The Minutemen and Anti-immigration Attitudes in California

Abstract

This paper examines the role of the Minutemen in building up popular pressure for immigration reform and capturing the growing frustration of some of residents at the way the Bush administration is handling immigration in a context of heightened fear about national security. The immigration issue in California had quieted down after anti-immigration proposition 187 was passed –yet never enacted- in 1994. Pete Wilson had unsuccessfully used this divisive issue to win presidential nomination, alienating minority voters in the State and therefore undermining the strength of the Republican party.Despite an apparent growing tolerance about diversity and good economic times, the issue came back to California both through the deterioration of the situation at the border and through the national debate over immigration reform in the mid-2000s. Based on field work at the California-Mexican border, the author gives a portrait of the Minutemen, explaining their motivations, hopes, fears and action which help understand the perceptions and strategies of congressmen and legislators and the fascinating radicalization of their positions on immigration over the past two years

Race and State in City Police Spending Growth

“…Conference of Mayors 2002). Similarly, anti-immigration activists in Arizona and New Mexico lobbied the federal government for increased border control over concern about increases in the undocumented immigrant population (Douzet 2009). The federal government responded by doubling the number of border patrol agents (U.S.…”

Explaining Attitudes toward Immigrants in the United States: Context, Class and Ideology

“…The other, the foreigner or immigrant, becomes the object or target of the (often irrational) anxiety. Previous studies have found that the more foreign (or different from the dominant group) the immigran is, the more likely the native-born population is to have negative attitudes toward immigration, particularly around issues of language (Chandler and Tsai 2001;Berg 2014) and national culture (Douzet 2009;Sohoni 2017).…”

“…In addition to basic demographics like age, race, and gender, scholars have focused on a variety of measures to predict attitudes toward immigrants. These include: contact with immigrant populations (Berg 2009;Douzet 2009;Gravelle 2016); cultural and identity concerns (Chandler and Tsai 2001;Berg 2009;Garcia and Davidson 2013;Bikmen 2015); socio economic status, especially education and income (Janus 2010;Gravelle 2016); geographic location (Fennelly and Federico 2008;Douzet 2009;Garcia and Davidson 2013;Gravelle 2016); economic concerns, such as labor market competition and fiscal burden (Fennelly and Federico 2008;Hainmueller and Hiscox 2010;Garcia and Davidson 2013;Hainmueller, Hiscox and Margalit 2015;Ross and Rouse 2015); political beliefs including party and ideology (Janus 2010;Gravelle 2016); and religious beliefs, including affiliation and worship style (Knoll 2009;Brown and Brown 2017). In addition to the what is being asked, research demonstrates that the way surveys ask questions influences how people answer them (Janus 2010).…”

Nativism and the Obsolescence of Grand Narrative: Comprehending the Quandary of Anti-Immigration Groups in the Neoliberal Era

“…The strategic application of the metanarrative has historically been integral to antiimmigration supporters in their campaign to galvanise opposition in the political mainstream to immigrant intakes (i.e. Douzet 2009;Gingrich and Banks 2006;Murray 1986). This is because, in a domestic political contest with materially privileged opponents, patriotism affords less-privileged citizens a measure of relative empowerment by emphasising simple official membership in society as authoritative rather than personal material accomplishment.…”