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Living in a Promiseland?1: Mexican Immigration and American Obligations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 September 2011

Rogers M. Smith
Rogers M. Smith
Affiliation:
University of Pennsylvania. E-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

Controversies over Mexican immigrants and undocumented aliens in Arizona and elsewhere show the need for fresh approaches to immigration. The “principle of constituted identities” holds that the more a government has coercively constituted the identities of non-citizens in ways that have made having certain relationships to it fundamental to their capacities to lead free and meaningful lives, the greater the obligations that government has to facilitate those relationships–all else being equal. The U.S. has coercively constituted the identities of many persons of Mexican descent, inside and outside its boundaries, in ways that have fostered aspirations for dual economic, cultural, and political “citizenships.” It has also shaped the identities, values, and interests of many whites in immigrant-receiving states in ways that make Mexican immigrants seem threatening, even as it has made those states pay most of the costs of absorbing immigrants. In consequence, the U.S. should adopt policies that give priority to Mexicans in immigration and that facilitate dual citizenships, while providing more aid to immigrant-receiving states.

Type
Reflections
Information
Perspectives on Politics , Volume 9 , Issue 3 , September 2011 , pp. 545 - 557
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 2011

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