Learning a New Community

An amazing series of stories from some of Arlington's newest arrivals.

Tell Arlington's Story

I'm very pleased to announce my participation with Tell Arlington's Story, a county-wide initiative to collect the stories of everyday Arlingtonians.  Check out the website, it's amazing.

Virginia's Changing Communities

I've decided it's time to refocus this blog so that it is more in line with my current research agenda.  I began blogging in 2006 when I started fieldwork in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.  I was studying a group of North American and European retirees who had decided to make Mexico home.  It was a great run, but a series of health problems and new job demands in the U.S. have pushed my research in new and exciting directions.  I am, and always will be, a scholar of human migration.  However, my focus has reoriented toward communities in Northern Virginia. 

In 2007-2009 I did some work with Latino and U.S.-born residents of Manassas, Virginia.  It's an interesting place, but the work was not a good fit.  I found that although I enjoyed the people who were willing to share their life experiences withe me, the racial and ethnic tension there was overwhelming.  There are a lot of great people there, but also a few bad apples who aren't interesting in getting along.  They want to push their Latino neighbors out.  I did not want to continue to work under that constant pressure, so late last year as I was writing up my last article on Manassas, I decided it was time to start something new.

Since then I've started a new project in Arlington County.  For Washingtonians it probably seems like a move to the other side of the world, and in some respects, that's true politically.  Arlington is more urban, and certainly much more accepting of their immigrant populations.  But what draws me to studying Arlington is the fact that despite the rapid changes and the many immigrant populations, they've taken a different approach to their new neighbors.  My plan is to examine this as another of Virginia's changing communities.

Because my interests will be similar, I will still post on immigrant issues and legal proceedings.  I will also talk about my research process, as I will be working with students and community members throughout the project.  For this reason, I've returned to the blog's original title, "Living Ethnography."  I'm still "the Gringa," but my identity as a researcher is likely to be more expansive, and thus not limited to the U.S.-Mexico context as it was before.

I hope you'll continue to join me on this new ethnographic adventure.

Workforce Compliance and the IMAGE program

As I've long stated, effective immigration control has to go after employers. This article from the Washington Post seems to confirm this position.

TYSON FOODS, one of the world's largest food processing firms, has a checkered past when it comes to employment practices, specifically the hiring of undocumented workers. A decade ago, the firm faced federal charges that it conspired to smuggle undocumented workers into the country to operate its production lines. A jury acquitted Tyson, but the damage to the company's name was done.

So it was notable this week when U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced that Tyson had received a federal seal of approval for its hiring practices, which it has improved over the past five or six years. After months of scrutiny by officials, who combed through employment records for virtually every one of Tyson's 100,000-plus workers in this country, ICE and Tyson signed an agreement certifying that the firm and its workforce were on the right side of immigration law.

The event is instructive, not least because Tyson is an outlier; in the past four years, only 115 companies have enlisted in the so-called Image program that Tyson signed up for last week. Most of them are small- to medium-sized ventures; Tyson is one of just two Fortune 500 firms on the list. Although some 250,000 companies have enrolled inE-Verify, a federal program that screens potential new hires for employment eligibility, most firms appear reluctant to have their existing workforces scrutinized, as the Image program requires. And no wonder: An estimated 6 million or 7 million undocumented immigrants are in the U.S. labor force.

To its credit, the Obama administration has more than tripled the number of ICE agents assigned to check hiring practices. The agency has targeted several thousand employers with stepped-up audits of their workforces, arrested hundreds of company officials and levied fines amounting to millions of dollars against companies hiring undocumented workers. Recently, ICE announced that it is beefing up its ability to go after larger companies that may employ undocumented workers. All that is a sensible shift from Bush administration policy, which emphasized raids on factories featuring mass detentions of the workers themselves.

If the current policy turns up the heat on corporations, so much the better; they may in turn increase pressure on Congress to reform America's broken immigration system. As it stands, that system ignores the fact that millions of undocumented workers play an integral role in the economy and that the nation needs a realistic mechanism for admitting sufficient numbers of low-skilled employees to fill jobs that Americans don't want, even with the nation suffering from high unemployment.

