America is often described as the land of immigrants. According to Hipsman and Meissner (2013), it “shaped the United States as a nation since the first newcomers arrived over 400 years ago.” Immigration has profound impacts on the political and socioeconomic profile of the U.S. In the new millennium, thousands of people come to America, presenting new policy and research challenges. Undoubtedly, immigration is an issue that operates at the intersection of race, class, and gender. It affects millions of minority individuals who come to America looking for a better life and trying to create a better future for their children. Many of them arrive as illegal immigrants, and they are often the first to feel the impacts of tough immigration policies, through sanctions, family breakdowns, and deportation. Immigrants greatly contribute to the American economy, by filling the existing employment gaps. However, they can do little to protect their rights because of their lower social status. The existing immigration policies and politics in America are divisive at best (Hipsman & Meissner, 2013). The legislative and policy landscape is ripe for change: future immigration policies should be closely aligned with the changing socioeconomic conditions of life in America.
Immigration was a powerful force behind the creation of America. Throughout its history, America has been struggling to balance the needs of immigrants against its own needs. Hipsman and Meissner (2013) describe four major waves of immigration. At the end of the 19th century, the Irish potato famine and industrialization in Europe pushed thousands of Europeans to cross the Atlantic Ocean (Hipsman & Meissner, 2013). In response to the rapid inflow of immigrants, Congress passed one of its first regulatory measures, imposing a fee on noncitizens who came to the U.S. (Hipsman & Meissner, 2013). It was one of the first historical attempts to curb immigration. It was also a sign that immigration was becoming highly racialized, creating a climate of inequity and discrimination.
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In the U.S., race has been one of the critical elements of the immigration policy fabric. Hipsman and Meissner (2013) describe racial exclusion as the defining framework for immigration policies implemented at the beginning of the 20th century. The 1917 Immigration Act imposed severe restrictions on immigrants from the Middle East and British India (Hipsman & Meissner, 2013). Similar restrictions were imposed in the second decade of the 21st century when newly elected President Donald Trump issued an order to keep immigrants from seven Middle Eastern countries away from the U.S. Such restrictions suggest that immigration is a source of racial inequality, favoring newcomers of one race and discriminating against others. These discriminating sentiments keep dominating the policy landscape. Immigration restrictions keep affecting thousands of racial minority individuals and families.
Race and immigration are inseparable. Representatives of diverse racial and ethnic minorities make up the largest cohort of immigrants to the U.S. Hipsman and Meissner (2013) say that every third immigrant in America is of Mexican origin, followed by immigrants from China and India. They come to America using different legal and illegal channels. Illegal immigrants create a distinct class of individuals who easily join the workforce and contribute to the U.S. economy but remain increasingly vulnerable to the divisive impacts of the misbalanced immigration policy. Today’s mass media are overfilled with stories of illegal immigrants who face deportation and have to leave their U.S.-born children behind. Most come from minority backgrounds, which reinforce the picture of racial and social inequity in immigration. What remains to be seen is the impact that these inequities will have in a strategic perspective. As of now, the U.S. desperately needs a new immigration policy. In fact, it needs an entirely new philosophy that will minimize the racial and class divide caused by immigration.
One of the key issues facing the U.S. is the lack of a comprehensive immigration policy that will promote the value of equity across all racial and ethnic lines. No one says that the country must welcome and embrace illegal immigrants. However, the historical legacy of racial discrimination in immigration policies must be eradicated. Hipsman and Meissner (2013) are right that the American philosophy of immigration is disconnected from the forces that are responsible for it. The most problematic is the absence of any systematic integration mechanisms, similar to those which currently exist in Canada and Australia (Hipsman & Meissner, 2013). This is why the costs of sanctions imposed on minority immigrants often exceed the potential benefits of their integration into the U.S. economy and society. Because many of these minority immigrants belong to lower social classes, they are in no position to defend their rights or foster broader policy changes that will improve their immigration status. It is time to change the immigration mentality. It is a bold challenge that the U.S. will face in the foreseeable future.
In conclusion, the legislative and policy landscape in the U.S. is ripe for change. It is time to address the legacy of racial discrimination as one of the most powerful forces behind changes in the immigration policy. The current state of immigration enforcement in the U.S. is disconnected from the realities of legal and illegal immigration. It promotes racial and socioeconomic divide, strengthening restrictionist and nativist sentiments among citizens (Hipsman & Meissner, 2013). A new policy should include a reintegration component while reducing the influence of race on immigration decisions. Race should no longer be present on the immigration policy agenda in a country that promotes equity and justice along social lines.
- Hipsman, F., & Meissner, D. (2013). Immigration in the United States: New economic, social, political landscapes with legislative reform on the horizon. Migration Policy Institute. Retrieved from https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/immigration-united-states-new-economic-social-political-landscapes-legislative-reform.
