Thesis (M.A.)--Ohio University, June, 2010. / Title from PDF t.p. Release of full electronic text on OhioLINK has been delayed until July 1, 2011. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--West Virginia University, 2005. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains vi, 96 p. : ill. (some col.). Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 93-96).

Over the past decade, cities have passed an unprecedented number of laws seeking to drive undocumented immigrants from their jurisdictions. At the same time, however, large numbers of cities have passed policies seeking to incorporate recent immigrants into local civic and social life, regardless of immigration status. What explains why similar cities have responded so differently? Quantitative analysis tests the explanatory power of theories of political opportunity structure, labor market competition, demographic changes represented as threats, and the exclusionary tendencies of homeowners in predicting the passage of exclusionary and inclusionary ordinances in cities nationwide. The predictors of the passage of exclusionary ordinances are consistent with the salience of political opportunity structure, demographic changes represented as threats, and the exclusionary tendencies of homeowners. The predictors of the passage of inclusionary ordinances are most consistent with theories of political opportunity structure and the relative absence of the exclusionary tendencies of homeowners in cities with lower levels of owner-occupied housing. Case studies in two sets of paired cities that passed diverging ordinances examine the social and political processes on the ground. This qualitative research finds that residents in exclusionary cities expressed anxieties over the effects of demographic change on home values and neighborhood character. Diverging processes of framing and mobilization emerge as central to the development of local collective identities that include or exclude new immigrant residents. Network analysis of the connections between local civil society organizations in each of the four case study cities identifies the architecture of local civil society networks as a significant factor correlated with the divergent responses to demographic change. The networks in exclusionary cities score highly on measures of density, clustering, and closure, suggest that the network is broken into cliques and that local elites are isolated both from recent immigrants and from non-elite, native-born residents. The high levels of network closure facilitate the creation of rigid group boundaries, the high levels of clustering reinforce pre-existing beliefs within those groups, and the network density aids in the enforcement of sanctions against those who deviate from group norms. By contrast, the networks in inclusionary cities are characterized by multiple organizational bridges between immigrant and native-born communities that facilitate the creation of relationships necessary to craft inclusive policies and a sense that local resources can grow with the population. The research suggests that the local laws seeking to drive out undocumented immigrants are an example of a broader category of exclusionary property laws. The linked social and spatial processes involved in the enactment and enforcement of these laws are one way in which categorical inequalities, such as socio-economic disparities by race, ethnicity, immigration status, or gender become embedded in place.

Also presented as the author's thesis (Diss.)--Universität Kassel, 2007 under the title: Zur Massenviktimisierung illegaler Migranten an den Aussengrenzen der Europäischen Union. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Stanford University, 2002. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (p. 292-307).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2005. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (doctoral)--Universität, Münster, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (p. [333]-379).

This dissertation is a study of the construction of the ‘illegality’ of migration in the Central Mediterranean region from the mid-twentieth century to the present across genres, disciplines and media. Reading a heterogenous set of sources ranging from film to poetry and from parliamentary debates to legal opinions, this dissertation posits the ‘illegality’ of human mobility as a process and not an ontological trait, demonstrating its fluidity and tracking some of its most salient changes over time. Moreover, it argues that these notions of ‘illegality,’ which developed and are interrogated in legal discourse and aesthetic practices, are significantly altered as they circulate across linguistic boundaries even though they continue to be understood as stable and neutral labels. They form a grammar of illegalization the contested semantics of which are simultaneously national and transnational. This dissertation finally suggests that we understand the illegalization of migration as a multilingual object that is written and constructed across multiple discourses and disciplines, and asks that we tend to its grammar as a way to denaturalize and, eventually, attempt to rewrite the ‘illegality’ of human mobility.

published_or_final_version / Asian Studies / Master / Master of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Journalism and Media Studies Centre / Master / Master of Journalism