Document Type

Book

Publication Date

2016

Abstract

The Illegal Immigration Relief Act (IIRA), passed in the small rust-belt city of Hazleton, Pennsylvania, in 2006, was a local ordinance that laid out penalties for renting to or hiring undocumented immigrants and declared English the city’s official language. The notorious IIRA gained national prominence and kicked off a parade of local and state-level legislative initiatives designed to crack down on undocumented immigrants.

In Undocumented Fears, Jamie Longazel uses the debate around Hazleton’s controversial ordinance as a case study that reveals the mechanics of contemporary divide-and-conquer politics. He shows how neoliberal ideology, misconceptions about Latina/o immigrants, and nostalgic imagery of small-town America led to a racialized account of an undocumented immigrant “invasion,” masking the real story of a city beset by large-scale loss of manufacturing jobs.

Offering an up-close look at how the local debate unfolded in the city that set off this broader trend, Undocumented Fears makes an important connection between immigration politics and the perpetuation of racial and economic inequality.

ISBN/ISSN

978-1-4399-1267-6

Document Version

Published Version

Comments

The document available for download is the book's introduction, provided with the permission of the publisher. Permission documentation is on file. To order the volume, see http://www.temple.edu/tempress/titles/2370_reg.html

Publisher

Temple University Press

Place of Publication

Philadelphia, PA


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