Overview

After years of internal debate, labor union leaders have come to regard immigration as an inevitable consequence of globalization. Labor leaders have come to believe that restrictive immigration policies, which they once supported to protect their native constituencies, do little more than encourage illegal immigration. As a result, most labor leaders today support more open policies that promote legal immigration, creating an unconventional, unspoken partnership with employers. Julie R. Watts identifies globalization as the impetus behind the change in labor leaders' attitudes toward immigration. She then compares specific political, economic, and institutional circumstances that have shaped immigration preferences and policies in France, Italy, Spain, and the United States. In addition to revealing the unusual alliance between unions and employers on the immigration issue, Watts examines the role both groups play in the formulation of national policy.

Full Product Details

9780801439384

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Reviews

With a study of the impetus behind labor leaders' attitudes toward immigration, the author shows how this has helped shape policy in Europe and the United States. -Business Horizons, January-February 2003

In this book, Watts helps to unravel the complex relationship between business and labor on issues of immigration. Anyone who thinks workers or employers in the industrial democracies simply follow their market or class interests when it comes to immigration is in for a surprise when they read this book. Immigration Policy and the Challenge of Globalization should be required reading for every student and scholar of immigration. James Hollifield, Southern Methodist University

Author Information

Julie R. Watts is a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Politics Department of Pomona College.

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