Political Sociology Day 2 Questions: The State and Migration (Choose 3)
1. The end of the Bracero Program in 1964 was followed in the 1970s by a recordsetting surge of undocumented immigration, mainly Mexican, that created an
elevated pattern of immigration until the 2000s, when by 2010 Mexican
undocumented immigration dropped by about 70 percent. Write an essay
describing and analyzing the main reactions of the US government to the surge and
the subsequent elevated undocumented immigration. Concentrate your response to
state response policies in the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s. In your essay give plenty of
details and illustrations, and cite prominent studies that have analyzed the state
responses.
2. The presence of 12 million unauthorized immigrants in the US represent a major
policy challenge to the state, yet, calls for a new amnesty law have failed to gain
majority support in Congress. Write an essay describing and analyzing the
differences with the situation in 1986 when the federal government passed the
amnesty law of IRCA. What conditions in 1986 promoted the passage of IRCA in
Congress that are not existent today to produce a new amnesty law? Cite several key
studies in your discussion.
3. Formulation and implementation of immigration policy involve different levels of
state participation that shift due partly to political and social sentiments of the
day—and partly in response to public bodies such as social movements and interest
groups. Drawing from works in the social science literature, and citing specific cases,
discuss and describe the significance of the participation of non-state actors, such as
social movements, in the sphere of immigration policy. To what extent, for example,
have social movements pressured state agencies to modify their policy stances in
the sphere of immigration policy.
4. The reaction of the state to immigration occurs along a matrix of policies and
outcomes that create different levels of involvement in US society (inclusion,
exclusion, citizenship, etc.). Write an essay detailing the main contours of relations
of the state with immigrant populations that have been theorized in the sociological
research literature regarding the field of immigration studies, citing the prominent
scholars on the topic.
5. The presence of the US-Mexico border looms large in the understanding and
actual formulation of US of immigration policy and state actions towards immigrant
populations. Describe and compare conceptualizations of the US-Mexico border
found in the social science research literature that have been offered for
understanding state actions towards undocumented and other immigrant
populations. Also answer in your essay the question regarding to what extent there
exists a social construction of the border that helps to support or oppose US
immigration policy.
6. In the 1980s and 1990s, the argument was developed that nation-states and their
governments were weakening, if not actually on their way to disappearing, due to
the transcending social forces of globalization and unauthorized migration. Write
an essay to address the argument of a weakening state from the perspective of US
immigration policy, in the context of an undocumented immigration population that
now looms at about 12 million in the United States. Citing several studies, argue
whether you think the state power to regulate immigration has been weakened or
strengthened, or fluctuates according to public sentiments in the country.