Building Walls: Excluding Latin People in the United States

by Ernesto Castañeda Director, Immigration Lab, American University, Silvia Chávez-Baray (Contribution by), Eva Moya (Contribution by), Maura Fennelly (Contribution by), Dennis West (Contribution by)

Overview

The election of Donald Trump has called attention to the border wall and anti-Mexican discourses and policies, yet these issues are not new. Building Walls puts the recent calls to build a border wall along the US-Mexico border into a larger social and historical context. This book describes the building of walls, symbolic and physical, between Americans and Mexicans, as well as the consequences that these walls have in the lives of immigrants and Latin communities in the United States. The book is divided into three parts: categorical thinking, anti-immigrant speech, and immigration as an experience. The sections discuss how the idea of the nation-state itself constructs borders, how political strategy and racist ideologies reinforce the idea of irreconcilable differences between whites and Latinos, and how immigrants and their families overcome their struggles to continue living in America. They analyze historical precedents, normative frameworks, divisive discourses, and contemporary daily interactions between whites and Latin individuals. It discusses the debates on how to name people of Latin American origin and the framing of immigrants as a threat and contrasts them to the experiences of migrants and border residents. Building Walls makes a theoretical contribution by showing how different dimensions work together to create durable inequalities between U.S. native whites, Latinos, and newcomers. It provides a sophisticated analysis and empirical description of racializing and exclusionary processes.

View a separate blog for the book here: https://dornsife.usc.edu/csii/blog-building-walls-excluding-people/

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781498585651
Publisher:	Lexington Books
Publication date:	04/15/2019
Pages:	236
Product dimensions:	6.36(w) x 9.02(h) x 0.82(d)

About the Author

Ernesto Castañeda is assistant professor of sociology at American University where he is affiliated with the Metropolitan Policy Center, the Center of Latin American and Latino Studies, and the Center on Health Risk and Society.

Table of Contents

Part I Categorical Thinking

1 The Historical and Contemporary Exclusion of Latin People from the American Identity with Maura Fennelly

2 Migration and its Challenges to Political Theory and Nationalism

3 Boundary Formation: Nationalism, Immigration, and Categorical Inequality between Americans and Mexicans

Part II Anti-Immigrant Speech

4 Border Vigilantes at the University: Anti-immigrant Discourse and Ideological Campaigns

5 Fronting the White Storm with Dennis West

6 Anti-Immigrant Online Comment Sections in the Aftermath of Trump’s Election with Catherine Harlos

Part III Immigration as an Experience

7 Different Understandings of the Border Wall: The Social Meanings of the Wall for Border Residents

8 Fear of Deportation among Mexicans fleeing Violence with Natali Collazos, Eva Moya, Silvia Chávez-Baray

9 Invisible New Yorkers: Boundaries, Interethnic Networks, Immigrant Integration, and Social Invisibility

10 Why Walls Won’t Work: Interactions between Latin Immigrants and Americans with Maura Fennelly

References

Editorial Reviews

This comprehensive and thoughtful book offers an antidote to anti-migrant scapegoating and dehumanization. Meticulously researched and accessibly written, it shines a light on the long history and contributions of Latinos in the U.S., the cultural richness of the borderlands, and the cruelty of the current deportation regime. By placing claims about the 'border crisis' within a longer history of white supremacy, racial profiling, and discrimination, Castaneda offers an incisive counter-narrative to spectacularized media headlines and politicians' invectives.

Denise Brennan

How perfectly fitting that Castañeda has masterfully mapped how detrimental it has been for Latinos when the US has and continues to build walls, as Trump built his campaign and presidency on the promise to build a wall between the US and Mexico. This book is truly timely and relevant because it is a testament of Latino racialization and exclusion, and it demonstrates why building walls does not work to keep immigrants out or to unite a country.

Celia Lacayo

Despite facing a harsh context of reception, evidence shows that most immigrants today are successfully incorporating into the U.S. Nevertheless, anti-immigrant, and specially, anti-Latino sentiments have seemingly intensified and may have contributed to Trump’s presidential victory. Why? This book explains it. Castañeda marshals compelling ethnographic, statistical, and historical evidence to show the roots and consequences of the exclusion of Latin people in the U.S. For those who care about the future of the country, Building Walls is a required text.

René D. Flores

In their work Building Walls: Excluding Latin People in the United States, Ernesto Castañeda and his coauthors explore the building of boundaries, both symbolic and physical, and the exclusion that these boundaries entail for Latin American and Caribbean populations in the United States. This comprehensive book offers an analysis on three levels.. . Castañeda and his coauthors put forward a wide range of evidence obtained through several methods, above all qualitative and mixed, to show the causes and consequences of the exclusion of Latin people. Their book is highly recommendable for students and experts in several disciplines—including sociology, international relations, and political science—who take an interest in the migratory issue and in the everyday racism, nationalism, and discrimination suffered by the population of Latin American origin in United States.

Latin American Policy

Castañeda presents a conceptually thorough and theoretically comprehensive account for understanding the structural, discursive, and experiential conditions that racialize and demean the life and presence of Latin people in the United States. We not only observe his contribution to the sociological subject matter but also witness an exemplar of where migration studies stands today. By introducing a framework on Latin racialization and Pan-American racial projects, Castañeda takes critical immigration studies in the direction that is most needed to assess the political, demographic, and racial future of the United States.

