The intermestic politics of immigration policy: Lessons from the Bracero Program

Abstract

Although a quintessentially intermestic issue, immigration policy is usually analyzed as a one-level (domestic or international) policy question, and existing theories essentially talk past each other while failing to explain changes over time. I develop a domestic-international model of migration policy-making which explores the ability of Congress, the president, and migrant-sending states to influence outcomes. I examine the U.S.-Mexican Bracero Program (1942–1964), and I find that my model strongly outperforms existing one-level theories of migration policy-making. I conclude by exploring the current immigration policy environment, and I argue that it too is best understood as a two-level process.

Citation

Rosenblum, M.R. (2004), "The intermestic politics of immigration policy: Lessons from the Bracero Program", Davis, D.E. (Ed.) Political Power and Social Theory (Political Power and Social Theory, Vol. 16), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 139-182. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0198-8719(03)16005-X