The book Taking Local Control: Immigration Policy Activism in U.S. Cities and States has just been released. Edited by Monica Varsanyi, Associate Professor of Political Science at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, it is the result of a 2008 conference hosted by CCIS.
More information about Taking Local Control »

CCIS Director John Skrentny was recently interviewed on NPR’s All Things Considered. Listen to the audio below or visit the NPR website for the complete transcript and more information.
 

… UCSD Professor Wayne Cornelius studied migration in the small Oaxacan village where Mendez is from.
He says people there and in villages throughout Mexico have been hit by the economic downturn in the U.S. and Mexico. “It’s been far more severe in Mexico than it has been in the United States. So it’s required a great deal of ingenuity to ride this out on both sides of the border,” says Cornelius. …
Read full article »
Listen to audio »

… Just whether unauthorized immigrants cost more than they contribute is a complicated question.
“Immigration most sociologists will tell you have short term costs but long term benefits,” says John Skrentny, a UCSD sociology professor and director of The Center for Comparative Immigration Studies.
“The fiscal impact tends to be positive for the federal government and negative for localities and states,” Skrentny says. …
Read full article »

… John Skrentny, director of the Center for Comparative Immigration Studies at the University of California-San Diego, said the unique characteristics of this latest wave – the increased impact on taxpayers and larger number of illegal immigrants – haven’t changed the cycle of response or the rhetoric.
Benjamin Franklin criticized Germans who lived among themselves, did not speak English or adopt American customs, Skrentny said.
“You hear that almost exact line of argument today,” he said. …
Read full article »

… John Skrentny, a sociologist and the new director of the Center for Comparative Immigration Studies at UC San Diego, said the tone of the immigration debate has given special significance to the events at the border, with controversy raging over a new immigration law in Arizona and the Obama administration under fire for not overhauling national immigration laws.
“An incident like this, coming into this atmosphere, becomes symbolic,” Skrentny said. …
Read full article »

… A bill making its way through Congress, if passed, would bring the US more into line with current European birthright policies. But in the wake of the controversy over Arizona’s new immigration policy, any changes to the 14th amendment would likely become another flashpoint in the debate over illegal immigrants.
“Many countries do not grant birthright citizenship because they have older histories and see themselves as individual nations with individual identities,” explains John Skrentny, Director of the Center for Comparative Immigration Studies and sociology professor at the University of California at San Diego. “Whereas the United States, like many other …

Two CCIS books were reviewed recently. Salavador Rivera describes Four Generations of Norteños as “a readable study emphasizing the dynamics of the vibrant U.S.-Mexican border region” in Multicultural Review. Meanwhile, Cecilia Farfán Méndez writes in Foreign Affairs Latinoamérica of Mexican Migration and the U.S. Economic Crisis: “This book is essential for those who study migration patterns and look to understand how the new security measures at the border, combined with the economic crisis, affect the decision to migrate and whether to stay home or remain in the United States.”

Writing in the Huffington Post, reviewer Geri Spiegler describes Mexican Migration and the U.S. Economic Crisis as containing information “accumulated over many years that is presented thoughtfully, well researched, and without drama that affirm this scholarly textbook a place both on an academic shelf and well beyond the classroom.”
Read full article »