Columbia University, School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA)

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Thinking Outside the Box… and Outside the Borders

Rodolfo de la Garza
Eaton Professor of Adminstrative Law and Municipal Service
School of International and Public Affairs
Columbia University

Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) brings together the scholarly and practitioner worlds in a variety of academic settings. Whether through degree programs, conferences, research institutes, or short executive training programs, SIPA’s educational endeavors draw on the best current research in public policy and the outstanding practical experience of its faculty and students. We feature SIPA’s unique approach in an interview with Professor de la Garza, an expert on immigration and Latino political behavior.

The new immigration law in Arizona has sparked debate among students. What are your thoughts?

There is a cultural and economic divide in Arizona. With the major pathways through Texas and California all but closed off, the flow of illegal immigrants into Arizona has greatly increased. Arizona also has a changing demography: retirees, snowbirds, and the unemployed—people with no history in the region—are pouring in from other parts of the nation. Plus, there is a division in the state between southern Arizona, a heavily Hispanic area, and the rest of the state, which historically has fewer Mexicans but dominates the state’s politics; this division adds a powerful ethnic dimension to the crisis. Combine these factors and the conditions for conflict are ripe.

What about the United States’ approach to immigration right now?

There has been a change in how we view immigration. Our view is through the prism of 9/11, which is further distorted by a visceral reaction to the amount of immigration that the United States has seen during the past few years. This perspective makes it difficult to develop reasonable responses to the problem.

Central to any effort to control immigration is controlling access to jobs. Under the Obama administration, we are finally beginning to see more rigid enforcement of job site verification laws. Of course, that creates a new problem—labor shortages in key economic sectors such as agriculture—which has jobs that most Americans do not want.

How have you brought this debate into discussion with students?

Even though they have differing opinions about the law, they are learning how to structure solutions. Students usually voice great concern for human rights, but seldom consider the rights of society. It takes a conversation to make them understand that an individual has the right to migrate anywhere, but a society has the right not to allow that individual to emigrate. Understanding these conflicting rights is part of the learning process. Once they engage this type of thinking, one can often see a shift in their policy positions.

How do your students contribute to your research?

It is often the students who raise ideas and hypotheses for further study. They also bring their individual circumstances into the discussion. A good example is their interest in how immigration is a gendered experience. Women experience immigration differently than men. I have become increasingly attentive to these differences, to the vulnerability of the female immigrant and to the distinctiveness of her experience.

School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA)
Columbia University
sipa.columbia.edu
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