Title Model immigrants and undesirable aliens : the cost of immigration reform in the 1990s / Christina Gerken

Published Minneapolis : University of Minnesota Press, [2013]

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Description 1 online resource (328 pages) Contents Introduction : Building a Neoliberal Consensus -- Exclusionary Acts : A Brief History of U.S. Immigration Laws -- Family Values and Moral Obligations : The Logic of Congressional Rhetoric -- Dehumanizing the Undocumented : The Legislative Language of Illegality -- Manufacturing the Crisis : Encoded Racism in the Daily Press -- Entrepreneurial Spirits and Individual Failures : The Neoliberal Human Interest Story -- Conclusion : Legacies of Failed Reform Summary During 1995 and 1996, President Bill Clinton signed into law three bills that altered the rights and responsibilities of immigrants: the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act, the Personal Responsibility Act, and the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act. This book examines the changing debates around immigration that preceded and followed the passage of landmark legislation by the U.S. Congress in the mid-1990s, arguing that it represented a new, neoliberal way of thinking and talking about immigration. The author explores the content and the social implications of the deliberations that surrounded the development and passage of immigration reform, analyzing a wide array of writings from congressional debates and committee reports to articles and human-interest stories in mainstream newspapers. The process, she shows, disguised its underlying racism by creating discursive strategies that shaped and upheld an image of "desirable" immigrants - those who could demonstrate "personal responsibility" and an ability to contribute to the U.S. economy. The author finds that politicians linked immigration to complex issues: poverty, welfare reform, so-called family values, measures designed to combat terrorism, and the spiraling costs of social welfare programs. Although immigrants were often at the center of congressional debates, politicians constructed an elaborate, abstract terminology that appeared to be unrelated to race or gender. Instead, politicians promoted neoliberal policies as the avenue to a postracist, postsexist world of opportunity for every rational consumer with an entrepreneurial spirit. Still, the author concludes that the passage of pathbreaking legislation was characterized by a useful tension between neoliberal assumptions and hidden anxieties about race, class, gender, and sexuality. -- Provided by publisher Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 287-308) and index Notes Print version record Subject Immigrants -- Government policy -- United States -- History -- 20th century Emigration and immigration law -- United States -- History -- 20th century Immigration enforcement -- United States -- History -- 20th century POLITICAL SCIENCE -- Civics & Citizenship. HISTORY -- United States -- 20th century. LAW -- Emigration & Immigration. SOCIAL SCIENCE -- Emigration & Immigration. Emigration and immigration -- Government policy Emigration and immigration law Immigrants -- Government policy Immigration enforcement Politics and government SUBJECT United States -- Emigration and immigration -- Government policy United States -- Emigration and immigration -- Political asepcts -- History -- 20th century United States -- Politics and government -- 1993-2001. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh92006372 Subject United States Genre/Form History Form Electronic book ISBN 9781461951285 1461951283 9780816686292 0816686297 9781452947051 1452947058

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