Title
Undocumented Fears: Immigration and the Politics of Divide and Conquer in Hazleton, Pennsylvania
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
Copyright
Copyright © 2016, Temple University Press. Except for brief quotations used for purposes of scholarly citation, none of this work may be reproduced in any form by any means without written permission from the publisher.
Publisher
Temple University Press
Place of Publication
Philadelphia, PA
eCommons Citation
Longazel, Jamie, "Undocumented Fears: Immigration and the Politics of Divide and Conquer in Hazleton, Pennsylvania" (2016). Sociology, Anthropology, and Social Work Faculty Publications. 50.
https://ecommons.udayton.edu/soc_fac_pub/50
COinS
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