Alien Nation Review: Yale Law Journal, May 1996 - (Part
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Neckerman, `We'd Love to Hire Them, But. . ':
The Meaning of Race for Employers, in The Urban
Underclass 203, 204 (Christopher Jencks &
Paul E. Peterson eds., 1991). For a vivid
illustration of this point, see Mary C. Waters,
BLACK Like Who? (forthcoming 1996) (finding West
Indians preferred to African-americans as
employees). (119.) See George J. Borjas, The
Economic Benefits from Immigration, 9 J. Econ.
Persp. 3, 10 (1995) (citing other studies).
(120.) See Thomas Muller, Immigrants and the
American City 166-85 (1993). (121.) See Elaine
Sorensen & Frank D. Bean, The Immigration
Reform and Control Act and the Wages of Mexican
Origin Workers: Evidence from Current Population
Surveys, 75 Soc. Sci. Q. 1, 16 (1994). (122.)
After claiming that the post-1965 immigration
has contributed to the economic woes of black
workers, Alien Nation, supra note 1, at 173-75,
Brimelow exhibits some caution, saying that it
is "at least a possibility," id. at
175. His discussion is entirely one-sided on
this point. Reviewing the studies in 1989,
Robert Reischauer concluded that "careful
and sophisticated analyses by a number of social
scientists provide little evidence that
immigrants have had any significant negative
impacts on the employment situation of black
Americans." Robert D. Reischauer,
Immigration and the Underclass, 501 Annals Am.
Acad. Pol. & Soc. Sci. 120, 120 (1989)
(abstract). A recent study by the U.S. Bureau of
Labor Statistics, however, finds that recent
high levels of immmigration are depressing the
wages of low-skilled workers. See Immigrants
Contribute to Rising Gap Between Rich and Poor,
FAIR Immigration Report, Feb. 1996, at 6 (citing
David Jaeger, Skill Differentials and the Effect
of Immigrants on the Wages of Natives (Bureau of
Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor
Working Paper No. 273, 1995)). The study does
not appear to have examined the effects of
immigration specifically on low- and unskilled
African-American workers. (123.) These
possibilities are discussed in Frank D. Bean et
al., Labor Market Dynamics and the Effects of
Immigration on African Americans, in Blacks,
Immigration and Race Relations (Gerald Jaynes
ed., forthcoming 1996) (manuscript at 5-18, on
file with author), which concludes that
immigration into tight labor markets might
reduce black unemployment, while immigration
into loose ones might increase it. (124.) See
Alien Nation, supra note 1, at 178-90, 211-18.
(125.) Seee, g., Waters, supra note 118 (finding
these values to be preferred by immigrants'
employers and co-workers). (126.) Id. at 88-89,
145 (English proficiency); id. at 181
(illegitimacy); id. at 182-86 (crime). (127.) An
estimated 75% of the aliens in federal prisons,
compared to 56% of the U.S. citizens there, are
incarcerated for drug-related charges. Criminal
Aliens: Hearing Before the Subcomm. on
International Law, Immigration and Refugees of
the House Comm. on the Judiciary, 103d Cong., 2d
Sess. 165 (1994) [hereinafter 1994 Criminal
Aliens Hearing! (testimony of Kathleen Hawk,
Director, U.S. Bureau of Prisons). (128.)
Criminal Aliens in the United States: Hearings
Before the Permanent Subcomm. on Investigations
of the Senate Comm. on Government Affairs, 103d
Cong., 1st Sess. 12 (1993) [hereinafter 1993
Criminal Aliens Hearing). (129.) See John
Williams, The Criminal Alien Problem 1 n.2 (Oct.
20, 1995) (memorandum on file with author).
(130.) A recent statistical study of
foreign-born state inmates found that
approximately 45% were illegal aliens. See
Rebecca L. Clark et al., Fiscal Impacts of
Undocumented Aliens: Selected Estimates for
Seven States tbls. 3.2, 3.4 (1994). The INS
estimates that 20% of foreign-born state inmates
are not deportable at all. Removal of Criminal
and Illegal Aliens: Hearings before the Subcomm.
on Immigration and Claims of the House Judiciary
Comm., 104th Cong., 1st Sess. (Mar. 23, 1995)
(testimony of T. Alexander Aleinikoff, General
Counsel, Immigration and Naturalization
Service), available in LEXIS, News Library,
Curnws File [hereinafter Aleinikoff Testimony].
This figure suggests that the remaining 35% of
foreign-born inmates are deportable aliens who
are not in illegal status. (131.) See 1994
Criminal Aliens Hearing, supra note 127, at 133
(statement of Rep. Richard H. Lehman). (132.)
Aleinikoff Testimony, supra note 130. (133.) The
data, such as they are, appear in Julian L.
Simon, The Economic Consequences of Immigration
102-03 (1989). (134.) On the Dillingham
Commission, see Maldwyn Allen Jones, American
Immigration 152-57 (2d ed. 1992). (135.) See
Simon, supra note 133, at 102-03. (136.) See,
e.g., John Kifner, Immigrant Waves From Asia
Brings an Underworld Ashore, N.Y Times, Jan. 6,
1991, at 1 (reporting on Asian gangs in New
York). (137.) See, e.g., Clifford Krauss, Drug
Arrests in Colombia Lead to Killings in Queens,
N.Y Times, Nov. 25, 1995, at 1. (138.) See,
e.g., Joseph P. Fried, Sheik and 9 Followers
Guilty of a Conspiracy of Terrorism, N.Y Times,
Oct. 2, 1995, at A1. (139.) See, e.g., Selwyn
Raab, Influx of Russian Gangsters Troubles F.B.I.
in Brooklyn, N.Y. Times, Aug. 23, 1994, at A1.
