Punctuated
by marches across the United States in the spring of 2006, immigrant
rights has reemerged as a significant and highly visible political
issue. Immigrant Rights in the Shadows of U.S. Citizenship brings
prominent activists and scholars together to examine the emergence and
significance of the contemporary immigrant rights movement. Contributors
place the contemporary immigrant rights movement in historical and
comparative contexts by looking at the ways immigrants and their allies
have staked claims to rights in the past, and by examining movements
based in different communities around the United States. Scholars
explain the evolution of immigration policy, and analyze current
conflicts around issues of immigrant rights; activists engaged in the
current movement document the ways in which coalitions have been built
among immigrants from different nations, and between immigrant and
native born peoples. The essays examine the ways in which questions of
immigrant rights engage broader issues of identity, including gender,
race, and sexuality.