Contemporary Sociology

Building Walls brings a much-needed critical race analysis to migration studies. Castañeda draws from a wide variety of sources and voices to paint a picture of the exclusion and racialization experienced by people with origins in Latin America who have made their homes in the United States. Expertly weaving in analyses of nationalism, border vigilantism, white supremacy, and immigration enforcement, Building Walls provides a clear and provocative analysis of our contemporary moment. This book would be an excellent addition to courses on race and migration across a wide variety of disciplines.

Tanya Golash-Boza

Buildings Walls is likely to appeal to a wide audience because of its strong theoretical underpinnings, applied work on boundary-formation processes, and focus on a unique aspect of the Mexican-origin experience in the United States. These intersecting foci make the book an appropriate choice for advanced undergraduate or graduate courses in political sociology or in the sociology of immigration or courses focused on race and ethnicity in the U.S. context. Overall, Building Walls is a thought-provoking book on an exigent topic, particularly given the rising anti-immigrant rhetoric and increasing hostility toward Mexican immigrants in the United States. While interaction and engagement may not be the ultimate solution, we have already witnessed the consequences of the status quo.

American Journal of Sociology

Buildings Walls is likely to appeal to a wide audience because of its strong theoretical underpinnings, applied work on boundary-formation processes, and focus on a unique aspect of the Mexican-origin experience in the United States. These intersecting foci make the book an appropriate choice for advanced undergraduate or graduate courses in political sociology or in the sociology of immigration or courses focused on race and ethnicity in the U.S. context. Overall, Building Walls is a thought-provoking book on an exigent topic, particularly given the rising anti-immigrant rhetoric and increasing hostility toward Mexican immigrants in the United States. While interaction and engagement may not be the ultimate solution, we have already witnessed the consequences of the status quo.

-- "American Journal of Sociology"

Castañeda presents a conceptually thorough and theoretically comprehensive account for understanding the structural, discursive, and experiential conditions that racialize and demean the life and presence of Latin people in the United States. We not only observe his contribution to the sociological subject matter but also witness an exemplar of where migration studies stands today. By introducing a framework on Latin racialization and Pan-American racial projects, Castañeda takes critical immigration studies in the direction that is most needed to assess the political, demographic, and racial future of the United States.

-- "Contemporary Sociology"

How perfectly fitting that Castañeda has masterfully mapped how detrimental it has been for Latinos when the US has and continues to build walls, as Trump built his campaign and presidency on the promise to build a wall between the US and Mexico. This book is truly timely and relevant because it is a testament of Latino racialization and exclusion, and it demonstrates why building walls does not work to keep immigrants out or to unite a country.

--Celia Lacayo, UCLA

In their work Building Walls: Excluding Latin People in the United States, Ernesto Castañeda and his coauthors explore the building of boundaries, both symbolic and physical, and the exclusion that these boundaries entail for Latin American and Caribbean populations in the United States. This comprehensive book offers an analysis on three levels. . . Castañeda and his coauthors put forward a wide range of evidence obtained through several methods, above all qualitative and mixed, to show the causes and consequences of the exclusion of Latin people. Their book is highly recommendable for students and experts in several disciplines--including sociology, international relations, and political science--who take an interest in the migratory issue and in the everyday racism, nationalism, and discrimination suffered by the population of Latin American origin in United States.

-- "Latin American Policy"

Building Walls brings a much-needed critical race analysis to migration studies. Castañeda draws from a wide variety of sources and voices to paint a picture of the exclusion and racialization experienced by people with origins in Latin America who have made their homes in the United States. Expertly weaving in analyses of nationalism, border vigilantism, white supremacy, and immigration enforcement, Building Walls provides a clear and provocative analysis of our contemporary moment. This book would be an excellent addition to courses on race and migration across a wide variety of disciplines.--Tanya Golash-Boza, University of California, Merced

Despite facing a harsh context of reception, evidence shows that most immigrants today are successfully incorporating into the U.S. Nevertheless, anti-immigrant, and specially, anti-Latino sentiments have seemingly intensified and may have contributed to Trump's presidential victory. Why? This book explains it. Castañeda marshals compelling ethnographic, statistical, and historical evidence to show the roots and consequences of the exclusion of Latin people in the U.S. For those who care about the future of the country, Building Walls is a required text.--René D. Flores, University of Chicago

This comprehensive and thoughtful book offers an antidote to anti-migrant scapegoating and dehumanization. Meticulously researched and accessibly written, it shines a light on the long history and contributions of Latinos in the U.S., the cultural richness of the borderlands, and the cruelty of the current deportation regime. By placing claims about the 'border crisis' within a longer history of white supremacy, racial profiling, and discrimination, Castaneda offers an incisive counter-narrative to spectacularized media headlines and politicians' invectives.--Denise Brennan, author of Life Interrupted: Trafficking into Forced Labor in the United States

From the Publisher

Despite facing a harsh context of reception, evidence shows that most immigrants today are successfully incorporating into the U.S. Nevertheless, anti-immigrant, and specially, anti-Latino sentiments have seemingly intensified and may have contributed to Trump’s presidential victory. Why? This book explains it. Castañeda marshals compelling ethnographic, statistical, and historical evidence to show the roots and consequences of the exclusion of Latin people in the U.S. For those who care about the future of the country, Building Walls is a required text.

René D. Flores