(140.) See Steven A. Holmes, Large Increase in
Deportations Occurred in '95, N.Y. Times, Dec.
28, 1995, at A1. (141.) See 1993 Criminal Aliens
Hearing, supra note 128, at 77. (142.) The
Border Patrol now includes 5000 officers, and
Congress has instructed the INS to add 1000 more
on the Mexican border. Migration News (Jan.
1996) (migrant news PLM <migrant@primal.ucdavis.
edu>). (143.) For example, in the El Paso,
Texas, sector of the U.S.-Mexico border, the INS
in September 1993 implemented "Operation
Hold-the-Line," in which Border Patrol
officers were stationed every hundred yards or
so along the border. See Joel Brinkley, A Rare
Success at the Border Brought Scant Official
Praise, N.Y. Times, Sept. 14, 1994, at A1. The
deployment reduced apprehensions of illegals
from 700 to around 200 per day. Wayne A.
Cornelius et al., Introduction: The Ambivalent
Quest for Immigrant Controls, in Controlling
Immigration, supra note 16, at 3, 35. A 1994
study of "Operation Hold-the-Line,"
however, determined that the program had not
deterred long-distance immigration, diverting
such immigration instead to other crossing
points along the border. James Bornemeier, El
Paso Plan Deters Illegal Immigrants, L.A. Times,
July 27, 1994, at A3, A15 (discussing report
prepared by Frank Bean and others for U.S.
Commission on Immigration Reform).
The INS has also staged simulations at the
southern border of an immigration deluge
provoked by an internal crisis in Mexico. Sam
Dillon, U.S. Tests Border Plan in Event of
Mexico Crisis, N.Y. Times, Dec. 8, 1995, at B16.
(144.) Aleinikoff Testimony, supra note 130; see
also Holmes, supra note 140, at D18 (detailing
INS's increased efforts). (145.) See Espenshade,
supra note 37, at 211-12 (citing data and
reasons for failure of enforcement efforts).
Espenshade points out that once an illegal
immigrant has taken up residence in the
interior, "the annual probability of being
apprehended is roughly 1-2%." Id. at 212.
Immigration control efforts in Europe have also
been generally ineffective. See generally
Controlling Immigration, supra note 16, at
143-97. (146.) See Robert Pear, Clinton to Ban
Contracts to Companies that Hire Illegal Aliens,
N.Y. Times, Jan. 23, 1996, at A12. (147.) Barry
R. Chiswick & Paul W. Miller, The
Endogeneity Between Language and Earnings:
International Analyses, 12 J. Labor Econ. 246,
278-79 (1995). (148.) Alien Nation, supra note
1, at 88-89. (149.) Twenty-two states have
already adopted "official English"
laws. Joyce Price, English-Only Advocates Sense
Momentum; See Passing Chance for Proposed Bills,
Wash. Times, sept. 7, 1995, at A2 (listing 22
states). Senator Robert Dole has proposed such a
rule at the federal level, id., and other
presidential contenders will not be far behind.
Indeed, President Clinton signed such a law for
Arkansas when he was governor of that state.
Campaign English from Senator Dole, N.Y Times,
Sept. 10, 1995, [sections]4, at 16. While Dole
originally pledged, if elected, to seek to
eliminate federal support for bilingual
education, see id., he subsequently toned down
his rhetoric to permitting bilingual education
programs "`that ensure that people learn
English in a timely fashion,'" Margot
Homblower, Putting Tongues in Cheek: Should
Bilingual Education Be Silenced?, Time, Oct. 9,
1995, at 40, 42. Congress recently held hearings
on English as the common language of the United
States. House Holds Hearing on English as the
Common Language, 72 Interpreter Releases 1542
(1995). (150.) Alejandro Portes puts the point
this way:
[F]irst-generation immigrants are not
regarded generally as poor, no matter what their
objective
situation is, because they are seen as
somehow different from domestic minorities. The
same
is not true of their children who as U.S.
citizens and full participants in American
society, are
unlikely to use a foreign country as a point
of reference or as a place to return to.
Instead, they
will be evaluated and will evaluate
themselves by the standards of their new
country. Portes, supra note 103, at 15. (151.)
Chiswick & Miller, supra note 147, at
278-79. In another paper based on Australian
data, Chiswick and Miller show that "ethnic
network" variables--particularly the
existence of an ethnic press, proximity of
relatives, and spouse's origin language--are
more important than the mere fact of living in a
minority-language enclave in explaining
dominant-language fluency. Barry R. Chiswick
& Paul W. Miller, Ethnic Networks and
Language Proficiency Among Immigrants (1995)
(unpublished manuscript, on file with author).
(152.) In a 1995 survey, 81% of immigrants
living in the United States for more than 20
years report using "English at home most
often"; for those in their first decade,
the figure is 49%. See The Immigrant Experience,
supra note 68, at 103. (153.) Alejandro Portes
& Richard Schauffler, Language and the
Second Generation: Bilingualism Yesterday and
Today, 28 Int'l Migration Rev. 640, 641, 643
(1994) (citing sources). (154.) id. at 647. The
authors state that "self-reports of
language ability, unlike other individual
characteristics, are both reliable and
valid." Id. at 646 (citing sources). (155.)
Id. at 647, 652. Indeed, the authors note that
because fluent bilingualism is increasingly an
economic asset, the loss of parental-language
fluency may pose a greater risk for today's
second generation than the nonproblem of
inadequate English. Id. at 659. This preference
for English was even stronger among Cuban
children, who were educated in bilingual schools
at the core of an ethnic enclave. Id. at 652.
