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Abstract
This article analyses some of the ‘numbers’ behind the migration phenomenon and immigration policy design in the USA. The principal aim of this study is to assess the use of quantitative data and analyses, migration statistics and the mass media to support the passage (or justify the failure) of recent key initiatives that affect undocumented or illegal immigration in the USA, in particular immigration originating in Mexico. The study concludes that the misuse of numbers, the production of media spectacles that present illegal immigrants as quite harmful for the US economy and society, and the politicisation of the immigration process in general, have had a major impact on recent failed attempts to reform the dysfunctional US immigration system. These factors also influenced the passage of Arizona's SB 1070 in 2010, as well as the recent passage of other anti-immigrant legislation in more US states. Overall, the ‘mathematics’ of Mexico–US migration is not always reliable. Some questionable numbers have been recently used to justify inappropriate and ineffective migration policies.
Notes
1. Accounts of the history of US immigration policy can be found in Briggs (Citation1984), Daniels (Citation2004), Foner (Citation2005), Beasley, ed. (2006), and Brunner and Colarelli (Citation2010).
2. On some of these initiatives see Rosenblum (Citation2008). This work analyses the 2005–2007 debate over CIR in the USA.
3. See The White House (Citation2010).
4. The Roper Organisation (1982 cited in Wattenberg (Citation1985, p. 77).
5. On attitudes towards US immigration policies see Rosenberg (Citation2008).
6. See also Immigration [online].
7. One of the most important factors that influence public opinion regarding immigration is the level of unemployment. Anti-immigrant sentiment is highest where unemployment is highest and vice versa (Espenshade and Belanger Citation1998).
8. In: Cornelius (Citation1994, p. 250).
9. In: The New York Times, 9 July (Lowestein 2006).
10. See also Smith and Edmonston, eds. 1997).
11. However, in the past few years, undocumented immigration in the USA originating in Mexico has been waning, instead of increasing. The main reason of this decline seems to be the US economic crisis. According to a recent study made by the Pew Hispanic Center, the number of Mexicans annually leaving Mexico for the USA declined by 60% from 2006 to 2010 (Llana Citation2011).
12. On 23 April 2010, Arizona's Governor, Janice K. Brewer, signed into law an extremely harsh legislation against undocumented immigration. The bill (introduced as Arizona Senate Bill 1070 and thus often referred to simply as Arizona SB 1070) makes it a crime under state law to be in the country illegally. SB 1070, in its original format, would have required local police officers to question people about their immigration status if there was a reason to suspect they were residing in the USA illegally. On 28 July 2010 – one day before the law was set to go into effect – a federal judge blocked several of its key provisions, arguing that they were unconstitutional. US District Judge Susan Bolton issued a temporary injunction that halted key parts of this legislation that would have required police to check the immigration status of anyone they suspected to be an illegal US resident.
13. The very recent decrease in the levels of illegal immigration in the USA has more to do with the economic crisis than with the success of the current immigration policy framework.
14. Russell Sage Foundation (Citation2003).
15. Quoted in Kiely (Citation2009, para. 4).
16. In Davenport and Cooper (Citation2010).