By Samuel Martínez
In his Conclusion, volume editor Samuel Martínez identifies overarching concerns in the preceding chapters. Lost in the slogan swap that passes for immigration debate is not only consideration of immigration restrictionism’s unsustainable conflicts with global economic integration. Missing also are questions that should seem centrally important to political progressives: Why has the number of jobs that “Americans won’t do” (but immigrants will) grown so rapidly in recent years? How low do we wish to let the cost of labor go in the United States? Ties between immigration and other trends in the global economy underscore the volume’s guiding principles: international migration is better understood through a global political economic lens than through a U.S.-based optic; it is a mistake to focus on immigration in isolation from other political, economic and social policy domains.
Study Question
- What aspects of U.S. foreign policy, according to Martínez, are worsening already worrisome trends in human geographical mobility?
Critical Thinking
- Are the rights and welfare of U.S. natives and immigrant workers irreconcilably opposed? Are there ways in which upholding migrant rights is good for immigrants and citizens equally?