Brimelow does cite (incorrectly, see Alien
Nation, supra note 1, at 306 n.4) a study of
second-generation schoolchildren in the San
Diego and Miami areas that found that
Mexican-American children, including those who
claimed to be proficient in English,
nevertheless retained and preferred to speak the
parental language (Spanish) to a much greater
degree than children from other nationality
groups did. See Ruben G. Rumbaut, The Crucible
Within: Ethnic Identity, Self-esteem, and
Segmented Assimilation Among Children of
Immigrants, 28 Int'l Migration Rev. 748, tbl. 3
at 768 (1994). (156.) Despite the much higher
Spanish preference rate of the Mexican-American
children in the Rumbaut study, they are not
really an exception. Their English fluency was
only slightly lower than some foreign-language
groups and was higher than several others,
especially some Asian groups. Rumbaut, supra
note 155, tbl. 3 at 768. Spanish-language
speakers, especially Mexicans, tend to have
higher parental-language retention rates,
especially if they live near the border,
interact with frequent border crossers, live in
a community constantly being replenished by
first-generation Spanish-speaking immigrants, or
adopt an adversarial stance toward Anglo
society. By the third generation, however,
virtually everyone is monolingual. See Alejandro
Portes & Ruben G. Rumbaut, Immigrant
America: A Portrait 183 (1990). (157.) Alien
Nation, supra note 1, at 181. (158.) Charles
Hirschman, Problems and Prospects of Studying
immigrant Adaptation from the 1990 Population
Census: From Generational Comparisons to the
Process of "Becoming American," 28
Int'l Migration Rev. 690, 708-10 (1994). The
rates among Asian refugees, however, are much
higher than for other Asians. Id. at 710. (159.)
Alien Nation, supra note 1, at 184. (160.)
Hirschman, supra note 158, at 711. (161.) See
Frank D. Bean et al., Socioeconomic and Cultural
Incorporation and Marital Disruption Among
Mexican Americans (Sept. 1995) (unpublished
paper, on file with author). (162.) Id. at
26-27. Frank Bean and his colleagues attribute
the rise in divorce rates in the second and
third generations to the special uncertainties
and vulnerabilities surrounding the immigration
experience in the United States that keep
families together in the first generation. Id.
at 25-26. Even in the third generation, the
Hispanic divorce rate does not exceed that of
U.S. natives, whereas the black divorce rate is
higher than the U.S. average. Nevertheless, this
dynamic could have worrisome implications for
Mexican-American progress in the United States.
As the authors put it, "The greater marital
stability of lower socioeconomic status
immigrants, when included in average rates of
marital disruption, leads to what some might
term a falsely rosy picture." Id. at 26.
(163.) See Alejandro Portes & Min Zhou, The
New Second Generation: Segmented Assimilation
and Its Variants, 530 Annals Am. Acad. Pol.
& Soc. Sci. 74, 74 (1993). (164.) Portes,
supra note 103, at 17 (citations omitted).
(165.) Id. at 23. (166.) Portes and Zhou have
found empirical evidence for this form of
self-consciously delayed assimilation among the
Cuban and Punjabi Sikh enclaves in South Florida
and California, respectively, contrasting the
experiences of these groups to the less
protected, downwardly assimilating Haitians in
Miami, and Mexicans and Mexican-Americans in
central California. See Portes & Zhou, supra
note 163, at 87-91. (167.) See Bean et al.,
supra note 101, at 76-77. The Mexican-American
experience in educational attainment,
furthermore, suggests that continued progress
beyond the second generation is by no means
assured. See supra note 101 and accompanying
text. (168.) See Alein Nation, supra note 1, at
193-95. For another discussion of this
possibility, see Leon Bouvier, What if ...?
Immigration Decisions: What Could Have Been,
What Could be 15 (1994). (169.) See Alien
Nation, supra note 1, at 195-201. As precedent,
Brimelow points to the brief rise of the
Know-Nothings' American party in the 1850s. He
emphasizes that the Know-Nothings, while rabidly
anti-Catholic, did not in fact seek to restrict
immigration and placed a higher priority on
abolition. Id. at 12-13, 200. (170.) See Steven
A. Holmes, House Panel Keeps Intact Bill to
Restrict Immigration, N.Y. Times, Oct. 12, 1995,
at A20 (discussing Republican bill to restrict
legal immigration); Robert Pear, Clinton
Embraces a Proposal to Cut Immigration by a
Third, N.Y. Times, June 8, 1995, at B10
(reporting President Clinton's endorsement of
proposal by Commission on Immigration Reform to
reduce legal immigration by one-third). (171.)
See Alien Nation, supra note 1, at 123-33.
(172.) The term "imagined" is taken,
of course, from Benedict Anderson's coinage. see
Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities:
Reflections on the Origin and Spread of
Nationalism (2d ed. 1991). (173.) See Alien
Nation, supra note 1, at 230-32. Brimelow
defines the "New Class" (a term he
explicitly borrows from Irving Kristol, see
Irving Kristol, Two Cheers For Capitalism 26-31
(1978)) as "the professionals who run and
benefit from the state ... and its power to
tax." Id. at 230. For an avowedly liberal
critique of the balkanizing tendencies of
contemporary society that rejects this
distinction between the "new class"
and other powerful class interests, see Lind,
supra note 13, at 327. (174.) Alien Nation,
supra note 1, at 219. (175.) Id. (176.) Indeed,
the fact that many of the new immigrants are
refugees fleeing cruel regimes in harsh
societies, which Brimelow insists was not true
in the good old days, id. at 246, suggests that
the newcomers' loyalties are, if anything, less
conflicted than those of their predecessors.
