The New Immigration Contestation: Social Movements and Local Immigration Policy Making in the United States, 2000-2011

Throughout the past century, the policy debate on immigration has primarily played out on the federal level. However, during the first decade of the 21st century, the debate has also seeped down to the local and state level, with some jurisdictions passing laws designed to drive out undocumented immigrants and other jurisdictions enacting policies to promote the integration of immigrants regardless of their immigration status. The authors of this essay refer to this increase in local immigration policy-making as the "new immigration contestation" and they seek to explain the "mechanisms" and "structural forces" that drive some communities to pursue "proactive" (or pro-immigrant) policies, whereas others take "reactive" (or anti-immigrant) paths. Rather than focusing on political partisanship or local demographic change as the main driving forces, the authors examine the role that local social movements have played in the spread of these policies. Their research covers 96 cities that passed anti-immigrant policies and 97 cities that adopted pro-immigrant policies between 2000 and 2011, including in-depth case studies of the cities of Hazleton (PA) and Fremont (NE) - anti-immigrant --- and Easton (PA) and Grand Island (NE) - pro-immigrant. The researchers conclude that "pro-immigrant local associations matter for the passage of local pro-immigrant ordinances, but anti-immigrant local associations are not significant for the passage of anti-immigrant policies...What is significant for the passage of anti-immigrant policies are local social and demographic changes that local residents or political leaders have framed as threats in ways that mirror the framing by national anti-immigrant organizations."

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