ABSTRACT
Disagreement and debate abound about the benefits and detriments of international migration for host societies. Still, academics, policy-makers, and the general public are in concert on the dramatic, transformative effects of immigration on US society at the turn of the millennium. Though immigration and emigration remain relatively rare phenomena on a global scale (see Bilsborrow, Chapter 5 of this volume), their impact is heavily felt, especially given their geographic concentration in traditional and emergent US gateways. When we enumerate stocks of immigrants and their children, who increasingly straddle multiple, transnational social worlds, and when we acknowledge the myriad institutions with which they interact – schools, labor markets, politics, and health care, to name a few – it is immediately apparent that immigration has enormous effects at multiple social levels – the family, local community, and host and origin nation – and in multiple institutional domains. Jointly, the chapters gathered for this volume reveal many of the complexities surrounding contemporary immigration and immigrant incorporation. Also threading through the volume are indications of the reach, and more often the limits, of human rights protections as they pertain to noncitizens, especially the expanding numbers of unauthorized immigrants who face uncertain fates, ambiguous status, and ill-defined rights within US. borders. The past ten years have been marked by economic recession of historic proportions, dramatic technological changes, and a series of terrorist attacks and wars with global reach, each of which has altered the contours of globalization, including the global flows of immigrants, refugees, return migrants, and migrant remittances. International migration has persisted amidst such changes and turmoil; however, immigrants’ experiences are undeniably altered amidst emerging economic and geopolitical concerns. Collectively, the contributors to this volume provide valuable initial insights into the content, character and challenges of migration in the 21st century.
