ABSTRACT

While the state continues to play the most important role in immigration policy making and implementation, the state itself has been transformed by the growth of a global economic system and other transnational processes. Two particular aspects of this development are of significance to the role of the state in immigration policy making and implementation: One is the relocation of various components of state authority to supranational organizations such as the institutions of the European Union, the newly formed World Trade Organization, or the international human rights code. A second is the de facto privatization of various governance functions as a result of the privatization of public sector activities and of economic deregulation. This privatization assumes particular meanings in the context of the internationalization of trade and investment. This chapter argues that it is becoming important to factor in the possibility of declining state sovereignty precisely because the state is a major actor in immigration policy and regulation.