Abstract
Why do so many immigrants come to the United States illegally? The commonplace answer, “to find better paying work and a better way of life,” is somewhat misleading. It assumes that migration is a matter of choice, and that they come here to stay. Certainly the reasons people make the dangerous trek from their respective lands are numerous. And while it might be optional for some, the vast majority is made up of desperate, needy people caught in the cycle of forced migration as a means of sheer survival.
How dare you put a human face on these illegals?
—Anonymous
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Notes
Raúl Delgado Wise, et al., “Reframing the Debate on Migration, Development, and Human Rights,” International Network on Migration and Development, October 2010.
Ibrahim Awad, “The Global Economic Crisis and Migrant Workers: Impact and Response,” International Migration Programme (Geneva: ILO, 2009); United Nations, International Migration 2009.
US Department of Homeland Security, 2007 Yearbook of Immigration Statistics (September 2008).
Octavio Paz, The Labyrinth of Solitude [1950] (New York: Grove Press, 1961).
Mark Overmyer-Velásquez, ed., Beyond the Border: The History of Mexican-U.S. Migration (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011).
David Bacon, Illegal People: How Globalization Creates Migration and Criminalizes Immigrants (Boston: Beacon Press, 2008).
Hallie Eakin, et al., “Responding to the Coffee Crisis: A Pilot Study of Farmers’ Adaptations in Mexico, Guatemala, and Honduras,” Geographical Journal 172:2 (2006): 156–171.
Michael Hoefer, et al., “Estimate of the Unauthorized Immigrant Population Residing in the United States: January 2007, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Office of Immigration Statistics” (September 2008).
Robert Richter and Madeleine Solano, School of the Americas: School of Assassins (documentary), narrated by Susan Sarandon (Maryknoll, 1994).
Leslie Gill, The School of the Americas: Military Training and Political Violence in the Americas (Durham: Duke University Press, 2004).
Dana Priest, “U.S. Instructed Latins on Executions, Torture; Manuals Used 1982–91, Pentagon Reveals,” Washington Post, September 21, 1996, p. A01. Located in Fort Benning, Georgia, the SOA changed names to Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC) in January 2001. See also “The SOA and Guatemala” (SOA Watch: www.soaw.org; and Network in Solidarity with the People of Guatemala: www.nisgua.org).
Commission for Historical Clarification, Guatemala: Memory of Silence (American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1997–1999).
Tony Leys, “History Lesson: Guatemalan Mess has U.S. Fingerprints,” Des Moines Register, November 29, 2008.
Peter Chapman, Bananas: How The United Fruit Company Shaped the World (New York: Canongate, 2007), 56.
Stephen Schlesinger and Stephen Kinzer, Bitter Fruit: The Story of the American Coup in Guatemala (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2005), 67–70.
Piero Gleijeses, Shattered Hope: The Guatemalan Revolution and the United States, 1944–1954 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1991).
A. J. Langguth, Hidden Terrors: The Truth about U.S. Police Operations in Latin America (New York: Pantheon, 1978).
Kate Doyle, The Guatemalan Police Archives: Electronic Briefing Book No. 170 (George Washington University: National Security Archive, November 21, 2005).
Pamela Yates, When the Mountains Tremble (Skylight Pictures, 1983).
Elizabeth Burgos, ed., I, Rigoberta Menchú (London: Verso, 1984).
Susanne Jonas, et al., eds., Guatemala: Tyranny on Trial. Testimony of the Permanent People’s Tribunal (San Francisco: Synthesis, 1984).
Victoria Sanford, Buried Secrets: Truth and Human Rights in Guatemala (New York: Palgrave, 2003).
Susanne Jonas, Of Centaurs and Doves: Guatemala’s Peace Process (Boulder: Westview, 2000).
Sergio Morales Alvarado, Guatemalan Human Rights Ombudsman, “The Human Rights of Migrants,” Lecture at Florida International University, February 19, 2011.
Peter Meyer and Clare Ribando Seelke, Central America Regional Security Initiative: Background and Policy Issues for Congress (Washington, DC: Congressional Research Service, February 21, 2012).
Luis Arena and Irene Palma, et al., Análisis y estudio de las migraciones según el Currículum Nacional Base (Guatemala: Ministerio de Educación, 2010), 25.
Sergio Morales Alvarado, Guatemalan Human Rights Ombudsman, “The Human Rights of Migrants,” Lecture at Florida International University, February 19, 2011.
María Cristina García, Seeking Refuge: Central American Migration to Mexico, the United States, and Canada (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006).
Allan Burns, Maya in Exile: Guatemalans in Florida (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1993).
Olivia Carrescia, Mayan Voices: American Lives (New York: Icarus Films, 1994).
James Loucky and Marilyn Moors, eds., The Maya Diaspora: Guatemalan Roots, New American Lives (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2000).
