IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/joimai/v19y2018i1d10.1007_s12134-017-0516-2.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Good Immigrant Worker: 2013 US Senate Bill 744, Color-Blind Nativism and the Struggle for Comprehensive Immigration Reform

Author

Listed:
  • Nazli Kibria

    (Boston University)

  • Megan O’Leary

    (Boston University)

  • Cara Bowman

    (Boston University)

Abstract

We explore immigration politics in the contemporary USA through analysis of the political framing of 2013 US Senate Bill 744, especially among its supporters. SB 744 is a bipartisan comprehensive immigration reform proposal that called for the largest overhaul of the immigration system in more than 25 years; it was passed in June 2013 by the US Senate but blocked in the House. Through analysis of the 2012–2013 textual content of the official websites and blogs of six US immigration lobby organizations from across the political spectrum, we offer a typology of political framings of comprehensive immigration reform. Drawing on popular anti-immigrant rhetoric, organizations with an agenda of immigration restriction and deterrence battled against the bill. On the other side, supporters of the bill ranged from business coalitions to immigrant rights groups, an assortment of interests that was reflected in the variety of arguments advanced in favor of the bill. Despite the far more fragmented character of pro-SB 744 discourse in comparison to that advanced by the opposition, our investigation suggests the ongoing and contested formation of a strategic pro-SB 744 framing that centered on the “good immigrant worker,” a “race-blind” trope that melds US nationalist narratives of immigration with an ethos of neoliberalism that upholds individual merit and market value to create a notion of “deservingness” that affirms the worth of immigrants as diligent workers.

Suggested Citation

  • Nazli Kibria & Megan O’Leary & Cara Bowman, 2018. "The Good Immigrant Worker: 2013 US Senate Bill 744, Color-Blind Nativism and the Struggle for Comprehensive Immigration Reform," Journal of International Migration and Integration, Springer, vol. 19(1), pages 1-13, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:joimai:v:19:y:2018:i:1:d:10.1007_s12134-017-0516-2
    DOI: 10.1007/s12134-017-0516-2
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s12134-017-0516-2
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s12134-017-0516-2?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Steger, Manfred B. & Roy, Ravi K., 2010. "Neoliberalism: A Very Short Introduction," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199560516, Decembrie.
    2. Gary P. Freeman & Bob Birrell, 2001. "Divergent Paths of Immigration Politics in the United States and Australia," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 27(3), pages 525-551, September.
    3. Marrow, Helen B., 2012. "Deserving to a point: Unauthorized immigrants in San Francisco’s universal access healthcare model," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 74(6), pages 846-854.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Christian Bjørnskov & Niklas Potrafke, 2012. "Political Ideology and Economic Freedom Across Canadian Provinces," Eastern Economic Journal, Palgrave Macmillan;Eastern Economic Association, vol. 38(2), pages 143-166.
    2. repec:osf:socarx:h8ypx_v1 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Filippo Belloc & Antonio Nicita, 2011. "The political determinants of liberalization: do ideological cleavages still matter?," International Review of Economics, Springer;Happiness Economics and Interpersonal Relations (HEIRS), vol. 58(2), pages 121-145, June.
    4. Filippo Belloc & Antonio Nicita, 2011. "Liberalization-Privatization Paths: Policies and Politics," Department of Economics University of Siena 609, Department of Economics, University of Siena.
    5. Mehmet AKYOL, 2016. "Effectiveness of State Aid for Investments In The Process of Economic Growth: Turkish Case," Turkish Economic Review, KSP Journals, vol. 3(2), pages 391-400, June.
    6. Fletcher, Robert & Büscher, Bram, 2017. "The PES Conceit: Revisiting the Relationship between Payments for Environmental Services and Neoliberal Conservation," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 224-231.
    7. Parker, Emily, 2021. "Spatial variation in access to the health care safety net for Hispanic immigrants, 1970–2017," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 273(C).
    8. David Harvie & Robert Ogman, 2019. "The broken promises of the social investment market," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 51(4), pages 980-1004, June.
    9. Maria-Elena Trinidad Young & Gabriela León-Pérez & Christine R. Wells & Steven P. Wallace, 2018. "More Inclusive States, Less Poverty Among Immigrants? An Examination of Poverty, Citizenship Stratification, and State Immigrant Policies," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 37(2), pages 205-228, April.
    10. Parkinson, Sarah E. & Behrouzan, Orkideh, 2015. "Negotiating health and life: Syrian refugees and the politics of access in Lebanon," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 146(C), pages 324-331.
    11. Lo, Ming-Cheng M. & Nguyen, Emerald T., 2021. "Resisting the racialization of medical deservingness: How Latinx nurses produce symbolic resources for Latinx immigrants in clinical encounters," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 270(C).
    12. Anil Kumar Vaddiraju & S Manasi, 2017. "From E-Governance to digitisation: Some reflections and concerns," Working Papers 404, Institute for Social and Economic Change, Bangalore.
    13. Börzel, Tanja A. & Gerschewski, Johannes & Zürn, Michael (ed.), 2024. "The Liberal Script at the Beginning of the 21st Century: Conceptions, Components, and Tensions," EconStor Books, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, number 310949, August.
    14. Van Natta, Meredith & Burke, Nancy J. & Yen, Irene H. & Fleming, Mark D. & Hanssmann, Christoph L. & Rasidjan, Maryani Palupy & Shim, Janet K., 2019. "Stratified citizenship, stratified health: Examining latinx legal status in the U.S. healthcare safety net," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 220(C), pages 49-55.
    15. Pablo Garcés-Velástegui, 2024. "The Politics of Development in Colombia: Accounting for the Plurality of Development Models," Journal of Developing Societies, , vol. 40(1), pages 73-93, March.
    16. Kate H. Choi & Marta Tienda & Deborah Cobb-Clark & Mathias Sinning, 2011. "Immigration and Status Exchange in Australia and the United States," Melbourne Institute Working Paper Series wp2011n12, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne.
    17. Ronki Ram, 2012. "Reading Neoliberal Market Economy with Jawaharlal Nehru," South Asian Survey, , vol. 19(2), pages 221-241, September.
    18. Hefin Gwilym, 2017. "The Political Biographies of Social Workers in a Neoliberal Era," International Journal of Social Science Studies, Redfame publishing, vol. 5(8), pages 16-25, August.
    19. Armenta, Amada & Sarabia, Heidy, 2020. "Receptionists, doctors, and social workers: Examining undocumented immigrant women's perceptions of health services," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 246(C).
    20. Martinson, Melissa L. & Tienda, Marta & Teitler, Julien O., 2017. "Low birthweight among immigrants in Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 194(C), pages 168-176.
    21. Willen, Sarah S., 2012. "How is health-related “deservingness” reckoned? Perspectives from unauthorized im/migrants in Tel Aviv," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 74(6), pages 812-821.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:joimai:v:19:y:2018:i:1:d:10.1007_s12134-017-0516-2. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.