Borders and Immigration

Laurence Armand French is licensed clinical psychologist.Magdaleno Manzanarez is professor emeritus at Western New Mexico University.

French (a licensed clinical psychologist) and Manzana´rez (emer., political science, Western New Mexico Univ.) provide a timely examination of the relationship between immigration, capitalism, and racism in the US, and how this relationship shapes the current immigration debate, particularly the crisis along the US-Mexico border. The authors lay out their argument in the first chapter, and in subsequent chapters they provide a detailed history of how economic conditions in the US—beginning with aboriginal trade routes, colonial capitalism, and Manifest Destiny—tripled the size of the US because the country required a new labor source, particularly with the end of slavery, to take advantage of its vast natural resources. The authors contend that market conditions in the US create a cycle where migrants are needed to ensure economic growth, but the presence of migrants leads to racist actions and policies against them. The authors note that although the Trump administration’s policies concerning immigrants seem extreme, in fact much US immigration policy has had a racist foundation. The authors emphasize how the power of collective attribution bias exacerbates the problem: immigrants are treated as outsiders, which allows such policies to persist. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty.

• Chapter One: Genesis of the North American trade market: Aboriginal trade routes and boundaries before and during European contactChapter Two: Colonial antecedent to White Supremacy and Ethnic CleansingChapter Three: Manifest Destiny and U.S. Expansionism during the 19th Century: Finalizing its Borders.Chapter Four: Labor Exploitation and emerging Immigration PoliciesChapter Five: Geo-political foundations of contemporary border trade and securityChapter Six: 20th Century factors: Border security and migration trends.Chapter Seven: Emerging Social Unrest and its aftermath: Civil Rights, War on Drugs, and the militarization of law enforcement.Chapter Eight: Border and Immigration issues in the 21st Century