Kinship Across Borders: A Christian Ethic of Immigration

4. Global Solidarity and the Immigration Paradigm

chapter four Global Solidarity and the Immigration Paradigm this is the year that shawled refugees deport judges, who stare at the floor and their swollen feet as files are stamped with their destination; —Martı́n Espada, ‘‘Imagine the Angels of Bread’’ The experiences profiled in chapter 3 bring to light the impact that unconstrained neoliberal policies and inadequate immigration procedures have on women and families, in particular. These mounting threats indicate the deficiencies of an immigration paradigm centered on national interest, expediency , or economic efficiency. Despite the migrant-centered locus of enforcement and common misconceptions about why people migrate outside of regular channels, undocumented migration is connected to complex global dynamics. Contextualizing immigration patterns in broader political and economic arenas sheds light on the transnational actors and international forces at play, including the roles those in the United States play in pushing and pulling migrants north across the Mexican border. Given the reach of exclusionary global dynamics, I analyze globalization in the terms utilized in chapter 2: interconnected structures and internalized ideologies. In light of the consequent inadequacy of both state-centered responses and migrant-focused enforcement, I introduce an understanding of solidarity to reframe migration as a shared international responsibility and cultivate conversion from pervasive idolatries. Globalization and Migration As we have glimpsed throughout, international trade, regional development, and labor markets rank among the most significant contributors to dislocation 99 100 䡠 chapter four and migration.1 Globalization implies an increase in the phenomenon of globalism , or the networks of interdependence across continents sustained through the flow and impact of capital and goods, information, ideas, people, and substances.2 The increase in the density of these transnational modes of association takes many forms: interconnected political and economic networks, cultural homogenization and influence of consumerist hyperculture, the emergence of an international human rights regime and nongovernmental organizations , and threats that cross borders, whether public health risks or transnational gangs and terrorist networks. I was struck by the reach of economic and cultural globalization when my husband recounted his experience in the 1990s hiking La Isla del Sol, the remote and ancient island in Lake Titicaca that holds a central place Incan mythology, located at approximately 12,500 feet above sea level. Just below the peak of the highest point on the island (from which one can view the birthplace of the Sun and the Incan people), he came across a shack from which a person was selling Coca Cola and Twix bars to tourists. Whereas in many cases this increased mobility of goods and services has helped feed those who are hungry and increase life expectancy, the dominant models of economic globalization have also served to substantially increase inequality. The expansion of postindustrial or neoliberal capitalism around the globe has been characterized by its operation across national boundaries, its ability to move capital rapidly, and its quest for short-term profit.3 Polarized wealth and poverty have resulted, in large part, from this strategy that prioritizes maximizing revenue without necessarily committing long-term to local communities, thereby destroying many traditional and small-scale societies and economies.4 By 2005 the wealthiest 20 percent of the world accounted for 76.6 percent of total private consumption, while the poorest fifth accounted for merely 1.5 percent.5 Whereas the world has witnessed increased access to communication and goods, the distribution has not reached everyone nor been equitable.6 These exclusivist strains have contributed to environmental degradation, the disruption of cultural integrity and local labor markets, and the erosion of civil society . Jon Sobrino laments that despite positive developments and claims, globalization results not in ‘‘a planetary-wide family embrace but a cruel abyss between peoples.’’7 His diagnosis of the ‘‘proliferation of triviality’’ is echoed in Adolfo Nicolás’s meditation on the ‘‘globalization of superficiality.’’8 Both call into question not only the material devastation global economic policies wreak but also the nature of what else gets globalized and toward what end: ‘‘one world or conquest?’’9 From the perspective of those on the underside, global solidarity and the immigration paradigm 䡠 101 economic globalization is predominantly marked by structural and ideological sin; indeed many observers have characterized globalization as a continuation and intensification of colonialization.10 I turn now to a discussion of its interrelated forms of injustice, particularly as they relate to migration in the North American contexts. neoliberal globalization and economic polarization The push for free...