The administration has cracked down on employers, tightened border security and stepped up its deportation efforts, particularly against undocumented immigrants with criminal records. Those steps, combined with the recession, have dramatically slowed the inflow of workers here illegally. Still, some 11 million of them remain in America, working in the shadows. As long as Congress refuses to act, the problem will continue to fester.

Immigration Reform's Image Problem

This is an amazing commentary about the lack of marketing strategy used by non-profits trying to promote the DREAM Act.  The basic message: you cannot sell a rights issue by saying you deserve it.

There is a subtext to this piece, about the fact that Americans don't believe anybody deserves anything (except perhaps the rich who deserve to make as much money as possible and have little or no social or community obligation).

It's something we should all think about.

Dare to Dream

Lou Dobbs, American Hypocrite

Lou Dobbs on Illegal Immigration: He rallies against them, but they're working for him

It's been a long time since I last thought, wow, that's some great investigative journalism.  If you know how the American economy works you know that many of the rich not only employ undocumented immigrants to cut their grass, clean their houses and care for their horses, they benefit from their labor in other less direct ways.  We all benefit from undocumented immigration whether we want to admit it or not.  In Lou Dobb's case, he benefits and vilifies at the same time.

Revisiting Manassas: Watching 9500 Liberty

Last night 9500 Liberty was aired on MTV2.  It was the first time I have been able to see the final cut version of the film.  I've been watching the development of the project since its first video clips went viral three years ago.  I've also hosted Annabel Park and Eric Byler to campus for a screening of the film as a work in progress.

That said, watching the film in its entirety was an emotional experience for me. I conducted fieldwork in Manassas and in the surrounding county from 2008-2009, speaking with native-born residents and immigrants, and I was impressed how the filmmakers were able to capture the essence of the immigration controversy in Prince William County, particularly the overwhelming influence of a small group of residents, the role of groups outside the community in pushing an anti-immigrant agenda, and  Cory Stewart's crass and obvious use of a local conflict to advance his political career.

What really struck me, however, was the overwhelming pain that Prince William County's "rule of law" ordinance inflicted on the largely Latino immigrant community.

The film documents an important and rarely understood aspect of the immigration debate: how immigration is shaping local communal identity, and how poorly equipped many communities are to deal with those changes.

Annabel and Eric--job well done.

Water in the Desert-littering or lifesaving?

When I read this story in the NYT yesterday, I thought, "my goodness, I live in a hateful country."

What type of person would ticket and charge someone with littering when they're leaving jugs of water to be consumed by dying men and women in the desert?

The act of leaving water is basic humane behavior.  To think otherwise is simply obscene.

Immigration, Economics, and Nativism

This essay by Ezra Klein argues that the positive aspects of immigration on the economy outweigh the negative one.  He'll find no argument with me on that point, however, he falls into the trap that so many pro-immigrant advocates do: he assumes that the obscure intellectual economic discussion will actually influence people who believe that immigrants are transforming their way of life.  And as idiotic as it may sound--some people would rather give up the economic benefits to live in communities where everyone speaks English, is white, and has the same cultural and aesthetic values.

I say this after years of experience working in new destination immigrant communities in the U.S.  It's irrational, but there are a lot of otherwise good-natured folks out there who see immigrants in their community about as positive as a radioactive brownfield. 

If, as a nation, we are going to address the issue of immigration in communities, it has to be done at the local level.

There is no other way.

The Gringa on the DREAM Act

9500 Liberty

9500 Liberty will be broadcast on Sunday night at 8 PM.  This film is an outstanding & fair examination of the immigration controversy in Manassas, Virginia.

You can watch the film in its entirety on on MTV 2, MTV U and MTV Tr3s (with Spanish subtitles).  

Stephen Colbert's Congressional Testimony

Powell on the GOP and Immigration

Bravo, Colin Powell.  I wish you were not the minority.  "Immigration is what is keeping our country's life-blood moving forward."