Leon Fink, The Maya of Morganton: Work and Community in the Nuevo New South (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2003).
Patricia Foxen, In Search of Providence: Transnational Mayan Identities (Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press, 2007).
Grant Schulte, “Consultant: Postville Ex-Workers Unpaid,” Des Moines Register, October 7, 2008. The US Labor Department had also recalled nine witnesses, but the Justice Department sidelined their investigation.
John Webb, “Prosecuting Title II Cases: Protecting the Social Security Trust Funds from Fraud,” United States Attorneys’ Bulletin 52:6 (2004): 10.
The President’s Identity Theft Task Force, Combating Identity Theft: A Strategic Plan (April 2007), pp. 2–10.
Department of Justice, “Fact Sheet: The Work of the President’s Identity Theft Task Force,” September 16, 2006.
Michel Foucault, History of Madness [1961] (London: Routledge, 2006), Discipline and Punish [1975] (New York: Random House, 1977), and Security, Territory, Population [1977–78] (London: Palgrave, 2007).
Julia Kristeva, Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection (New York: Columbia University Press, 1982).
Edward Said, Orientalism (New York: Pantheon, 1978), and Culture and Imperialism (New York: Knopf, 1993).
Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities [1983] (London: Verso, 2010).
See also Roberto G. Gonzales and Leo R. Chavez, “Awakening to a Nightmare: Abjectivity and Illegality in the Lives of Undocumented 1.5-Generation Latino Immigrants in the United States,” Current Anthropology 53:3 (2012): 255–281.
Specifically on Postville, see: Ricardo Ainslie, “Regression in the Construction of the Immigrant Other,” Psychoanalysis, Culture, and Society (Special Issue on Us vs. Them) 14:1 (2009): 49–57.
Marc Lacey, “Migrants Going North Now Risk Kidnappings,” New York Times, October 17, 2009. See also Informe Especial de la Comisión Nacional de los Derechos Humanos sobre los Casos de Secuestro de Migrantes (2009); and Comisión Interamericana de Derechos Humanos, “Secuestros a personas migrantes centroamericanas en tránsito por México” (2010).
Ted Conover, Coyotes: A Journey across Borders with America’s Illegal Migrants (New York: Vintage, 2006).
Jo Tuckman, “Kidnap, Rape, Murder: The Dangers Faced in Mexico by Migrants to U.S.,” The Guardian, April 27, 2010.
Amnesty International, Widespread Abuse of Migrants in Mexico is “Human Rights Crisis” April 28, 2010, includes an excellent video report.
Dudley Althaus, “Survivor of Mexico Slaughter Details Immigrants’ Final Moments,” Houston Chronicle, August 25, 2010.
Inma Gil, “Mexico Migrants Victimised by Drug Cartels,” BBC News, August 27, 2010.
Personal interview, Postville, Iowa, May 11, 2009. Also see Orlan Love, “Postville Detainees Feel Misused by Agriprocessors, Government,” Cedar Rapids Gazette, December 27, 2009.
Monica Rohr, “Now, We Have No Work. We Are Not Free,” Associated Press, August 18, 2008.
Liz Rog, “Opening the Door: The Day Our New Neighbors Arrived,” November 21, 2008. Copy on file with the author.
Erik Camayd-Freixas, Postville: La criminalización de los migrantes (Guatemala: F&G Editores, 2009).
Luis Argueta, De Facto Deportees (New York: Maya Media, 2009).
Tony Leys, “Guatemala: Hope at Any Cost,” Des Moines Register, November 29, 2008.
Greg Brosnan and Jennifer Szymaszek, A Tale of Two Villages (PBS Frontline, 2009) and In the Shadow of the Raid (Streetdog Media, 2009).
Marcela Fernández and Cristina Bonillo, “Estafan a migrantes deportados de Postville,” Prensa Libre, August 27, 2009, p. 3.
Leonir Chiarello, et al., eds., Borders: Walls or Bridges? Proceedings of the First International Forum on Migration and Peace, Antigua, Guatemala, January 29–30, 2009, translated by Erik Camayd-Freixas (New York: Scalabrini International Migration Network, 2009), 35–39.
Mike McGraw, “A Year Later, Iowa Raid Still Marks a Flashpoint,” Kansas City Star, May 12, 2009.
Mike McGraw and Laura Bauer, et al., “Human Trafficking in America,” Kansas City Star. October 25-December 16, 2009.
Copyright information
© 2013 Erik Camayd-Freixas
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Camayd-Freixas, E. (2013). The Orphans of Globalization. In: US Immigration Reform and Its Global Impact. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137106780_6
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137106780_6
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, New York
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-29010-9
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-10678-0
eBook Packages: Palgrave Social Sciences CollectionSocial Sciences (R0)