(177.) See The Immigrant Experience, supra note
68, at 101 (relating 1995 survey data from June
1995 that indicate that immigrants' belief in
American values is as great or greater than that
of natives). (178.) Alein Nation, supra note 1,
at 219. (179.) Brimelow fails to mention another
policy-racially defined and gerrymandered
legislative districting--that I believe is
perhaps even more dangerous because it
reinforces racialist thinking and creates
perverse incentives for political behavior, and
because it is especially difficult to dislodge
once it is in place. See infra notes 208-12 and
accompanying text. (180.) See supra notes 153-56
and accompanying text.
(181.) For instances of this ideological
subordination, see, for example, Stephanie
Gutmann, The Bilingual Ghetto: Why New York's
Schools Won't Teach Immigrants English, City J.,
Winter 1992, at 29; Abigail M. Thernstrom, E
Pluribus Plura--Congress and Bilingual
Education, Pub. Interest, summer 1980, at 3. I
say "presumed" because of claims that
assignment to bilingual classes sometimes
reflects nothing more than the school's
ascription of ethnicity to the child based on
her surname. For an example of this practice,
see Gutmann, supra, at 29. (182.) See Toby L.
Bovitz, Bilingual Education in New York No
Longer Serves Students, N.Y. Times, Mar. 23,
1995, at A24 (letter to editor from bilingual
psychologist in school system); Sam Dillon,
Report Faults Bilingual Education in New York,
N.Y. Times, Oct. 20, 1994, at A1; Gutmann, supra
note 181, at 29; Jacques Steinberg, Lawsuit Is
Filed Accusing State of Overuse of Bilingual
Classes, N.Y. Times, Sept. 19, 1995, at B6
(reporting suit by parents' group). But see
Mafia Newman, Schools are Likely to Stop
Automatic English Testing, N.Y. Times, Feb. 27,
1996, at B3 (describing plan to terminate
automatic testing of children with Spanish
surnames for possible placement in bilingual
programs). (183.) Legislation pending in
Congress would greatly restrict or even
eliminate bilingual education. See, e.g., H.R.
1005, 104th Cong., 1st Sess. [sections] 3(a)
(1995) (repealing former Bilingual Education
Act, 20 U.S.C. [subsections] 3281-3341 (1994));
see also Homblower, supra note 149, at 42
(detailing congressional and administration
positions on bilingual education). To the extent
that these changes would eliminate even
genuinely transitional, short-term bilingual
education entirely, they may go too far. (184.)
Canada, for example, has made multiculturalism a
constitutionally-protected value. Can. Const.
(Constitution Act, 1982), Pt. I (Canadian
Charter of Rights and Freedoms), [sections] 27
("This Charter shall be interpreted in a
manner consistent with the preservation and
enhancement of the multicultural heritage of
Canada."). The U.S. Supreme Court has also
protected the right of religious and ethnic
minorities to preserve their cultural practices.
Eg., Pierce v. Society of Sisters of the Holy
Names of Jesus and Mary, 268 U.S. 510 (1925)
(invalidating Oregon law requiring children
between ages of eight and 16 to attend public
school); Meyer v. Nebraska, 262 U.S. 390 (1923)
(striking down Nebraska statute prohibiting
teaching of languages other than English and
instruction in languages other than English).
(185.) Glazer, supra note 60, at 46-47. (186.)
For a spirited attack on this "ideal of
authenticity" and on the contrived
character of many multiculturalists' symbols,
see Lind, supra note 13, at 122-27. (187.) For
alarming and sometimes tragi-comical examples by
insightful observers, see Richard Bernstein,
Dictatorship of Virtue: Multiculturalism and the
Battle for America's Future (1994); Lynne V.
Cheney, Telling the Truth: Why Our Culture and
Our Country Have Stopped Making Sense--and What
We Can Do About It (1995). (188.) See, e.g.,
Mary Lefkownz, Not out of Africa: How
Afrocentrism Became an Excuse To Teach Myth as
History (1996). (189.) See, e.g., Lind, supra
note 13, at 118-37; Mary C. Waters, Ethnic
Options: Choosing Identities in America 16-51
(1990); Christopher A. Ford, Administering
Identity: The Determination of "Race"
in Race-Conscious Law, 82 Cal. L. Rev. 1231,
1239-40 (1994). (190.) The percentage of
white-identifying Hispanics depends in pan on
the structure of the survey instrument and the
methodology of the questioner. Bureau of the
Census, U.S. Dep't of Commerce, Current
Population Reports, Series P23-182, Exploring
Alternative Pace-Ethnic Comparison Groups in
Current Population Surveys 2-3 (1992). For an
historical survey of the changing racial and
ethnic questions in the census, including the
mutability of Hispanic self-identification, see
Stephan Thernstrom, American Ethnic Statistics,
in Immigrants in Two Democracies: French and
American Experience 80, 100 n.5 (Donald L.
Horowitz & Gerard Noiriel eds., 1992)
(reporting that 21.1% of people who identified
with Spanish-origin group in 1971 gave different
origin just one year later; 12% of all those who
self-identified as Hispanic had abandoned it).
(191.) For these exogamy data, see Frank D. Bean
et al., The Changing Demography of U.S.
Immigration Flows: Patterns, Projections, and
Contexts 13 (July 1995) (unpublished paper
presented at Conference on German-American
Migration and Refugee Policies, on file with
author). (192.) See id. tbl. 4. (193.) In a
curious, brief discussion of interracial
marriage, he acknowledges that it would tend to
dissipate the Pincers' pressure and then adds
the following "BUT" (italics and
capitalization in original): "while more
Hispanics are intermarrying, the proportion of
all Hispanic marriages has fallen, swamped by
the sheer growth of the Hispanic
population." Alien Nation, supra note 1, at
274. The meaning and relevance of this
observation escape me. (194.) Bean et al., supra
note 191, at 14. (195.) See Barry Edmonston et
al., Ethnicity, Ancestry, and Exogamy in U.S.