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Colin Powell: illegal immigrants have worked on my home

If you're going to be honest, most of us would have to admit that at one time or another, we've had undocumented immigrants working in or around our homes.  Whether we've done this intentionally, by hiring a housekeeper whom we decided "don't ask, don't tell" is the best policy, to hiring a subcontractor to mow lawns or landscape who most certainly has picked up a day laborer or two to help out with a day's work.  Today's Washington Post highlights the perspective of Colin Powell, who breaks with the American tradition of pretending that we don't do thing we really do pretty often, and admits that he has hired the undocumented to work on his home.

He does this as an attempt to raise awareness of the need for comprehensive immigration reform.  Let's hope he's not the last reasonable Republican who's willing to take a stand.

Immigrant Voices: An Oliver Twist Story

This article from today's Washington Post highlights an amazing story of a Guatemalan immigrant child who arrived in the U.S. at age 14 and somehow survived--and thrived--with the support of teachers, family and friends.  He's a poster child for why we need to pass the DREAM Act.

Virginia and the Immigration "debate"

I put debate in quotations above because I do not see the shouting match that is taking place in the U.S. as a debate--it is simply a group of politicians, in many cases siding with nativists, who are looking for ways to enhance their political careers and ride the immigration wave.


Take Corey Stewart, for example.  Mr. Stewart has made he entire career on the backs of immigrants in Virginia.  His latest shenanigans was an attempt to proposal immigration legislation at the state level.  Never mind that 1) he's not a member of the general assembly and 2) not eligible to introduce legislation.  Even more significant here is that the alleged newspaper (Inside NOVA.com) that reported this didn't even bother to mention that Mr. Stewart is simply doing with he does best: blowing steam in an attempt to capture media attention.  Mission accomplished.


The latest news from Virginia comes from our state Attorney General, Ken Cuccinelli.   Mr. Cuccinelli has been following Mr. Stewart's lead, and has issued a legal opinion that authorizes law enforcement to check the immigration status of anyone stopped by police officers for any reason.  Unlike Mr. Stewart, this is something that our state AG can do, although to what effect is still in question.


The opinion basically states that Virginia law enforcement is  authorizes to check the immigration status of anyone stopped by police officers for any reason.  


Gov. McDonnell may codify Cuccinelli's opinion as an executive order.  Local jurisdictions may adopt ordinances based on his opinion, but they may not.  Either way, Cuccinelli's opinion will likely be challenged in the courts.


What is of concern here is the effect that Mr. Cuccinelli's opinion will have on the Commonwealth.  Do we really want to tie up our local law enforcement digging into the immigration status of everyone who gets pulled over for speeding?  Is our fair state so crime-free that we don't need police officers to do what they were hired to do, which is find and apprehend criminals?


Let's put aside the fact that this move, if enacted, is a tremendous waste of taxpayer dollars.  What will be the effect on the hundreds of thousands of LEGAL IMMIGRANTS in Virginia?  What about their civil rights?


Even if his opinion is met by a collective yawn from law enforcement, Mr. Cucccinelli has gotten what he wants: national publicity. 

Show me your papers? I don't think so

I'm very happy to report that part of the Arizona immigration law--the provision that would require American citizens to carry papers--has been blocked.  The judged restated the concern that I and many immigrant advocates have felt is the most damaging aspect of the law, saying:

“There is a substantial likelihood that officers will wrongfully arrest legal resident aliens,” she wrote. “By enforcing this statute, Arizona would impose a ‘distinct, unusual and extraordinary’ burden on legal resident aliens that only the federal government has the authority to impose" (emphasis added).

Some aspects of the law were not blocked, but this move indicates that the nativists will not have free reign in this debate.   

Arizona Immigration Law's Day in Court

At 4:30 eastern time, a federal judge in Phoenix will hear arguments regarding Arizona's immigration law.  At issue is whether the judge will issue a temporary injunction.  I'll be blogging later today as news develops.