Just Immigration in the Americas

A Feminist Account

By (author) Allison B. Wolf

Publication date:

22 September 2020

Length of book:

218 pages

Publisher

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

ISBN-13: 9781786613332

This book proposes a pioneering, interdisciplinary, feminist approach to immigration justice, which defines immigration justice as being about identifying and resisting global oppression in immigration structures, policies, practices, and norms.

In contrast to most philosophical work on immigration (which begins with abstract ideas and philosophical debates and then makes claims based on them), this book begins with concrete cases and immigration policies from throughout the United States, Mexico, Central America, and Colombia to assess the nature of immigration injustice and set us up to address it. Every chapter of the book begins with specific immigration policies, practices or sets of immigrant experiences in the U.S. and Latin America and then explores them through the lens of global oppression to better identify what makes it unjust and to put us in a better position to respond to that injustice and improve immigrants’ lives. It is one of the first sustained studies of immigration justice that focuses on Central and South America in addition to the U.S. and Mexico.

1. Seeing Global Oppression in Immigration Policies and Practices – Why We Need A New Approach / Part I / 2. A Feminist Approach to Global Justice/Immigration Justice / 3. A Feminist Account of Global Oppression / 4. Another Side of Global Oppression: Six Faces of Epistemic Oppression / Part II / 5. Dying in Detention: Raul Ernesto Morales-Ramos, Augustina Ramirez-Arreola, Moises Tino-Lopez and U.S. Immigrant Detention Policy / 6. DACA and DREAMERs – Exploring Deportation Policy / 7. Responses to the Central American Refugee Crisis: Donald Trump’s Zero Tolerance Policy / 8. Exporting U.S. Immigration Policy: The Southern Border Plan and Beyond / 9. ¡Nicas Vayense! Nicaraguan immigration in Costa Rica / 10. Venezuelans in Colombia.

Trained in the field of philosophy, Wolf (Univ. de los Andes, Colombia) makes an important intervention in philosophical studies of immigration by introducing an oppression-centered model grounded in the work of feminist political thinkers. Philosophers often ignore or undertheorize immigration, while the majority who study immigration usually provide analyses that are irrelevant or disconnected from the realities of the immigrant experience. Wolf highlights how unfairly Latin American immigrants are treated once they cross the border into a new nation—be it the US or another Latin American nation—and juxtaposes their experience and treatment with that of immigrants from Europe and the US. In this expansive and empirical work, the author demonstrates the injustices of current immigration policies enacted in both the US and parts of Latin America, arguing that the systems in place are oppressive in ways that strip immigrants of color of their humanity. Wolf uses her lived experience as a privileged European immigrant in Colombia and also cites monographs; scholarly articles; newspaper, magazine, and online articles; and legal and government documents, such as court cases, as evidence to further her argument, drawing from the works of theorists, philosophers, journalists, social scientists, and government officials. Summing Up: Recommended. All levels.