"Family unity" is often upheld as the principle of U.S. immigration policy, central to the making and self-understanding of the U.S. as a "nation of immigrants." However, family-based immigration system was only born of struggles of immigrant families against the regime of restriction. As the era of open immigration ended in the U.S. in 1921, there emerged a fundamental tension between claims of immigrant families and the regime of immigration restriction. Much of what current immigration law recognizes as family, or how it matters, originated in the post-1921 era, born out of struggles by immigrant families. This dissertation examines the period between 1921 and 1978 from two perspectives. One is as an era of the three-tiered regulatory system created in the 1920s that lasted until the 1960s to the 1970s: 1) quotas restriction applied to European immigrants 2) exclusion of Asian immigrants, and 3) administrative regulation of immigration from Mexico without a firm ceiling. Another is as the formative years of contemporary immigration control that lasts today. The three-tiered system marked by explicit ethno-racial hierarchization closed first in 1965 by abolition of the quotas system in the Eastern Hemisphere, and finally in 1978 when Congress placed all countries including the Western Hemisphere under a worldwide ceiling. But the end of the quotas era was not a return to an era of open immigration, but an onset of alternative form of immigration restriction and regulation. With particular attention to linkage between ideas about family and ethno-racial composition of the U.S., the dissertation will discuss how claims of family, selective admission and restriction of family immigration, created, reinforced, and unmade the three-tiered immigration restriction regime. To date there has been no comprehensive historical study of the concept of the "family" in immigration law -- how it is defined, who is eligible as a family member and who is not, under what conditions families may be united or separated, and how family-based policies varied according to ethno-racial origin. This lack has resulted in a static and naturalized view of the family rather than a dynamic and contested concept in immigration law and policy. This dissertation explains the changes in definitions of family in immigration, deportation, and nationality law during the quotas era, shows how they are the product of challenges raised by immigrant families, and how they were inherited to the era of formally neutral and at the same time global immigration restriction.

This dissertation examines the shape, objectives, and fate of the anti-immigrationist movement from 1955 to 1981. During this period, groups and individuals operated within the confines of the British political system to advocate for the restriction of non-white immigration to the UK and also to minimize the perceived negative impact these immigrants were having upon the social and economic fabric of the UK. The study argues that by attaching their anti-immigrationist objections to existing political concerns, including anxieties about the welfare state, and by advocating for anti-immigrationist policies and legislation within the confines of established techniques of political activism and protest, anti-immigrationists were far more successful than they might otherwise have been, and indeed more successful than academic studies and popular opinion have portrayed them. However, their reliance upon a language of active citizenship and genuine democracy to justify their arguments to restrict immigration proved to be less popular with elite politicians and senior civil servants than a language of inclusivity and civil rights. As such, while much of the substantive legislation which anti-immigrationists advocated for was implemented at the highest level of government, the anti-immigrationist ethos, and the language in which they expressed their views, was not adopted by these powerful individuals, resulting in a foreclosure and minimization of the role of anti-immigrationists in agitating for the implementation of this legislation and body of policy. Furthermore, the decline of the anti-immigrationist movement was less the result of the success of the left in persuading the right to abandon its commitment to anti-immigrationism than of the success of the extreme right in claiming anti-immigrationism as its own, to the dismay of the more moderate right and centre-right.

Despite being the largest migratory movement between two states in modern history, the origins and operation of Mexican migration to the United States has not been a major research topic. We lack a comprehensive view of Mexican migration as it was established in early twentieth century and reproduced throughout the century as a system that reached from Texas borderlands to California and to western agricultural regions and beyond to Midwestern farming and industrial areas, a system that continued to be circular in nature even as permanent settlement increased, and which was in constant interaction with families, villages, and towns throughout Mexico. This interdisciplinary, bilingual, and transnational project is one of the first histories of the creation of migrant networks narrated from multiple geographic and institutional sites, analyzing the relationship between state agents, civic organizations, and migrants on both sides of the border. My project utilizes a statistical analysis of migration trends combined with qualitative research in order to show how migration arose as a mass phenomenon in Mexico and extended into the United States. This dissertation argues that large scale Mexican migration was created and operated through an interconnected transnational migrant economy made up of self-reinforcing local economic logics, information diffusion, and locally based social networks. I demonstrate that town-based interpersonal networks formed the engine that propelled and sustained large scale migration. Migrants needed transportation, capital, and information to travel north. Town-based networks provided all of these things. I follow the spread of migrant routes, explaining the creation of Mexican communities in the US Showing why communities were located where they are and their links to the larger economy of migrant labor before turning to Mexico and showing the effects of migration on sending communities. Migration evolved from a wave of mainly men into a broad based phenomenon, drawing in families and communities through remittances. I argue this is because a set of self-reinforcing economic logics were being created on both sides of the border. These logics are separate, but linked to the economic conditions that framed migration- the pull of the industrialization of the American West and the Mexican north with its relatively high wages- and the push of the chaos and violence of the Mexican revolution and Cristero Wars. Likewise, these logics could not have occurred without the demographic pressures of population growth in central Mexico, and the economic transformations of the Porfiriato. As more and more people participated in migration, they sent back information and remittances, which in turn made it easier for others to follow their path. Circular migration reinforced this dynamic as migrants returned home on a large scale, bringing back knowledge and experience. Together, these practices constituted the migrant economy and made central and central-north Mexico the engine of migration in the twentieth century. This new economy made it easier to move, but also tied many families and towns into continuous migrations in order to achieve economic stability. Ultimately this project shows the creation of the political economy of migrant labor between Mexico and the United States.