Population Projections (Apr. 1994) (unpublished
paper presented before Population Association of
America, on file with author). (196.) See Bean
et al., supra note 191, at 14-15 (summarizing
findings in Edmonston et al., supra note 195, at
28). The actual number would depend on how such
individuals self-identify in reporting to the
census. This in turn may depend on how the
Census Bureau resolves the issue of whether a
mixed ancestry category should be established.
On the Census Bureau's approach to this
question, see Lawrence Wright, One Drop of
Blood, New Yorker, July 25, 1994, at 46. (197.)
For two discussions of this question, see Ford
Found., Changing Relations: Newcomers and
Established Residents IN U.S. Communities
(1993); Opening the Door, supra note 55. The
first of these would change the focus from
immigrants' assimilation to their accommodation,
defined as "a process by which all sides in
a multifaceted situation, including established
residents and groups at different stages of
settlement, find ways of adjusting to and
supporting one another." Ford Found.,
supra, at 4. To the extent that this change is
an exhortation to receiving communities to
welcome immigrants, it is benign, but to the
extent that it is meant to shift the initiative
for, and the principal burdens of, assimilation
from immigrants to the established community, it
is probably misguided and will engender
resistance. (198.) See e.g., Paul M. Banett,
Pentagon Move to Hurt Minority Builders, Wall
St. J., Oct. 25, 1995, at B2 (reporting that
Defense Department, Small Business
Administration, and other agencies are
curtailing affirmative action programs); Steven
A. Holmes, White House to Suspend a Program for
Minorities, N.Y. Times, Mar. 8, 1996, at A1
(ordering three-year suspension of minority and
female set-aside programs for contracts). (199.)
The struggle to limit affirmative action will be
extended and will proceed differently in
different policy domains. See, e.g., B. Drummond
Ayres Jr., Efforts to End Job Preferences Are
Faltering, N.Y. Times, Nov. 20, 1995, at A1. My
criticisms of affirmative action do not refer to
policies that require employers, universities,
and other entities to engage in more
broad-ranging recruitment processes, which I
strongly support. These policies are not
seriously in question. Rather, I am concerned
with policies that either require, or as a
practical matter demand, quotas or preferences
based (200.) See Peter H. Schuck, The New
Immigration and the Old Civil Rights, Am.
Prospect, Fall 1993, at 102, 108-11. (201.) No
one can gauge precisely the overall social
effects of race-based affirmative action on its
supposed beneficiaries. There are, however,
reasons to believe that the net effects are
either inconsequential or negative.
For example, Thomas Sowell, who has written
extensively on affirmative action both in the
United States and abroad, has compared the pre-
and postaffirmative action periods and found
that black employment gains were actually
greater during the earlier period. Thomas
Sowell, Preferential Policies: An International
Perspective 113, 115 (1990). In a recent study
comparing protected minorities' employment
patterns in private firms that adopted either
"identity-conscious" (making race
relevant) or "identity-blind"
(merit-based) personnel decisions, the authors
(both strong affirmative action proponents)
found that by most measures, improvement in the
groups' employment status was not affected by
identity-conscious interventions. Alison M.
Konrad & Frank Linnehan, Formalized HRM
Structures: Coordinating Equal Employment
Opportunity Or Concealing Organizational
Practices?, 38 Acad. Mgmt. J. 787 (1995).
On the negative side, members of protected
groups whose genuine, hard-won achievements on
the job and in universities are unfairly
depreciated because of the supposed favoritism
ascribed to affirmative action have suffered
much personal indignity, reputational harm, and
psychic injury as a result. The social damage to
relations between the races has been
incalculably great, in my view. According to a
recent study, white opposition to affirmative
action now encompasses the liberal core of the
Democratic party; it is just as strong among
those most committed to racial equality as among
those least committed to such values. See Martin
Gilens et al., Affirmative Action and the
Politics of Realignment 3-4 (Apr. 1995)
(unpublished conference paper prepared for
annual meeting of Midwest Political Science
Association, on file with author). One fervently
hopes that this damage is not irreversible.
(202.) The beneficiaries of this program, after
all, come from countries that were unfairly
favored by the pre-1965 immigration policy. For
a general critique of diversity programs,
including this one, see Stephen H. Legomsky,
Immigration, Equality and Diversity, 31 Colum.
J. Transnat'l L L. 319, 330-35 (1993). (203.)
Many of these countries, of course, were
advantaged by the pre-1965 law. In fact, the
chief beneficiaries of this program, as was
intended at the time of enactment, are the
Irish, for whom 41% of the diversity visas were
reserved during 1992-94. See Schuck, supra note
96, at 71-72. (204.) See Schuck, supra note 200,
at 108-11 (noting invidious group comparisons
invited by race-based affirmative action, and
favoring class-based remedies instead); see also
Richard D. Kahlenberg, Equal Opportunity
Critics, New Republic July 17 & 24, 1995, at
20 (noting that some opponents of race-based
affirmative action are beginning to embrace
class-based preferences). Class-based
affirmative action also has its critics, see,
e.g., Michael Kinsley, The Spoils of Victimhood,
New Yorker, Mar. 27, 1995, at 62, 65-66, and
would be difficult to implement, see, e.g.,
Sarah Kershaw, California's Universities
Confront New Diversity Rules, N.Y. Times, Jan.
