Solidarities and Restrictions: Labor and Immigration Policy in the United States
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Janice Fine
In American labor’s response to immigration over time, one can observe “a movement wrestling” between restrictionist and solidaristic positions. A crucial transformation of American labor’s response to immigration occurred from the 1930s to the 1960s which is attributed to four factors: changes in the structure and composition of the labor market, shifts in immigration flows, shifts in the attitudes of the labor movement toward immigrants, and the changing disposition of the American state toward unions. In this article we look at the policy choices and dilemmas that have faced the American labor movement since the 1940’s, putting forth a conceptual framework for understanding labor’s shifting positions over time and identifying critical moments in American political development. Having laid this foundation, we move on to a consideration of labor’s most recent positions concerning contemporary policy debates.
©2012 Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Introduction
- Special Issue: Labor in American Politics
- Article
- A Brief Ascendency: American Labor After 1945
- The Most Powerful Political Force in the Country
- Do Unions Still Matter in U.S. Elections? Assessing Labor's Political Power and Significance
- Teachers Unions and American Education Reform: The Politics of Blocking
- The Education Iron Triangle
- Solidarities and Restrictions: Labor and Immigration Policy in the United States
- Public Sector Unions Need the Private Sector or Why the Wisconsin Protests Were Not Labor's Lazarus Moment
- The Return of Judicial Repression: What Has Happened to the Strike?
- "Broken Windows," Vulnerable Workers, and the Future of Worker Representation
- American Unions in Comparative Perspective
- Commentary
- Political Science as a Vocation: An Appreciation of the Life and the Work of James Q. Wilson
- Review
- Weakness and Wisdom: A Review of In My Time and Known and Unknown
- The Trouble With Teachers Unions: Review of Special Interest
Articles in the same Issue
- Introduction
- Special Issue: Labor in American Politics
- Article
- A Brief Ascendency: American Labor After 1945
- The Most Powerful Political Force in the Country
- Do Unions Still Matter in U.S. Elections? Assessing Labor's Political Power and Significance
- Teachers Unions and American Education Reform: The Politics of Blocking
- The Education Iron Triangle
- Solidarities and Restrictions: Labor and Immigration Policy in the United States
- Public Sector Unions Need the Private Sector or Why the Wisconsin Protests Were Not Labor's Lazarus Moment
- The Return of Judicial Repression: What Has Happened to the Strike?
- "Broken Windows," Vulnerable Workers, and the Future of Worker Representation
- American Unions in Comparative Perspective
- Commentary
- Political Science as a Vocation: An Appreciation of the Life and the Work of James Q. Wilson
- Review
- Weakness and Wisdom: A Review of In My Time and Known and Unknown
- The Trouble With Teachers Unions: Review of Special Interest