This study examines the experiences of post-1980 Irish immigrants in Australia using Greater Melbourne as a case study. It has three main but interrelated objectives. Firstly, it establishes the origins, characteristics, dynamics and outcomes of contemporary Irish migration to Australia. Secondly, it explores informants??? multiple experiences of Irishness in both Ireland and Australia. Thirdly, it examines how migrancy and identity issues were related to informants??? sense of belonging and home. Identity is approached in this study from a constructivist perspective. Accordingly, identity is conceptualised as dynamic, subject to situational stimuli and existing in juxtaposition to a constructed ???other???. Prior to migration, a North/South, Protestant/Catholic ???other??? provided the bases for identity constructions in Ireland. The experiences of immigrants from both Northern and Southern Ireland are examined so that the multiple pre- and post-migration experiences of Irishness can be captured. Face-to-face interviews with 203 immigrants provide the study???s primary data. Migration motivation was found to be multifactorial and contained a strong element of adventure. Informal chain migration, based on relationship linkages in Australia, was important in directing flows and meeting immigrants??? post-arrival accommodation needs. Only 28 percent of the sample initially saw their move as permanent and onethird were category jumpers. A consolidation of Irish identity occurred post-migration. This was most pronounced among Northern Protestants and was largely predicated on informants??? perceptions of how Britishness and Irishness were constructed in Australia. For Northern respondents, the freedom to express Irishness may have masked an enforced Irishness that evolved in response to perceived negative constructions of Britishness, and their experiences of homogenisation with Southern immigrants. Hierarchies within white privilege in Australia, based on origin and accent, were indicated by the study findings. Movement and identity were related through the transnational practices of informants. Separation from familial and friendship networks prompted high levels of return visitation and telephone contact with their homeland, establishing the group as a highly transnational in relational terms. Examining the experiences of this invisible immigrant group through a constructionist lens contributed to the broader understanding of whiteness, transnationalism and the Irish diaspora generally.

New Zealanders’ motivations for migrating to Australia and the effect of migration on their cultural and national identity were examined through analysis of interviews and surveys with New Zealand migrants and stayers. Factors influencing the move included economic pull factors, lifestyle factors, family reunification, some dissatisfaction with New Zealand society, the desire for a change, and a sense of adventure. Participants reported a high level of satisfaction with their new lives in Australia, and once resident there, initial motivating reasons merged with factors which reinforced and justified the decision to move. These included the benefits of a warmer climate, the perception that Australia was a more relaxed and tolerant society, and the belief by Maori that living in Australia freed them from negative stereotypes.New Zealand migrants to Australia revised their identity in light of their new experiences, and yet continued to view New Zealand positively, retaining aspects of their New Zealand identity as part of their ongoing evolving identity. However, while feeling at home in both countries, as time went on many migrants adopted a more Australian identity. Over time, they considered Australia was superior in a number of respects, and adapted and changed in response to Australian influences. Despite this, migrants maintained the boundary between New Zealand and Australian characteristics through a process of constant comparisons and, somewhat ambivalently, retained their strong positive regard for New Zealand. In the main, participants considered they could be happy in either country, but were happier in Australia. Migrants constructed positive reasons to justify their move and viewed themselves as adventurous and determined, while stayers constructed equally positive reasons for staying in New Zealand, seeing themselves as settled and stable.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, Dept. of Anthropology, August 2003. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet.

University of Macau / Faculty of Social Sciences / Department of Government and Public Administration

M. Tech. Comparative Local Development / The number of immigrants in South Africa has been increasing in the last decade. This study investigates the effects of immigration on economic growth, unemployment, poverty and crime using secondary data mainly obtained from Statistics South Africa. The period under study is from 1995 to 2012. Only the impact of documented immigrants is investigated because that of illegal immigrants is not known. The theories of immigration and its economic and social effects will be reviewed. Studies done by other researchers in different countries will also be looked at. Xenophobic attacks in South Africa are as a result of the allegations by South Africans that immigrants are taking South Africans' jobs, increase poverty and crime. However, the positive contribution of these immigrants toward the South African economy is not much talked about. The research therefore seeks to identify if immigrants really cause some of the economic and social problems in South Africa. The results obtained show that an increase in immigration increases the number of unemployed people in South Africa, poverty as well as gross domestic product (economic growth). The effect on crime is different with each type of crime. Murder, burglary and common robbery decrease with an increase in immigration while the opposite is true for other crime types. The main cause of an increase in crime, poverty and the number of unemployed people is because immigration increases human population. The study concludes by suggesting policy recommendations.

published_or_final_version / Public Administration / Master / Master of Social Sciences

No description available.