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Details a study which examined the association between contemporary citizenship politics in democracies, migration flows and voting rights in the U.S. Theories governing the voting rights of citizens and aliens; Comparison between the nationalist and postnationalist views on the voting rights of resident aliens; Description of the study population; Methodology and results.

This paper seeks to defend open borders as the only democratically justifiable policy with regard to immigration (and emigration, for that matter). The first part of the paper will demonstrate that the current rhetoric and policy concerning immigration in the U.S. does not differ substantially from that of the major waves of immigration in the late 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries. Indeed the invention of race as a meaningful category for distributing power in America was forged in the crucible of immigration. It should not be terribly surprising, therefore, that race is central to the arguments being made now against immigration (or a very limited version of it). While this is not a terribly new argument, what is interesting is that while the claims and language opposing immigration remain fundamentally informed by racialized understandings and dispositions, they are often shrouded in a class-based idiom. There are also significant parallels between the class-based rhetoric operating presently and that of the 19th and 20th centuries, in particular. Its current effect is to divide working class voters and labor unions (among others), based on class and narrow economic interests, such that more immigration leads to less work for "regular Americans," the creation of an immigrant underclass, higher crime, a rapid depletion of social services, and more outsourcing of desirable work.Drawing on the work of Will Kymlicka, Bonnie Honig, Joseph Carens, John Rawls,Michael Walzer, Charles Beitz, Bruce Ackerman, Eric Frye Jacobson, and Charles Tilly, for example, the second part of the paper will entail a defense of open borders based on the centrality of membership in democratic entities. That is, if we take democracy seriously as a set of conditions, norms, commitments, and aspirations, then membership (defined as a meaningful opportunity to join in or defect from a community) is an absolutely central tenet of the pursuit and realization of that goal. The final section of the paper will suggest some ways these powerful arguments against immigration can be combated toward the creation of electoral majorities committed to democratic processes and outcomes. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Why are some policies successful while others are not? Among numerous factors influencing the effectiveness of public policies the existence and efficacy of informal institutions might have a significant explanatory power. The outcomes of formal institutional policies can be undermined, or in contrast, be complemented by informal institutions. This paper examines the role of informal institutions in policy implementation. More specifically, it investigates how informal institutions influence the effectiveness of immigration policies of the United States.Policy implementation literature focuses on the following factors as determinants of policy success: 1) realizable policy expectations; 2) effective policy tools; and 3) implementation. What is missing in the literature is a consideration of informal institutions influencing the effectiveness of public policies. This paper sets out to address this research and policy gap. This research project is based on a single case study of low-wage labor migration from Kyrgyzstan to the United States. It relies on multiple data sources, including in-depth semi-structured interviews with 30 labor migrants, Kyrgyz policy makers, U.S. consular officers; and analysis of migration laws and regulations of the United States and Kyrgyzstan. The policy implications of this study are significant. Informal institutions play an active and important role in the implementation of immigration policy and, thus should be taken into account in the early stages of policy design. They obviously influence the effectiveness of immigration policy and should be considered an important variable in the evaluation of immigration and other policies. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