22, 1996, at A10 (discussing problems in
applying class-based criteria). (205.) see
Nathan Glazer, Affirmative Discrimination:
Ethnic Inequality and Public Policy 168-205
(1975); Nathan Glazer, Immigrants and Education,
in Clamor at the Gates: The New American
Immigration 213 (Nathan Glazer ed., 1985)
[hereinafter Clamor at the Gates]; Ivan Light,
Immigrant Entrepreneurs in America: Koreans in
Los Angeles, in Clamor at the Gates, supra, at
16 1; Peter I. Rose, Asian Americans: From
Pariahs to Paragons, in Clamor at the Gates,
supra, at 181; Schuck, supra note 200, at 107.
For a microscopic view of these invidious
comparisons as they operate in the workplace,
see generally Waters, supra note 118. (206.)
See, e.g., Ford, supra note 189, at 1234
("However analytically `soft' a particular
classification may be, making it a centerpiece
of government resource-allocation will require
that it be `hardened' dramatically.");
Wright, supra note 196, at 46. (207.) Alien
Nation, supra note 1, at 65 (emphasis omitted).
This possibility seems especially great among
Asian-Americans, who tend to be more
conservative politically than African-Americans.
(208.) 42 U.S.C. [subsections] 1971-1973p (1988
& Supp. 1993). (209.) See, e.g., Lani
Guinier, The Tyranny of the Majority:
Fundamental Fairness in Representative Democracy
41-70 (1994); Carol M. Swain, Black Faces, Black
Interests: The Representation of African
Americans in Congress, at vii-ix, 193-225
(1993); Abigail Thernstrom, Whose Votes Count?:
Affirmative Action and Minority Voting Rights
(1987); James F. Blumstein, Racial
Gerrymandering and Vote Dilution: Shaw v. Reno
in Doctrinal Context, 26 Rutgers L.J. 517
(1995); Schuck, supra note 200, at 105-11; Peter
H. Schuck, What Went Wrong with the Voting
Rights Act, Wash. Monthly, Nov. 1987, at 51.
Other scholars have enthusiastically endorsed
it. See, e.g., Bernard Grofman et al., Minority
Representation and the Quest for Voting Equality
131-37 (1992); Luis R. Fraga, Latino Political
Incorporation and the Voting Rights Act, in
Controversies in Minority Voting: The Voting
Rights Act in Perspective 278 (Bernard Grofman
Chandler Davidson eds., 19,92) [hereinafter
Controversies in Minority Voting]; Pamela S.
Karlan, The Rights to Vote: Some Pessimism About
Formalism, 71 Tex. L. Rev. 1705, 1737-40 (1993);
Allan J. Lichtman, Redistricting, in Black and
White, N.Y. Times, Dec. 7, 1994, at A23. (210.)
See, e.g., Juan Williams, Blacked Out in the
Newt Congress: The Black Caucus Regroups as
Jesse Mulls a Third Party Bid, Wash. Post, Nov.
20, 1994, at C1. (211.) The leading cases are
Shaw v. Reno, 113 S. Ct. 2816 (1993), and Miller
v. Johnson, 115 S. Ct. 2475 (1995). (212.) See
Hugh Davis Graham, Voting Rights and the
American Regulatory State, in Controversies in
Minority Voting, supra note 209, at 177, 195-96.
On growing Asian-American political activism,
see Steven A. Holmes, Anti-Immigrant Mood Moves
Asians to Organize, N.Y. Times, Jan. 3, 1996, at
Al. (213.) Alien Nation, supra note 1, at 219
(emphasis omitted). The key, he writes, is
"[a]voiding the Romans' mistake of diluting
their citizenship into insignificance." Id.
at 267. (214.) Id. at 264-67. (215.) See Schuck
Testimony, supra note 3; Supplemental Letter,
supra note 3; see also Neil A. Lewis, Bill Seeks
to End Automatic Citizenship for All Barn in the
U.S., N.Y. Times, Dec. 14, 1995, at A26. (216.)
U.S. Const. amend. XIV, [sections] 1. (217.)
Peter H. Schuck & Rogers M. Smith,
Citizenship Without Consent: Illegal Aliens in
the American Polity 5, 72-89 (1985); see also
Peter H. Schuck, Membership in the Liberal
Polity: The Devaluation of American Citizenship,
3 Geo. Immigr. L.J. 1 (arguing that birthright
citizenship and minimal incentives for aliens to
naturalize have lowered value of U.S.
citizenship). (218.) Schuck & Smith, supra
note 217, at 90-115. (219.) The most probing
criticisms--although not persuasive in our
view--are found in Gerald L. Neuman, Strangers
to the Constitution: Immigrants, Borders and
Fundamental Law (forthcoming 1996) (manuscript
at 473-535, on file with author); David A.
Martin, Membership and Consent: Abstract or
Organic?, 11 Yale J. Int'l L. 278 (1985). But
see Peter H. Schuck & Rogers M. Smith,
Membership and Consent: Actual or Mythic? A
Reply to David A. Martin, 11 Yale J. Int'l L.
545 (1986). (220.) See Schuck & Smith, supra
note 217, at 97-100, 136-37. (221.) Id. at 99,
135. Our book was published well before Congress
enacted such an amnesty in the 1986 IRCA
legislation. We recommended such a measure in
the book. (222.) See discussion supra note 149
and accompanying text; see also Montana Law on
English, N.Y. Times, Apr. 3, 1995, at B8
(describing law that makes English official
language of state government). But see Court
Strikes Language Law, N.Y. Times, Dec. 9, 1994,
at A18 (relating decision of Ninth Circuit that
invalidated on First Amendment grounds amendment
to Arizona Constitution requiring state
employees to speak only English on job). (223.)
See Jack Citrin, Language Politics and American
Identity, Pub. Interest, Spring 1990, at 96, 108
(The instrumental consequences of state and
local 'official English' legislation are
virtually nil, and in the absence of a genuine
threat to the status of English, the formal
subordination of other languages is mainly
divisive."). (224.) For a description of
the Americanization movements of the first two
decades of the twentieth century, see Philip
Gleason, American identity and Americanization,
in Harvard Encyclopedia, supra note 82, at 31,
39-41, 57-58 (entry and bibliographic sources).
