Racism and Immigration

Not like me. Other. Different. Many times each day we make these subtle distinctions with people that we meet on the street, while shopping, or on campus. On a larger scale, our nation also makes similar distinctions and one of the sharpest and most harmful is when we treat a group of people, differently, because of their race. Understanding the debate in the US about immigration reform, the role of racism cannot be ignored. Many of the comments about the Arizona statute concerning state enforcement of federal immigration law turn on how an individual or group are to be selected to determine if they are legally in the US without the use of racial profiling which is specifically prohibited in the legislation. Most people, however, believe that this statute in actuality invites and encourages racial profiling in spite of the language in the law that forbids it.

Social theorists and social historians argue that race is not a biological phenomenon but a social and political one. The differentiation of various human populations into different races is not a biological-scientific process although it was characterized as such into the later part of the twentieth century. Looking cross culturally at different societies, we see that different societies ‘create’ racial types differently. In the US, the dominant distinction is on the basis of skin color and the divide is between black and white. But another way to look at the American racial divide is that it is a process of “constructing the other.” Groups classified as “white” are the dominant group in American society. They enjoy better access to jobs, education, housing and social services. They are also the racial group that dominates in the political and economic spheres and in the professions. And this making of certain groups of individuals “the other” on the basis of racial classification is also a way that a dominant social group legitimates its exercise of political and economic power. But since Americans look at these distinctions as racial, and hence rooted in biology, they are viewed as natural and immutable. Individuals in this country that are placed into various racial categories are usually not aware that these are a social construct, and thus something that can be changed. Americans also tend not to see the linkage between the exercise of political power and the arrangement and division of society.

Looking at different historical instances of social upheaval over immigration and the role of law in regulating immigration, these events typically occur when a host country---the destination country for immigrants---is experiencing an economic downturn and the social malaise that accompanies such a reversal of economic fortune. This is the case with the United States today. Economic downturns are often accompanied by nationalist rhetoric to “close the borders” and to deport “those in the country illegally.” But if we look at what is happening in the US, we do not hear about Canadian immigrants or immigrants from Europe. Immigrants from Mexico are at the center of the debate. No one would seriously propose constructing a Berlin Wall-like structure to separate the Canadian Province of Ontario and the State of Michigan. But such proposals have been made for the border between Mexico and Arizona. So there is more going on that just concern over immigration. It is a particular type of immigration. It is immigration from Mexico by poor, non-white individuals. And as these immigrants are constructed as ‘other,’ they are not only seen as racially or ethnically other, they are viewed as economic opportunists who come to this country so that they can ‘steal’ American jobs and ‘illegally’ access social, educational, and medical services. They also become criminals by statutory law and have even been likened by some American politicians to insects. At this point in our history, we are in a very emotional political debate over immigration that draws upon assumptions that we have about race and employs racist tactics and innuendo.

If we are seeking a just society and one where immigrants are treated fairly and made full democratic participants in our country, we need to start by first acknowledging our country’s deep seated racism. Until we take that first step, it will be nearly impossible to make progress and arrive at a reasoned and equitable adjustment to America’s approach to immigration.