African immigration has increased to its highest levels since the slavery era. Each year, Africans come to the United States either as refugees or immigrants in droves. They are professionals, micro entrepreneurs, and invisible workers; they are single, married, families, and bifurcated families (½ here; ½ in natal country). Though male and female migrate, female immigration is often dependent on male therefore women are more negatively impacted by illegality, invisible employment, and fear of/deportation.The paper explores the impact of single filling, dependent visas, illegality, and deportation on the sociopolity of Nigerian female immigrants using policy analysis, interviews, and focus groups. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The U.S. southern border is a focal point for important politico-economic developments that determine the status of all working class immigrants of color. First the border has become increasingly militarized against "terrorists" who are actors in the Wars on Terror and Drugs, and the Mexican desire to "reconquer" the Southwest. That is, the ordinary unauthorized entrant is now being treated by policy makers, the public, and vigilante groups as a potential enemy rather than mere criminal. Consequently they are over-policed and their crossing is laden with meaningâ??they are social pollutants, disease carriers, and sexual deviantsâ??all neatly wrapped up in the term "terrorist." Not only are unauthorized entrants subjected to the discourse and policies of war but so are legal residents and naturalized citizens. The second development is olderâ??the Border Industrial Program established in the 1960s as a model of an economic "free zone" and the herald of global economic dynamics. Seemingly in contrast to the militarization of the border, this area has had a history of lax environmental protection, fewer taxes and duties, and perhaps until recently, much fewer worker protections. Pictures of the maquila areas show: shanty towns; piles of rubbish with warning signs; the maquilas themselves, some encircled by barbed wire; and white crosses, marking the rape-murders of hundreds of the maquila workers. This gives a different picture of the borderâ??one that is open to investment and business; a source of labor made "cheap" by the suspension of regulations and laws (or, lack of enforcement); and an area of extreme lawlessness and danger to women.What I suggest is that the dynamics of globalization and what appears to be a sovereignty free area work symbiotically with the dynamics of America's undeclared wars to simultaneously police and exploit working class immigrants of color. Migrants and border workers' political status is closer to that of enemy than citizen. Consequently, they operate in a sphere marked by arbitrary power and violence, whether they actually experience that or not. Predominantly neoliberal policies unite economic and sovereign concerns making Mexican immigrants (among others) a group that can be exploited and policed, treated as crucial to the international economy and yet a threat to sovereignty.This challenges conventional models of assimilation, citizenship, and economic integration (evident in the recent set of articles responding to Huntington in Perspectives). More broadly it disputes the autonomy and range of powers that immigrants are purported to have on the one hand and the primacy of the nation-state in understanding immigration on the other. If these two trends continueâ??a war without borders and a global economy of "free zones"â??political solutions cannot be found in the nation-state but in supra- or sub-national understandings of political belonging (citizenship). ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

September 11, 2001 has established two distinct worlds. The pre-9/11 period was marked by "an optimistic view of the triumph of political and economic liberalism over Communism at the close of the Cold War" (Rudolph, 603), logically prone to a more accepting attitude towards immigration in the industrialized world. However, the post-9/11 world has been defined by "the widespread recognition of the link between military security and the effective control over global migration" (615). This should lead to the prediction that industrialized countries in Europe and North America ought to have engaged in severe restriction policies in the areas of immigration and border policy. In Europe, especially, where two terrorist attacks (London and Madrid) were successfully carried through and linked to migrant communities, one would expect strong restrictive measures. Yet, this does not seem to be the case across the board. Since 2001, the United States and the United Kingdom have engaged in restrictive immigration policies. The Spanish government, however, has not reacted similarly. Thus, the question remains:In the context of a post-9/11 world, how do we explain the there has been no meaningful clamp down at the border in Spain? Why does this state continue to "risk migration" under the pressures of an emerging post-9/11 international security order? ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The history of the Irish in America is both long and complex, involving the immigration of Protestants and Catholics, skilled laborers and peasants, rebels and farmers. To understand the Irish search for identity, and the identity given to them by others in American society, their motivations to serve the north in the Civil War, and what they hoped to achieved through military service, it is necessary to first become familiar with the generations that preceded them. In doing so, one can examine what the Irish hoped to find in America, how they went about accomplishing their goals, and where they succeeded or failed. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The history of the Irish in America is both long and complex, involving the immigration of Protestants and Catholics, skilled laborers and peasants, rebels and farmers. To understand the Irish search for identity, and the identity given to them by others in American society, their motivations to serve the north in the Civil War, and what they hoped to achieved through military service, it is necessary to first become familiar with the generations that preceded them. In doing so, one can examine what the Irish hoped to find in America, how they went about accomplishing their goals, and where they succeeded or failed. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]