Full Description
Analysing US immigration and deportation policy over the last twenty years, this book illustrates how US immigration reform can be conceived as a psychological, legal, policy-driven tool which is inexorably entwined with themes of American identity, national belonging and white nativism. Focusing on Hispanic immigration and American-born children of Mexican parentage, the author examines how engrained, historical, individual and collective social constructions and psychological processes, related to identity formation can play an instrumental role in influencing political and legal processes. It is argued that contemporary American immigration policy reforms need to be conceptualized as a complex, conscious and unconscious White Nativist psychological, legal, defence mechanism related to identity preservation and contestation.
Whilst building on existing theoretical frameworks, the author offers new empirical evidence on immigration processes and policy within the United States as well as original research involving the acculturation and identity development of children of Mexican immigrant parentage. It brings together themes of race, ethnicity and American national identity under a new integrated sociopolitical and psychological framework examining macro and micro implications of recent US immigration policy reform.
Subsequently this book will have broad appeal for academics, professionals and students who have an interest in political psychology, childhood studies, American immigration policy, constructions of national identity, critical race and ethnic studies, and the Mexican diaspora.
Contents
Foreword; Chapter 1. Introduction (Patrick Dolan, Suzanne Guerin and Claire Hickey) Part I: Getting Started; Chapter 2. Framing Research in Community Settings (Elizabeth Nixon & Eylin Palamaro-Munsell) Chapter 3. Commissioning, Procuring and Contracting Evaluations and Research (Marian Quinn, Catherine Comiskey & Gail Birkbeck) Chapter 4. The Governance of Community Research and Evaluation: a Multi-Layered and Negotiated Process (Mark Morgan and Siobhan Keegan Chapter 5. The Role of the Stakeholder in Applied Research: Managing Expectations and Relationships (Nóirín Hayes, Siobhán Keegan, Grainne Hickey & Gráinne Smith) Part II: Carrying out Research and Evaluation; Chapter 6. Developing a Detailed Design for Research with Communities (Suzanne Guerin & Catherine Comiskey) Chapter 7. What Lies Beneath? Preparing for and Conducting Effective Fieldwork in Community Settings (Tara Murphy, Jennie Milnes & Siobhan Keegan) Chapter 8. Evaluation of Complex Community Change Initiatives: Credible Evidence is What Counts (Morgan O'Brien & Sinéad McGilloway) Part III: Dealing with the Data; Chapter 9.Documenting and Disseminating the findings of Community Research and Evaluation Reports to Key Stakeholders (Marian Quinn & Gemma Kiernan)Chapter 10. Knowledge Exchange: Informing Policy and Influencing Change (Nóirín Hayes & Maresa Duignan) Chapter 11. Overcoming the Ethnical and Practical Challenges Associated with Archiving Qualitative and Quantitative Data (Tara Murphy, Aileen O'Carroll, Suzanne Guerin & Jane Gray) Chapter 12. Conclusion (Nóirín Hayes & Catherine Comiskey) Index
