Search

The question of what makes anti-Latinx, anti-immigrant (and anti-immigration) discourse and actions racist is continuously batted around between progressives and conservatives. In fact, even self-proclaimed progressives sometimes flinch or hesitate when asked to explain why those opposing immigration and Latinx communities are racist. What makes immigration and the treatment of Latinx communities issues of racism needs to be clarified as a methodological tool before we can obtain social justice not just for these communities, but in general. Thus, identifying racism in the antiimmigrant discourse (which is invariably anti-Latinx) is the focus of this article and a crucial tool for social justice. Data for this paper draws from a 20-year longitudinal ethnographic study on the U.S. Anti-Immigrant Movement which almost exclusively targets Mexico, Mexicans, Mexican-Americans, and Chicanxs, but which lacks a critical assessment of all other groups as well. More than fifty formal long interviews were conducted with leading anti-immigrant activists as well as key pro-immigrant activists between 1999-2018. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three bodies of literature most fundamental to a critical assessment of Latina/os in the United States are Racism (Critical Race Theory), international migration, and globalization. These three bodies of literature taken together birth our ability to understand and further conceptualize Latino/as in a way that levels the playing field by simultaneously stripping away racialized bias and refocusing the unit of analysis away from individuals and onto the world-economy wherein everyone, not just Latino/as, plays a role. The premise of this paper suggests that such a combined approach necessitates a rethinking of Latina/os in the United States by requiring a change of focus away from "illegal" or undocumented migration, "English only," and other presumptive and oppressive racializations of Latino/as, by highlighting US involvement in Latin America, thus humanizing Latino/a experiences and shifting the focus onto Human Rights. This paper stems from a larger, primarily ethnographic research project on the Anti-Immigrant Movement wherein over 50 interviews with both anti-and pro-immigrant activists have been conducted. The fusion of the three bodies of literature is demonstrated via an analysis of racism targeting Latina/os and immigrants by the Anti-Immigrant Movement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Racism persists as an unwelcome doppelganger of the modern world, remaining at the forefront of most ongoing human rights struggles. The injustices are plentiful and legally sanctioned at local, state, federal and international levels, driven largely by a coupling of capitalist interests and a related Western ideological discourse. Capitalist interests and this Western discourse not only pass as fair, legal and not racist, they purposefully and sometimes unwittingly draw rigid lines deciding who may benefit from the world-economy. Based on interviews with leading members of the anti-immigrant movement and archival research (1999-2013), this study focuses specifically on unpacking racism targeting Latinos in the United States, demonstrating how Latinos and immigrants are racialized by Western laws, neo-liberal international development and trade policies, neo-colonial structures and related ideologies that label them as illegitimate participants in the world-economy. Furthermore, the study engages the response to this negative onslaught and the continuing struggle for human rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The issue of racism is at the forefront of the debate over the legitimacy of the anti-immigrant movement. Contemporary racism survives on strategies put in place post-WWII and post-Civil Rights that make it more covert. Moreover, Latinos, who are the primary target of the anti-immigrant movement, are often overlooked as racialized subjects. This effectively disguises racism and often leaves explanations for what makes the anti-immigrant movement racist at bay. Based on a literature review and interviews with the anti-immigrant movement (1999-2008), this paper reveals how the anti-immigrant movement is embedded on a global scale, how racism is embedded in the anti-immigrant movement, and highlights how this racism has manifested in the post-9/11/01 world. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The issue of racism is at the forefront of the debate over immigration and the legitimacy of the anti-immigrant movement. The anti-immigrant movement recognizes only overt racism, which the anti-immigrant movement mostly avoids. However, contemporary racism has largely adapted to the post-Civil Rights and post-Holocaust norms of civil society and presents itself in a covert fashion. Still, covert racism has the same long term effects as overt racism. The problem is that the more covert nature of contemporary racism generally leaves the explanation for why the anti-immigrant movement is racist at bay. Left unanswered, racism goes unchecked and the debate over immigration boils ever hotter with neither side budging. Based on over 25 long interviews with anti-immigrant activists conducted from 1999 - 2008, as well as literature reviews of racism, immigration, political economy of globalization, this paper demonstrates how contemporary racism has blossomed within the anti-immigrant movement, using the political and legal systems as their primary tools of racialization and associated subordination. The research includes interviews with the infamous "Minutemen," along with participant observation at multiple post-9/11 anti-immigrant conferences (2002 - 2008). In short, the criminalization of immigrant labor combined with a perceived terrorist threat since 9/11/01 has caused the fomentation of the contemporary anti-immigrant movement which uses the American political and legal systems to wage a racialized war on immigrants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The issue of racism is at the forefront of the debate over immigration and the legitimacy of the anti-immigrant movement. The anti-immigrant