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391. Internal Enforcement: The Political Economy of Immigration

Author:
Keith D. Malone
Publication Date:
10-2009
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Independent Institute
Abstract:
Over the past several years, Americans have become more aware and more vocal regarding the number of illegal aliens who have taken up residence in the United States. While this issue—and a resolution of this issue—is still being debated, many have questioned why current enforcement efforts are so lax. The focus of this paper is on the government agency responsible for the enforcement of our immigration laws, and in particular how the actions of this agency are influenced by political interests. This paper fills a gap in the literature-to-date by examining the enforcement of immigration laws within the interior of the nation. While other studies put border enforcement efforts in a political framework, this analysis is the first, to the authors' knowledge, to place interior enforcement within the interest-group theory of government framework. Our findings indicate that pressure groups shape the pattern of enforcement that emerges. Despite polls that indicate a majority of Americans favoring stricter enforcement, government enforcement agencies charged with this responsibility apparently succumb to the wishes of those that matter most politically.
Topic:
Government, Political Economy, Politics, Immigration, and Law Enforcement
Political Geography:
United States and America

392. The United States and Mexico: Towards a Strategic Partnership

Publication Date:
01-2009
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The Wilson Center
Abstract:
It is time to strengthen the U.S. relationship with Mexico. here are few countries—if any—which are as important to the United States as Mexico. We share more than just a two-thousand mile border. Our economies and societies are deeply interwoven and what happens on one side of our shared border inevitably affects the other side. As the United States seeks to redefine its role in the world, it is vital to start at home, with our neighbors.
Topic:
Economics, Emerging Markets, Regional Cooperation, International Security, Bilateral Relations, Immigration, and Law Enforcement
Political Geography:
United States, Central America, and Mexico

393. The Offshore Camps of the European Union: At the Border of Humanity

Author:
Miriam Ticktin
Publication Date:
03-2009
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The New School Graduate Program in International Affairs
Abstract:
Immigrant and asylum-seeker camps like those in Libya and Morocco are the creation, manifestation, and part of the new, borderless Europe. They consist of a new post-colonial, new-liberal border-zone, a space continuously negotiated by the movement of people, new forms of surveillance technology, and new processes of supranational government. The camps are a response to both a “security” and “humanitarian” crisis, brought into reality through two governing regimes: one of policing and one of protection. The precise mechanisms produce spaces which not only divide people into citizens of one nation-state or another, but produce certain populations as surplus humans.
Topic:
Security, Human Rights, Migration, and Immigration
Political Geography:
Europe, Libya, North Africa, and Morocco

394. Control of Illegal Immigration and Italian-EU Relations

Author:
Bruno Nascimbene
Publication Date:
08-2009
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Istituto Affari Internazionali
Abstract:
Controlling maritime borders and flows of illegal immigrants in the Mediterranean is an issue where sharp tensions have been evident for some months now at the national, EU and international levels. Tensions evidenced by the reactions and outcry provoked by operations involving Italian naval units which have intercepted boats carrying migrants and sent them back to their ports of departure, most notably in Libya. The migrants concerned were deemed to be illegal regardless of their possible asylum-seeker status. Such interventions have raised, and continue to raise, concerns over the fate of the persons involved, especially as regards the protection of their fundamental human rights.
Topic:
Maritime Commerce, Immigration, and Law Enforcement
Political Geography:
Europe, Libya, Italy, and Rome

395. Migrants and the Global Financial Crisis

Author:
Uri Dadush and Lauren Falcao
Publication Date:
12-2009
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Abstract:
More than 200 million people reside in a country that is not their birthplace. This “diaspora nation” of migrants outranks all but four of the world's countries in population. These migrants make an immense economic contribution both to their host country and to their home country, primarily through transfers of money they earn back to their home country, which are known as “remittances.” About 82 percent of migrants originate in developing countries, and their remittances, which amounted to an estimated $305 billion in 2008, represent an essential source of foreign exchange for these countries, as well as a major instrument in the fight against poverty.
Topic:
Economics, Globalization, Migration, Immigration, and Financial Crisis
Political Geography:
Russia, America, and Dubai

