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This paper draws on original research on current trends linked to Irish emigration to the United States and uses the example of the St Patrick's Day Parade in New York City to explain the evolution that has taken place in Irish migration patterns and in the evolving relationship between Ireland and America in the 21 Century. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Much has been written about the benefits of migration and the wellbeing of the families who stay in the home country and improve their quality of life through remittances. However, the costs of migration for the country of origin seem to surpass the benefits. Among these costs, the increasing number of cases of depression among women whose husbands have migrated to the United States, a condition also known as 'the Penelope Syndrome', are starting to challenge the entire public health system in many communities of Mexico. The paper will compare and contrast benefits and costs of Mexican migration to the United States and pay particular attention to the conditions of women and children left behind in their communities of origin. The results of field work in 11 Mexican states will be a substantial part of the paper. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes a recent debate concerning the naming of a professional soccer team in Houston, Texas and its connection to larger issues concerning national identity, collective memory, and Hispanic immigration within the United States and Mexico. The original team name of Houston 1836, chosen by the mostly white management of the club, was chosen as a way of honoring the year of the city's founding by white settlers from the American South. The proposed name provoked a contentious and highly public outcry within powerful and influential members of the local Hispanic community who argued that the name served as a powerful and divisive reminder of the oppression faced by the Mexican population as a result of white hegemonic rule in Texas. As a result of the controversy and threats of a Hispanic boycott of the club, team officials relented and eventually changed the name to the less offensive moniker of the Houston Dynamo. This decision in turn led to a backlash among some white supporters of the new club who claimed that team officials had given in to the forces of "political correctness" by changing the name. This paper frames this debate within the context of contemporary issues of identity and migration in Texas, arguing that the debate over Houston 1836 is part of a much larger political and cultural war regarding the place of Hispanics within the myths of American national identity. We argue that the controversy is ultimately one localized case study into what has become an increasingly sophisticated and organized movement of resistance against forms of white nativism, both cultural and political, within the American Hispanic community. It also illustrates the divisive nature of the past, as both sides of the debate possess completely different understandings of what the year 1836 means and represents. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite their lack of success in reducing the numbers of illegal immigrants who cross the border and obtain employment in the United States, so called ?comprehensive? immigration reforms have consistently focused on border policing and employer sanctions. This paper juxtaposes Mexican economic development and these contemporary U.S. immigration policies. As the primary source of illegal immigrants to the United States, Mexico hasbenefited from the remittances sent back from its citizens who work in the United States and Mexican unemployment has been reduced slightly by its out-migration of workers. However, these short-term advantages to the Mexican economy should be weighed against Mexico?s longer-term development strategies which require an emphasis on educational and infrastructural deficit. This paper argues that if U.S. immigration policies were realigned to address economic development in Mexico, those factors that produce illegal immigrants would ultimately be reduced. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the relationships among immigration policy, national identity and recent policy developments concerning family diversity in Canada and the United States. Drawing on Jacqueline Stevens' provocative argument that nation-states are kinship structures in which the rules of membership are determined by the rules of birth (1999) and using Canadian and U.S. immigration policy and family policy, the paper links domestic debates concerning family form with the family dimensions of its immigration policy. It then considers whether neoliberalism/neoliberal globalism can help us to understand recent immigration and family policy shifts and, in particular, to what extent 'national identity' may trump the market logic and personal autonomy dimensions of neoliberal ideology. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While both Canada and the United States have foundational histories as "countries of immigration" and both still actively seek immigrants, recent developments suggest that policy-making is becoming more bilateral than strictly national. Thus, in the aftermath of September 11, Canada and the United States signed the "US-Canada Smart Border Declaration" in December 2001. This 30 point plan requires reviewing and possibly changing everything from visa policies to the refugee determination system. A similar, though less extensive, smart border accord was signed between the United States and Mexico in March 2002. Utilizing government documents, statements by immigrant advocacy groups, and empirical and philosophical scholarly accounts, this paper will assess the implications of the move towards smart borders in the new North America. Special attention will be paid to the evolving relationship between Canada, the United States and Mexico in light of the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement, and the implications for humanitarianism in light of continued migratory and refugee flows. It is argued that global or cosmopolitan understandings of citizenship rights and responsibilities offer a useful corrective to the logic of sovereignty that underpins many recent developments.This paper builds on my recent published work in the areas of migration and diversity in both Canada and the United States. This includes "The New North America and the Segmentation of Canadian Citizenship" in INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CANADIAN STUDIES (2004); "Regionalism, Migration and (Fortress) North America in REVIEW OF CONSTITUTIONAL STUDIES (forthcoming 2005); and my co-authored book with Christina Gabriel SELLING DIVERSITY: IMMIGRATION, MULTICULTURALISM, EMPLOYMENT EQUITY AND GLOBALIZATION (Broadview, 2002). ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effects of international norms are often mediated by domestic structures. Political elite socialization is seen as one of the more effective mechanisms of norm internalization. However the role played by government actors in this process needs to be disaggregated- some domestic institutions are able to effectively block the internalization of new norms. This paper suggests that the United States Congress played the role of a norm blocker throughout the interwar period, by limiting the acceptance of immigrants and refugees. By exploring American policy towards refugees from 1918 to 1952, we will argue that the U.S. Congress played two roles in successfully blocking more liberal international norms. By ensuring no new formal legal understanding could be introduced, it framed the American response to a growing refugee problem from Nazi Germany within strict immigration limitations. Thus efforts to alter the international response were unsuccessful due to the inability to alter policies at the domestic level. In addition, it indirectly ensured that norm entrepreneurs within the government were limited to a constrained set of policy options and implicitly gave license to other government departments, particularly the Department of State, to adopt standard operating procedures that ran counter to international norms. However, Congress could not continue this role indefinitely. When Franklin D. Roosevelt became actively involved in 1938, and Harry S. Truman after 1946, these new norms permeated executive branch departments. Thus, Congress was only able to play the role of a norm blocker when the President was not actively challenging its views. Further, the President, playing the role of an active norm entrepreneur, can even influence other domestic institutions to adopt new normative understandings, as Truman influenced Congress by reframing U.S. refugee policy within the context of the emerging Cold War. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Much has been made of the fact that the majority of immigration to Canada and the United States is now non-white. This is said to be the product of inclusive societies welcoming people from all parts of the world. The trend, however, reflects the unequal benefits of globalization and the North-South divide and the fact that increasing social polarization is pushing many from their countries in search of improved opportunities in countries like Canada and the United States that have had the greater benefits of globalization. This illusion of inclusion is shattered for many when they come to these countries only to experience a backlash towards immigration, limited job opportunities because of credentialism and a society closed by systemic racism and the accompanying racial hierarchy that exists in Canada and the United States. This paper will argue that globalization and the North-South divide are manifesting themselves within these societies within which this divide and other divisions are recreated through immigration as the human face of globalization. This hierarchy has threatened the life chances of racialized immigrants and workers and that the immigration policies and political, social and economic systems of Canada and the United States are still not open to racialized minorities on the same level as they are to non-racialized minorities. This is heightened by the changing nature of the state-society relationship that provides little support for immigration settlement and other programs and institutions that support equalizing opportunities for marginalized members of society. We examine immigration and security policies through a critical framework and analyze worker interviews in Toronto and Houston in order to highlight how these hierarchies and the North-South divide are indeed internalized in Canada and the United States. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The beginning of this century is marked by the increasing role of the socio-economic factors in defining the character and intensity of the new migration flows in the post-Soviet region. Simultaneously, of growing importance are various forms of labor, temporary, and undocumented migration. Another significant feature of the current migration situation is the disproportionate influence exercised by Russia on the formation of migration flows in the region. Remaining the major recipient of migrants, Russia increasingly plays a role of supplier of labor migrants to the West, and acts as a ?bridge? for those attempting to reach Western Europe.These changes as well as the socio-economic gap existing between Russia and a number of poorer post-Soviet states, and the fact that many of them are located along the Russian borders, create a number of interesting parallels with the problems that the United States encounters in regard to labor migration, first of all from Latin America. The paper compares the dynamics and structural characteristics of the migration flows to the United States and Russia. Special attention is given to the policy responses to the migration phenomenon in those two countries and to the relevant lessons of American experience for Russia. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The United States has allocated a tremendous amount of resources toward controlling its border with Mexico. The unprecedented build-up of the border patrol during the last two decades offers evidence of the importance placed on regulating the flow of unwanted migrants from Mexico and beyond. Yet, despite U.S. efforts to curb the flow of illegal migrants, the number of undocumented Mexicans crossing into the United States has grown exponentially and continues to be a tremendous challenge to control.This paper examines the underlying factors that contribute to the increase of Mexican migrants to the United States since the implementation of NAFTA more than ten years ago. Furthermore, it will critique the effectiveness of U.S. policies to control Mexican migration and present alternatives to the current regime. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We seek to better understand how US Immigration Court judges render decisions in political asylum cases. We argue first, that judges will use a variety of cues based on the country and cultural characteristics of the individual asylum applicant as part o ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How can we think, imagine, and make claims about contemporary refugee politics? I believe this question must precede investigations into struggles/movements advocating rights and political voice for refugees. It is important to come to terms with the changing terrain of refugee politics, in order to (re)conceptualize it and provide some idea of how/where such struggles might be fought. Focusing on the colliding commitments to globalization and security, particularly since September 11, 2001, I argue that "paradox" is a core element of refugee politics. To some extent, this has been researched elsewhere, and I point to the highlights in the existing literature. I suggest that an approach sensitive to Foucault's account of governmentality is particularly helpful, stressing the diffuse networks of power in refugee politics among private and public actors, the increasing role of the internet and some (re)solution to the globalization--domestic security paradox. Examined here are the politics of asylum and refugee movements in the US. In particular, the post 9-11 political climate emphasis on secure Borders, provides an example of the changing terrain of contemporary politics. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The global increase in international migration has been accompanied by a growing sum of remittances, money sent by migrants to their home countries. In recent years, migrant sending countries and international development and financial institutions have shown an increased interest in the development potential of individual and collective remittances. Thus, a powerful discourse has emerged which hails remittances as an effective source for financing development and poverty reduction. This contribution suggests that we re-situate remittances within the larger context of migration and integration processes in order to consider remittances as one dimension of transnational activity. Considering remittances not in isolation and merely as a sum of money to be harnessed for development, but as embedded in complex transnational activities opens up space for examining the gender dimensions of remittances. Adopting a critical feminist approach, it will be argued that remittance activities generate complex and contradictory social change. Based on fieldwork on transnational activities in the case of Mexican migration to the United States, it will be argued that while remittances activities have disciplining effects for women on the one hand, they can simultaneously lead to various forms of empowerment. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An example of the North-South divide can be found in the Mexico-U.S. relationship. On one hand, there is a developing country with a democratic political system still to be consolidated. On the other hand, there is the U.S., considered the sole surviving superpower and an old democracy as well. This is an asymmetric relationship. Nevertheless, there are issues like drug trafficking, immigration, free trade, and security in which these countries find that it is also a relationship hinged on interdependency. First, I will contrast the decision making processes in foreign policy between Mexico and the United States to show the inner workings. Second, I will study how the search for an immigration agreement underlines the interdependency in this relationship and the mutual lack of accurate knowledge between both parts. In conclusion, it is not the common history or the different models of decision making what makes cooperation so difficult between Mexico and the United States, but their mutual misperceptions. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, Mexico has not only consolidated itself as the main country of origin of migrants attempting to get to the United States, but it has also become an important country of trans-migration for Central American (and other) migrants who intend to cross through its territory in order to get to the United States. This has important consequences for both Mexican and American migratory policies and it poses new security challenges for both countries. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research examines the impact of associational participation of migrants on their political integration in the US, by testing the social capital argument that participation in voluntary organizations is beneficial for political engagement. In the first part of the research I will identify the migration patterns within the Latin American countries and the effects that such patterns have on the initial construction of social capital. The migration to the United States of America implies certain changes in the structure of the social capital, initially affecting the family construction and extending further to broader networks of social reciprocity. By identifying the effects those changes might have at the level of the Latino community, I will discuss the potential and the interest of the latter in making a significant contribution to the American politics through civic engagement. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]