the violent sex industry that had developed alongside peacekeeping. This paper analyses official assumptions about female agency in commercial sex when ‘victims of trafficking’ (VoTs) are identified in BiH and Kosovo. In this context the Protocol definition helped extend access to resources to women and girls who could otherwise have been excluded. Those who had ‘been abroad’ before were no longer automatically rejected from VoT programmes but pathologised as sufferers of post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD); their illness establishing their ‘innocence’. Understanding the choice of migration for sex work as a symptom of PTSD allows anti-trafficking programmes to focus on victim rather than perpetrator behaviour. Strong pressures against tackling the way soldiers, police and contractors treat women and girls in the sex industry underlie this focus on victim behaviour. Those in the sex industry who are not ‘foreign’ or do not want to go ‘home’ are excluded from VoT status while anti-trafficking activity increases their risk of arrest, thus reifying the categories of innocent VoT and guilty prostitute.     

The politics of ideas in welfare state transformation: Christian Democracy and the reform of family policy in Germany

The expansion of employment-centered family policies of the Grand Coalition in Germany came with some surprise, as Christian Democrats have traditionally been strongly committed to the male breadwinner model and corresponding family policies. This article investigates why Christian Democrats (though with some inconsistencies) promoted “social-democratic” family policies guided by the adult worker rather than by the male breadwinner model. Illuminating the politics of recent family policy reforms, the electoral rationale for this modernization of family policy, the role of political entrepreneurship, and intraparty political conflicts over the new policy paradigm are discussed.     

In liberty's shadow: the discourse of refugees and asylum seekers in critical race theory and immigration law/politics

This article addresses the potential that a kind of engaged research can have in current battles for social justice and in the transformation of college curricula as a way to recover the original critical spirit of ethnic studies. Building on critical race theory, I discuss the work of NGOs such as Human Rights First and Americans for Immigrant Justice on behalf of Haitian refugees and the role of literature in inspiring human rights actions that might redefine practices of citizenship and belonging. At a time when the United States recognises the rights of refugees but criminalises the search for asylum, coalition building between ethnic studies discourse, the legal academy and the community is vital to affirm and protect the internationally recognised rights of refugees. Crucial in this process is the role played by stories as a way to humanise the often impersonal topic of the immigration debate.