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Those Damned Immigrants : America's Hysteria Over Undocumented Immigration

Those Damned Immigrants : America's Hysteria Over Undocumented Immigration

Excerpt

"The election of Barack Obama prompted people around the world to herald the dawning of a new, postracial era in America. Yet a scant one month after Obama's election, Jose Oswaldo Sucuzhanay, a 31-year old Ecuadorian immigrant, was ambushed by a group of white men as he walked arm and arm with his brother. Yelling anti-Latino slurs, the men beat Sucuzhanay into a coma. He died 5 days later. The incident is one of countless attacks--ranging from physical violence to raids on homes and workplaces to verbal abuse--that Latino/a immigrants have confronted for generations in America. And these attacks--physical and otherwise--are accepted by a substantial number of American citizens and elected officials, who are virulently opposed to immigrant groups crossing the Mexican border. Quick to cast all Latino/a immigrants as illegal, opponents have placed undocumented workers at the center of their anti-immigrant movement, and as such, many different types of native Spanish-speakers in this country (legal, illegal, citizen, guest), have been targeted as being responsible for increasing crime rates, a plummeting economy, and an erosion of traditional American values and culture. In Those Damned Immigrants, Ediberto Roman takes on critics of Latina/o immigration, drawing on empirical evidence to refute charges of links between immigration and crime, economic downfall, and a weakening of Anglo culture. Roman utilizes government statistics, economic data, historical records, and social science research to provide a counter-narrative to what he argues is a largely one-sided public discourse on Latino/a immigration"--Publisher's website.

Description

xxii, 186 pages ; 24 cm

ISBN

9780814776575

Publication Date

2013

Publisher

New York University Press

City

New York, N. Y.

Keywords

Citizenship, Emigration and immigration, Government policy

Disciplines

Immigration Law | Law

Comments

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Those Damned Immigrants : America's Hysteria Over Undocumented Immigration

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