One central phenomenon that we’ve discussed heavily in class is the construction of the model minority myth to pit one minority racial group, specifically Asian Americans, against another racial groups as a form of population manipulation. In our readings for this week, I’ve come to realize that similar forces were also enacted regarding the different immigrant statuses that different people hold. The fact that refugees are willing to trample on and denounce other vulnerable minority communities due to the better treatment that they receive from the institution strongly mirrors the phenomenon of how Asian Americans are complacent of the injustices of the current American racial hierarchy due to a perception of being more accepted by the white norm. It is alarming to see just how quickly a particularly vulnerable group, aka the undocumented immigrants could be so mercilessly taken advantage of by the prison industrial complex through the criminalization of legal status from an administrative misdemeanor, just because of potential losses that private prison corporations would suffer from the decreasing number of inmates in state prisons. Both readings have also helped me realize how the efforts of criminalizing legal status have also further polarized the immigrant community as a whole, further perpetuating the “model minority” complex in terms of immigrant status.
Question:
What are ways to tailor immigration policies to encourage the formation of strong citizen-state relationships and to facilitate immigrants social and political incorporation?
Video:
(Inside America's $2bn immigrant detention industry - BBC News)
References: Ackerman, A. R. and Furman, R. (2013). The Criminalization of Immigration and the Privatization of the Immigration Detention: Implications for Justice. Contemporary Justice Review. Brown, H. (2011). Refugees, Rights, and Race: How Legal Status Shapes Liberian Immigrants' Relationship with the State. Social Problems, 58(1), 144-163. doi:10.1525/sp.2011.58.1.144
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