396. What Next for the Democratic Republic of Congo?

Author:
Dorina Bekoe and Michelle Swearingen
Publication Date:
12-2009
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
United States Institute of Peace
Abstract:
Diaspora communities are a double-edged sword. They have promoted peace as often as they have spurred conflict. There are many opportunities to harness the Congolese diaspora to support peace and reconstruction in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). ?War and civil unrest have swelled the ranks of the DRC diaspora. These individuals can play a role in strategizing for sustainable solutions - particularly in the mining sector and the fight against corruption. Trans-Atlantic participants in the USIP diaspora dialogue called for tighter regulation, effective transparency, integration of the informal economy, greater investment flows and support for Congolese solutions to Congolese problems. Proposed solutions will be neither effective nor sustainable unless the war is ended and governance improves. This would involve effective regional support for peacekeeping, international efforts to deter spoilers and domestic initiatives to make governance more effective. The DRC diaspora are committed to be a source of advocacy, technical assistance, investment and accountability.
Topic:
Migration, Diaspora, and Immigration
Political Geography:
Africa

397. Three-Year Bologna-Compliant Degrees: Responses from U.S. Graduate Schools

Publication Date:
04-2009
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Institute of International Education (IIE)
Abstract:
Ten years ago, in June 1999, a group of 29 European Ministers signed the Bologna Declaration with the goal of establishing the European Area of Higher Education by 2010 and promoting the European system of higher education world-wide. In April 2009, 46 European Higher Education Area Ministers will gather for the fifth biennial EHEA Ministerial Conference, to take stock of this first decade and jointly define goals for the coming years. At this juncture, it is important to look at the changes that have occurred through the Bologna Process in the context of transatlantic exchange, and how they affect the way U.S. higher education institutions are approaching graduate admissions, awarding transfer credit and credit for study abroad, and advancing institutional linkages.
Topic:
Education, Migration, and Immigration
Political Geography:
United States and Europe

398. Denial and Delay: The Impact of the Immigration Law's "Terrorism Bars" on Asylum Seekers and Refugees in the United States

Author:
Anwen Hughes
Publication Date:
11-2009
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Human Rights First
Abstract:
IMMIGRATION LAWS that target individuals who have engaged in or supported the commission of terrorist acts serve two very legitimate goals: to exclude from the United States people who threaten our national security, and to penalize people who have engaged in or supported acts of violence that are inherently wrongful and condemned under U.S. and international law. Both of these purposes are consistent with the United States' commitment to protect refugees who have fled political, religious and other forms of persecution. Indeed, the 1951 Refugee Convention and its Protocol explicitly exclude from protection persons who have committed a range of serious crimes, including acts of terrorism. The Refugee Convention also allows a country to expel a refugee who poses a danger to its security, or who has been convicted of a particularly serious crime in that country and constitutes a danger to the community.
Topic:
Human Rights, Terrorism, Immigration, and Law
Political Geography:
United States

399. U.S. Detention of Asylum Seekers: Seeking Protection, Finding Prison

Author:
Eleanor Acer and Jessica Chicco
Publication Date:
06-2009
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Human Rights First
Abstract:
IN MARCH 2003 , the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) took over responsibility for asylum and immigration matters when the former INS (Immigration and Naturalization Service) was abolished. With this transfer, DHS was entrusted with the duty to ensure that the United States lives up to its commitments to those who seek asylum from persecution. These commitments stem from both U.S. law and international treaties with which the United States has pledged to abide. Yet, those who seek asylum—a form of protection extended to victims of political, religious and other forms of persecution—have been swept up in a wave of increased immigration detention, which has left many asylum seekers in jails and jail-like facilities for months or even years.
Topic:
Human Rights and Immigration
Political Geography:
United States

400. On the Morality of Immigration

Author:
Mathias Risse
Publication Date:
03-2008
Content Type:
Journal Article
Abstract:
My goal here is twofold: First, I wish to make a plea for the relevance of moral considerations in debates about immigration. Too often, immigration debates are conducted solely from the standpoint of ''what is good for us,'' without regard for the justifiability of immigration policies to those excluded. Second, I wish to offer a standpoint that demonstrates why one should think of immigration as a moral problem that must be considered in the context of global justice. More specifically, I will argue that the earth belongs to humanity in common and that this matters for assessing immigration policy. The case I will be particularly interested in is immigration into the United States, where immigration policy continues to be a hotly debated topic. However, that discussion takes the form of a case study: the relevant considerations apply generally.
Topic:
Immigration
Political Geography:
United States