Abstract
In Latino Immigrants in the United States, Ronald L. Mize and Grace Peña Delgado explore the historical, social, and political complexities surrounding Latino immigration in the United States. Mize and Delgado present the numerous intricacies surrounding immigration, covering a wide range of topics, from immigrant rights, identity construction, nativism, political and cultural citizenship, social movements, and the devastating effects of neoliberalism.
In Chapter One, Mize and Delgado analyze the contemporary debates on immigration, while discussing the dangerous trends of anti-immigrant sentiments, violence, and the rise of racialized attacks. Chapter Two explores the Latino experience and the creation of a collective identity within the Latino community—what the authors refer to as Latinidad, the creation of an intra-ethnic alliance, despite dominant categorizations from above. Chapter Three takes us upon the immigrant’s path to citizenship, illuminating the many hardships faced in acquiring “legal” status. Chapter Four takes this idea one step further, and presents the idea of a “cultural citizenship,” as a response to “neo-nativism” and exploitation at the workplace, where Latino immigrant unions and immigrant rights-based movements have played a crucial role in expanding the dialogue between the exploited and the exploiters. Chapter Five discusses the journey of assimilation and the consequences of a militarized border, nativist vigilante groups, and anti-immigration legislation, within the context of transnationalism. Chapter Six addresses the impacts of neoliberalism and more generally, the effects of contemporary globalization. So-called free trade agreements “have increased poverty and threaten the viability of subsistence economies…” (p. 136), suggest Mize and Delgado, which has had the effect of increasing migration to the north. Chapter Seven concludes by focusing on the most pressing issues facing Latinos in the upcoming 25 years. Demographers point out that Latinos will become the majority population in the American Southwest, and represent a majority elsewhere in the United States. The authors explore what this might mean politically, socially, and economically in the not-too-distant future.
Latinos currently represent the largest ethnic minority in the United States, and demographic projections estimate that the Latino population will make up 30 percent of the total U.S. population by 2050. In the era of nativism and austerity, immigrants have become useful scapegoats for social ills. They are marginalized voices in public affairs, operating at the margins of society. Undocumented immigrants are especially vulnerable (they account for roughly 11 million people in the United States) and are living in a state of perpetual fear of the threat of deportation, legal vulnerability, or exploitation at the workplace. Latino Immigrants in the United States is a timely corrective to the current debates surrounding Latino immigration and does a wonderful job at illuminating the struggles immigrants face. This book will serve as a useful companion to sociologists, political scientists, international economists, historians, and those concerned about one of the most pressing issues of the day.