(225.) Such classes are chronically
over-subscribed, and the waiting lists are long.
David Leanhardt, Immigrants' Hopes Converge on
English Class: Eager to Break Language Barrier
Would-Be Students Overwhelm Programs for Adults,
Wash.
Post, July 25, 1994, at B1; Deborah Sontag,
English as a Precious Language: immigrants
Hungry for Literacy Find That Classes Are Few,
N.Y. Times, Aug. 29, 1993, at 29. (226.) The
current INS administration is already
instituting such a change, with some success.
Its timing could hardly be better. For reasons
having little to do with the INS's new effort
and much to do with the threat to legal
immigrants' public benefits posed by pending
legislation and an imminent change in Mexico's
own citizenship law, see Sam Dillon, Mexico Woos
U.S. Mexicans, Proposing Dual Nationality, N.Y.
Times, Dec. 10, 1995, [sections] 1, at 16
(discussing proposed Mexican constitutional
amendment that would permit Mexicans living in
United States to retain Mexican nationality upon
becoming U.S. citizens), a stunning increase in
the number of naturalization petitions is now
occurring. See, e.g., Louis Freedberg,
Citizenship Wave Surprises INS. Applications
Pour in as Immigrants Act to Protect Benefits,
S.F. Chron., Apr. 13, 1995, at A1, A23
(detailing increase in naturalization petitions
in INS'S San Francisco district and in United
States). The total for 1995 will probably exceed
one million.
One presumes that Brimelow opposes this
development, since he thinks that naturalization
should be a far more protracted process and
therefore applauds the Know-Nothings' battle
cry: "Nationalize, then naturalize."
Alien Nanon, supra note 1, at 12-13, 265. I
believe that the current five-year minimum
period, which is already longer than those in a
number of immigrant nations, has served us well.
In any event, most naturalizing immigrants take
longer than five years. See 1994 INS Statistical
Yearbook, supra note 29, tbl. K at 128. (227.)
For a recent, thoughtful exploration of some
normative issues concerning citizenship, see the
papers on that subject in Symposium, immigration
Law and the New Century: The Developing Regime,
35 Va. J. Int'l L. 1 (1994). (228.) See Alien
Nation, supra note 1, at 232, 264-67. (229.) For
scholars advocating open borders, or at least a
strong presumption in favor of them, see, for
example, Bruce A. Ackerman, Social Justice in
the Liberal State 89-95 (1980); Joseph H. Carens,
Aliens and Citizens: The Case for Open Borders,
49 Rev. Pol. 251 (1987); R. George Wright,
Federal Immigration Law and the Case for Open
Entry, 27 Loy. L.A. L. Rev. 1265 (1994). (230.)
Even the group Negative Population Growth, which
is radical enough to want to reduce the U.S.
population to 125-150 million (about half its
present size), proposes legal immigration of up
to 100,000 per year. See advertisement in New
Republic, Oct. 23, 1995, after 37. But see Lind,
supra note 13, at 206-07 (discussing proposals
for increased immigration). (231.) See Gleason,
supra note 224, at 39-41. (232.) For an
interesting effort by one immigrant to define
Americanism, see Ted Morgan, On Becoming
American (1978). (233.) For one such effort that
strongly eschews "Anglo-centric"
conceptions of the American nation (such as
Brimelow's), see Lind, supra note 13, at 352-88.
(234.) I say "little," not none.
Aliens' drug-related crime, see supra notes
127-46 and accompanying text, is the principal
exception. (235.) He tells us that he and his
brother "gave it an A+." Alien Nation,
supra note 1, at 221. (236.) He says that
"we still give it an A+" but then adds
"what's left of it." Id. By this
qualification he presumably means the part that
the new immigrants have not yet destroyed.
(237.) A March 1995 Census Bureau report
indicates that 30.8% of families with children
were headed by a single parent in 1994; the
corresponding rate was 13% in 1970. Of the 11.5
million such families, the vast majority--9.9
million--were headed by women. 2-Parent Families
Increasing in U.S., N.Y. Times, Oct. 17, 1995,
at A17. (238.) See supra notes 160-67 and
accompanying text. Other American (mis)behaviors
also seem to rub off on immigrants. For example,
the prostate cancer rate among Japanese men
increases markedly when they immigrate to the
United States, apparently because of their
change to a high-fat diet here. The prostate
cancer rate per 100,000 increased from eight for
men in Japan to 30 for first-generation Japanese
immigrants in Los Angeles and to 34 for
second-generation immigrants; among white men in
Los Angeles it is 66. Jane Brody, Low-Fat Diet
in Mice Slows Prostate Cancer, N.Y. Times, Oct.
18, 1995, at C13. (239.) The per capita gross
national product increased almost 60% in
constant dollars between 1965 and 1993; per
capita disposable income increased almost 75%
during the same period. 1994 U.S. Statistical
Abstract, supra note 55, tbl. 691. (240.) See
sources cited supra note 17. (241.) See, e.g.,
Muller, supra note 120, at 151-60; Louis Winnick,
New People in Old Neighborhoods: The Role of New
Immigrants in Rejuvenating New York's
Communities (1990). (242.) Brimelow's narrative
of decline is commonplace today. It is also told
by some who would probably agree with him on
little else. See, e.g., Charles A. Reich,
Opposing the System (1995). (243.) Alien Nation,
supra note 1, at 187-90. (244.) For a detailed
discussion of these changes, see generally Gregg
Easterbrook, A Moment on the Earth: The Coming
Age of Environmental Optimism (1995); Aaron
Wildavsky, But Is it True? A Citizen's Guide to
Environmental Health and Safety Issues (1995);
The True State of the Planet: Ten of the World's
Premier Environmental Researchers in a Major
Challenge to the Environmental Movement (Ronald
Bailey ed., 1995). (245.) 42 U.S.C.
