In Citizenship, Borders, and Human Needs, editor Rogers Smith brings together an international group of scholars from a variety of disciplines—political science, sociology, law, history, and economics—to engage in a conversation about the many issues associated with global migration. In framing their essays, contributors were asked to consider one of four questions: (1) whose and what economic needs are helped and harmed by current patterns of immigration flows and immigration regulations? (2) What should we make of the much-discussed cultural dimensions of current immigration issues, in regard to the cultures of members of sending countries, receiving countries, and the immigrants themselves, in all their diversity? (3) What are the political choices in terms of institutions and policies faced by both immigration-receiving and immigration-sending nations? (4) What, in the end, are the normative precepts that should guide policy making on immigration in the twenty-first century around the globe? In response to these questions, the contributors explore the migration question from the standpoint of economic, cultural, and political needs, and then consider the normative controversies that are raised by the mass movement of people across state boundaries. This remarkably comprehensive volume moves beyond traditional foci within the immigration debate and forces readers to consider the very real world impacts, for sending and receiving states, that arise from these migratory flows.
The book begins with an overview essay by economist Demetrios Papademetriou. Providing a historical and empirical reflection on the size and location of international migratory flows since the 1960s, Papademetriou demonstrates that the number of migrants internationally has not changed dramatically since 1960 and that migration is a global phenomenon affecting a diverse set of countries across the developed and developing worlds. Papademetriou points out the many contradictions inherent in these flows, particularly receiving countries' failure to acknowledge their complicity in driving migration and therefore the interdependence that exists between sending and receiving states: “The facts are not in dispute. Migration ties sending, transit, and receiving countries—as well as immigrants, their families, and their employers—into often reinforcing and always intricate systems of complex interdependence. It takes the cooperation of virtually all these actors—as well as smart policy decisions, thoughtful regulation, and sustained enforcement—to make real progress in limiting the effects of migrations challenges sufficiently to draw out more of its benefits” (p. 34).
Anyone paying attention to immigration debates in the United States and Europe can see that this vision of immigration—as a collective, multilateral problem in need of complex, cooperative solutions—is not the dominant one in current policy debates. Yet, clearly, the essays in this volume show us that the challenges immigration raises cannot be solved unilaterally or by burying our heads in the sand. Only by acknowledging their complicity in creating immigration problems will receiving states be able to begin to ensure that migratory flows are as beneficial as possible to all actors.
Papademetriou's piece, along with others in the volume, also discusses the mismatch between demand for immigrant labor and its acceptance by receiving countries, particularly in terms of allowing the entrance of low-skilled migrants. Papademetriou points out the degree to which the mismatch between labor market needs for low-skilled workers and receiving country desires for their restriction results in unauthorized migration. Antonio Yúñez-Naude shows that because foreign workers tend to be concentrated in particular sectors, they most often complement the native workforce rather than displace it, a finding that contradicts much popular wisdom about the impact of migration on workers. In his essay, Howard Chang, in contrast, accepts that low-wage workers have a net negative impact and considers how liberal democracies should conceptualize their admittance.
One possible reformulation of the cost-benefit analysis underlying Chang's essay is Saskia Sassen's emphasis on the key economic roles these low-skilled immigrant workers play in supporting the lifestyles of high-skilled professionals. Sassen points out how the growth of a high-paid professional class with no “wife” at home makes the presence of immigrant women to provide services to those professionals, such as child care and housekeeping, an absolute necessity. Sassen sees this as the creation of a new “serving class” in the developed world and emphasizes the fact that therefore high-skilled immigration cannot be decoupled from low-skilled immigration. But the desire to exclude low-skill immigrants within receiving country politics combined with the need for their labor that exists in those countries ensures that the future of low-skilled immigration to developed countries will remain the most contentious area of global migration policy.
This volume is unique insofar as three essays (those by Sassen, Yúñez-Naude, and Leti Volpp) raise the important role gender plays not only in determining who migrates, but also the networks they use and how those migrants are constructed in the receiving country. The contributors also address issues of immigration integration in highly nuanced ways. With her microlevel study of one Chinese family in nineteenth- and early twentieth-century California, Mae Ngai shows how experiences of inclusion and exclusion can occur simultaneously within the same immigrant group. Her analysis of the Tape family's experience serves as a striking example of the complex social relations that can derive from a group's liminal legal and social status. This point is reinforced in the modern period by Kamal Sadiq's essay showing how unauthorized immigrants are able to construct a “documentary citizenship” for themselves in India, responding to their liminal status by constructing a new, more inclusive form of democratic citizenship for themselves.
A number of essays consider the interests and behavior of the state in constructing citizenship and in fostering (or not) immigrant integration. Sarah Song lays out three ways to foster civic solidarity within liberal democracy without violating normative commitments. Christopher Rudolph explores the intersection of immigration and national security, arguing that restrictive tendencies since 9/11 have been muted, when examined in historical perspective. Irene Bloemraad and Veit Bader examine official state policies for immigrant integration. Bloemraad argues that multicultural approaches, such as those used by Canada, result in faster and deeper integration than laissez-faire approaches like that of the United States. Bader takes this argument deeper, arguing both approaches are insufficient and that what is needed is a more pluralistic “associative democracy.”
The three concluding essays debate the normative underpinnings of the questions of inclusion and exclusion within liberal democratic states. Stephen Macedo considers when immigration restriction might be normatively justified. Chandran Kukathas opens his essay by questioning why all borders can't be open, yet concludes that some limits are necessary in order for “borders” to continue to exist. Rainer Bauböck bases his argument for free movement on the grounds of universal liberty rather than global social justice, arguing regional supranational authorities (like the European Union) should be developed and allow multiple citizenships in order to facilitate the free movement of individuals across state boundaries.
As Smith himself states in his introduction, no one volume could do justice to the broad array of economic, political, social, and normative questions that arise from global migration. Yet, this volume does an admirable job of laying an impressive, comparative, and multifaceted groundwork to help readers gain some analytical traction on the many facets of this global problem. I could see these essays assigned in immigration courses to provide students with coherent and thoughtful discussions of what are challenging questions. The theoretical contributions are especially strong, showing how immigration problematizes Westphalian notions of national inclusion and exclusion. As Bauböck concludes, immigration control is a “moral dilemma” for liberal democracies, “a painful reminder that the ideals of liberal citizenship cannot be fully realized in a world where most people are deprived of fundamental liberties and the means to satisfy their basic needs” (p. 376). The contributions to this volume make clear that until we resolve this dilemma, liberal democracies like the United States will continue to fail to live up to their moral and normative ideals, to the detriment of us all.