movement (and most of America) sees racism as an overt racist act or epithet. The more covert nature of contemporary racism generally leaves the explanation for why the anti-immigrant movement is racist at bay. Left unanswered, the debate over immigration boils ever hotter with neither side budging. Based on over 25 long interviews with anti-immigrant activists conducted from 1999 - 2008, as well as literature reviews of racism, immigration, political economy of globalization, and Chican@ and Latin@ studies, this paper demonstrates how contemporary racism has blossomed within the anti-immigrant movement, using the political and legal systems as their primary tools of racialization and associated subordination. The research includes interviews with the infamous "Minutemen," along with participant observation at multiple post-9/11 anti-immigrant conferences (2002 - 2008). In short, the criminalization of immigrant labor combined with a perceived terrorist threat since 9/11/01 has caused the fomentation of the contemporary anti-immigrant movement which uses the American political and legal systems to wage a racialized war on immigrants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the modern world system continues to integrate flows of migrants from the periphery into core nations, the self-conceptualizations of core nations continue to be challenged, evoking urban conflict that escalates from interpersonal, to local, state and federal levels. These conflicts often manifest in racial, nationalistic, orientalist, and political ways characteristically more acceptable to the post-Civil Rights (U.S.) and post-Holocaust (Europe) world. Nonetheless, these conflicts have real effects on the lived experiences of migrants whose citizenship status in core nations generally does not secure them full rights, and where human and citizens' rights somehow do not equate. What lies behind the logic that eclipses the rights of migrants? How do these conflicts manifest in contemporary urban settings? What effect has the legacy of 9/11/01 had on these conflicts? The research design included two data sets: first, a control group of eighteen ethnographic interviews with leading anti-immigrant activists conducted from 1999-2000 and, second, seven follow-up interviews with anti-immigrant activists, along with participant observation at three post-9/11 anti-immigrant conferences, from 2002-2006. Findings revealed an array of opinions and strategies that, especially since 9/11/01, exploit the fear wrought by the notion of terrorism, reinforcing racialized stereotypes and reproducing international divisions between core and periphery. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Few coupled the idea of terrorism with immigration previous to September 11, 2001. Those few included activists in the anti-immigrant movement, but their movement peaked in the mid 1990's with California Proposition 187 and had little life left in it by 2001. The world changed in many ways with the events of September 11, 2001. This paper explores the effects of these events and the age of terrorism on the anti-immigrant movement. To what degree did the threat of terrorism reinvigorate and/or change the anti-immigrant movement? How does this factor out in the lives of immigrants? The research design included two data sets: first, a control group of eighteen ethnographic interviews with leading anti-immigrant activists conducted from 1999-2000 and, second, seven follow-up interviews with anti-immigrant activists from 2002-2006, along with participant observation at two post-9/11 anti-immigrant conferences. While one year after September 11, 2001 findings revealed little, by 2004 the anti-immigrant movement had gained steam as a nationwide movement that continues to grow today, tying activists from the 1990's in with an assortment of new recruits. The movement exploits the fear wrought by terrorism and reinforces racialized stereotypes, effecting immigrants in a variety of ways. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social movements worldwide evoked by globalization, though separated by time and place, often affect one another because of their common origin and related contexts. What effects do social movements targeting core countries and social movements targeting non-core countries (or non-core émigrés) have on each other? This study explored the effects of Al Qaeda as a social movement (originating in non-core countries which had its moment in the spotlight with the September 11, 2001 attacks), on the anti-immigrant movement in the United States (which peaked in 1994 with California Proposition 187, threatening to deny social services to immigrants and their children). The research design included two data sets: first, a control group of 18 ethnographic interviews with leading anti-immigrant activists conducted just before September 11, 2001 and, second, six follow-up interviews with anti-immigrant activists, along with participant observation at two post-9/11 anti-immigrant conferences. Results revealed: (1) a boost to anti-immigrant organizing at the national level focused on defending America that did not, however, elicit a surge in anti-immigrant activism as witnessed in 1994. (2) California's white-led activists maintained a mainly anti-Mexican focus, whereas, the national level anti-immigrant organizations more notably targeted Arabs and Muslims. (3) Interviews revealed a more evident connection than previously recognized between overt hate-groups (including published biological determinists, arguing for "the separation of the races") and anti-immigrant activists (often considered to be less overt hate-groups). (4) Finally, anti-immigrant sentiment perpetuated racial stereotypes, with regard to perceived 'race,' religion, or nation of origin, and according to gender. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social movements worldwide evoked by globalization, though separated by time and place, often affect one another because of their common origin and related contexts. What effects do social movements targeting core countries and social movements targeting non-core countries (or non-core émigrés) have on each other? This study explored the effects of Al Qaeda as a social movement (originating in non-core countries which had its moment in the spotlight with the September 11, 2001 attacks), on the anti-immigrant movement in the United States (which peaked in 1994 with California Proposition 187, threatening to deny social services to immigrants and their children). The research design included two data sets: first, a control group of 18 ethnographic interviews with leading anti-immigrant activists conducted just before September 11, 2001 and, second, six follow-up interviews with anti-immigrant activists, along with participant observation at two post-9/11 anti-immigrant conferences. Results revealed: (1) a boost to anti-immigrant organizing at the national level focused on defending America that did not, however, elicit a surge in anti-immigrant activism as witnessed in 1994. (2) California's white-led activists maintained a mainly anti-Mexican focus, whereas, the national level anti-immigrant organizations more notably targeted Arabs and Muslims. (3) Interviews revealed a more evident connection than previously recognized between overt hate-groups (including published biological determinists, arguing for "the separation of the races") and anti-immigrant activists (often considered to be less overt hate-groups). (4) Finally, anti-immigrant sentiment perpetuated racial stereotypes, with regard to perceived 'race,' religion, or nation of origin, and according to gender. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Modern Anti-Immigrant Movement has evolved over the last 25 years, responding to changes in US immigration policy, shifting demographics, the re-structuring of the world-economy, and to challenges to the perceived well-being of hegemonic American identity along the lines of culture, race, language, and other social formations. The peak of the Modern Anti-Immigrant Movement (so far) came in the mid-1990?s with the passage of California?s Proposition 187. Southern California emerged at that time as a hotbed for grassroots anti-immigrant activism. Today, Southern California continues to be an anti-immigrant hotbed, but the activists ally themselves more than ever with likeminded groups, pundits and politicians nationwide. President Bush?s proposal on January 7, 2004 for amnesty and a guest worker program spiked the anti-immigrant movement once again. Interviews with 28 leading anti-immigrant activists in California, attendance at several anti-immigrant conferences in Washington, DC and New York, and a review of related ephemera, reveal a strong division between conservatives on the issue of immigration. One side is pro-immigration, the other is anti-immigration; however, both are anti-immigrant. Moreover, ethnographic fieldwork on migrant-sending communities in Mexico and El Salvador, combined with this U.S.-based research reveals that both stances reinforce national borders and the racialization of Latino migrants, especially Mexicans, to the benefit of the international division of labor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The wave of anti-immigrant sentiment that overtook California in the mid-1990's with the passage of Proposition 187 subsided, but the remnants of the movement lie far from dormant. One-on-one interviews with 22 leading anti-immigrant activists in California and attendance at several national anti-immigrant conferences in the last year revealed several things. Since 1994 the movement has focused on strengthening ties with a larger national movement of right-wing extremist groups and individuals, all of whom follow a similar agenda: to stop the Third-Worldization of America and the Balkanization of its cities. This coalition of hate groups and pundits unifies published biological determinists with flag waving nativists, among others. Their rhetoric denies racism and any connection to it, but simultaneously avows that mixing whites and people of color seals the doom of our nation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recent wave of anti-immigrant legislation in Arizona ties into a long history of nationwide right-wing activism targeting, specifically Latino immigrants. What are the linkages between waves of anti-immigrant activism in Arizona, California and beyond? What is the basis for anti-immigrant ideology and activism in the post-U.S. Civil Rights era? How does the right-wing anti-immigrant discourse reproduce and reinforce socio-economic and racialized inequalities? What is the strength of the contemporary Anti-Immigrant Movement? This paper reports on data from a longitudinal study on the Anti-Immigrant Movement 1994 - present, including over 25 long interviews with anti-immigrant activists as well as a broad survey of anti-immigrant ephemera. Findings show direct linkages between various anti-immigrant activists and organizations from state to state, and indicate a heavy influence of national and inter-state figures on what otherwise would appear to be local grassroots fomentations. These findings help to explain the congruence of anti-immigrant activism and discourse from locality to locality, shed light on how the Anti-Immigrant Movement racializes the issue of immigration, and helps to clarify the strength of the movement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The issue of racism is at the forefront of the debate over the legitimacy of the anti-immigrant movement. Contemporary racism survives on strategies put in place post-WWII and post-Civil Rights that make it more covert. Moreover, Latinos, who are the primary target of the anti-immigrant movement, are often overlooked as racialized subjects. This effectively disguises racism and often leaves explanations for what makes the anti-immigrant movement racist at bay. Based on a literature review and ethnographic interviews with the anti-immigrant movement from 1999-2009, this paper reveals (1.) how the anti-immigrant movement is embedded on a global scale, (2.) how racism is embedded in the anti-immigrant movement, and (3.) highlights how this racism has manifested in the contemporary world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]