[subsections] 1971-1973p (1988 & Supp.
1993). (246.) 29 U.S.C. [subsections] 621-634
(1988 & Supp. 1993). (247.) 42 U.S.C.
[subsections] 6101-6107 (1988). (248.) 20 U.S.C.
[subsections] 1400-1485 (1994). (249.) 42 U.S.C.
[subsections] 12101-12213 (Supp. 1993). (250.)
Civil Rights Act of 1991, Pub. L. 102-166, 105
Stat. 107 (codified at scattered sections of 42
U.S.C.). (251.) Indeed, one can argue that it is
too responsive to special interests of all kinds
and insufficiently deliberative. (252.) See Adam
Clymer, With Political Discipline, It Works Like
Parliament, N.Y. Times, Aug. 6, 1995, [sections]
4, at 6 (analyzing high level of party
discipline among congressional Republicans and
resulting improvement in discipline among
congressional Democrats). (253.) See supra note
239. (254.) See Daniel T. Slesnick, Gaining
Ground: Poverty in the Postwar United States,
101 J. Pol. Econ. 1, tbl. 3 at 16 (1993). As the
share of the poor has diminished, moreover, the
ranks of the wealthy have swelled. According to
one estimate, the number of families with
earnings of over $100,000 in constant dollars
has increased from slightly more than 1 million
in 1967 to 5.6 million in 1993. David Frum,
Welcome, Nouveaux Riches, N.Y Times, Aug. 14,
1995, at A15. For a recent account of the
improved living conditions of the rural South
Carolina poor between the 1960s and today, see
Dana Milbank, Up from Hunger: War on Poverty Won
Some Baules as Return to Poor Region Shows, Wall
St. J., Oct. 30, 1995, at Al. (255.)For an
account of this development, see R. Shep Melnick,
Between the Lines: Interpreting Welfare Rights
183-232 (1994). The quality of life for the most
destitute Americans, including the homeless and
panhandlers, has improved dramatically as well.
See Robert C. Ellickson, Controlling Chronic
Misconduct in City Spaces: Of Panhandlers, Skid
Rows, and Public-Space Zoning, 105 Yale L.J.
1165, 1190-91, 1203-04 (1996). (256.) John C.
Weicher, Private Production: Has the Rising Tide
Lifted All Boats?, in Housing America's Poor 45,
46 (Peter D. Salins ed., 1987). The data also
indicate that blacks have shared in these
improvements:
The percentage of black households lacking
complete plumbing plunged . . . and the
percentage
living with more than one person per room
dropped from 28.3% in 1960 to 9.1% in
1980.... The available data indicate that
these auspicious trends have continued since
1980.
The residential situation of the
institutionalized poor has also improved as
prisons, mental
hospitals, and similar accommodations have
become much more livable. Robert C. Ellickson,
The Untenable Case for an Unconditional Right to
Sheiter, 15 Harv. J.L. & Pub. Pol. 17, 27
(1992) (footnotes omitted). (257.) 1994 U.S.
Statistical Abstract, supra note 55, tbl. 114.
(258.) Id. tbl. 120. The decline was almost as
rapid for blacks and other nonwhites. Id. 259.
Steven A. Holmes, A Generally Healthy America
Emerges in a Census Report, N.Y. Times, Oct. 13,
1994, at B13. (260.) The inadequacy of many of
the dominant measures of public and private
wealth, income, and consumption is an old
complaint. See, e.g., Peter Passell, Economic
Scene, N.Y. Times, Oct. 12, 1995, at D2
(reviewing previous and current criticisms of
national income accounting). (261.) The
difficulty of this question is not eased much by
A Tale of Ten Cities: Immigration's Effect on
the Family Environment in American Cities, a
report coauthored by demographer Leon Bouvier
and Scipio Garling and published by the
Federation for American Immigration Reform in
November 1995. Federation for American
Immigration Reform, A Tale of Ten Cities:
Immigration's Effect on the Family Environment
in American Cities (1995). This report compares
the quality of life in five pairs of matched
cities, each pair of which includes a high- and
a low-immigration city. The report finds in the
low-immigration cities a much better quality of
life, as measured by nine categories of
variables: education, income, occupation, home
life, housing, cultural adaptation, crime,
community, and health. Comparisons of this kind,
however, usually suffer from methodological
weaknesses that make causal inferences highly
problematic, especially the inability to control
for the many variables that make the paired
cities different for nonimmigration reasons. For
a critique of the methodology of this report,
see John E. Berthoud, FAIR's "A Tale of Ten
Cities": A Fair Analysis? (Nov. 1995)
(unpublished report by Vice-President of Alexis
de Tocqueville Institution, on file with
author). In addition to this serious problem, A
Tale of Ten Cities selected high-immigration
cities with large concentrations of illegal
aliens, which inevitably distort the data. It
also ignored the fact that, while most
immigration-related costs are borne locally,
most immigration-generated benefits (e.g.,
increased tax revenues and economic efficiency)
are realized at higher levels.
(dagger) Simeon E. Baldwin Professor of Law,
Yale Law School. I wish to acknowledge the
valuable comments on an earlier draft by Frank
Bean, Boris Bittker, Kevin Johnson, Stephen
Legomsky, David Martin, Dorothy Nelkin, Gerald
Neuman, Stephan Thernstrom, and the participants
in a faculty workshop at the Washington
University School of Law on October 24, 1995.
Review Grade: C