Critically asses the article "Latino Immigration and Citizenship" by Christine Marie Sierra, Teresa Carrillo, Louis DeSipio, and Michael Jones-Correa.

     Although Congress and the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) had introduced various strategies to eliminate undocumented migration such as Border Patrol agents along the U.S.--Mexico border, the Regions and Countries of Origin of Permanent Resident Immigrants, 1951-95 Table 1 showed that the number of immigrants in the 1950s was 2.5 million.  By the 1990s, legal immigration had reached 10 million that was the greatest number of immigrants in the nation’s history.  Despite the increases in naturalization rates in the 1990s, a significant amount of legal immigrants had not been naturalized because of lower levels of education and a complicated application process.  As a result, a large percentage of the Latino adult population was ineligible to vote.  But statistics showed that in the 1990s, there was an increase in the votes of the naturalized citizens and participation in community-based civic activities; meanwhile, non-citizens practiced, what the authors called, “politics in between.”  That is, non-citizens avoided commitments to either their country or the United States by participating in unions to attain certain rights.

     The authors called immigration a “transnational phenomenon” because Latino immigration had an impact on national politics and international relations.  Because the United States had a need to fill low-wage positions, the economy had a dependency on immigrant labor.  At the same time, out-migration would provide needed employment to immigrants and reduce demands for scarce resources and other services.  As a result, both Mexico and the United States addressed solutions to free trade and regional economic integration.  In addition, the United Farm Workers and other unions disregarded the citizenship of immigrants and allowed Latino immigrants to obtain jobs in the United States.  Also in the 1990s unionization campaigns such as Justice for Janitors Movement enhanced working conditions and provided limited voting rights for non-citizen parents of students in the public education system.  In addition, the AFL-CIO created higher-level employment positions for Latino immigrants.  In fact, the new executive vice-president position at AFL-CIO was given to Linda Chavez-Thompson.  She was the first Latino immigrant to occupy a higher ranked position in the labor movement.

     I think that the article “Latino Immigration and Citizenship,” was an insightful article.  The article was easy to read.  The authors provided data that clearly showed an increase in Latino immigration in the United States from the 1950s to early 1990s.  The authors made a serious, significant contribution to the understanding of who the Latinos of the United States were and where they come from.  The article was an engaging discussion of the social and economic implications of the emergence of the Latino population despite the obvious political biases.  I was persuaded by what the article said because the authors positioned immigration-related issues in the United States within the international scene, in which the reader was able to figure out the particularities of this country’s concerns from those of other countries.  The article provided a probing analysis of the history and identity of Latinos in the United States.  In addition, the article also analyzed recent Latino voters as well as the percentage of those who reside in the United States but do not vote. And the article presented conclusion about the Latinos eventual role in mainstream America.  The article was written in a style that made the facts and statistics flow with ease.  And the authors’ writing style gave a fresh perspective on the long history of Latinos in the United States.  After reading the article, I learned that immigrants do not cause unemployment among low paying jobs and that immigrants create jobs.  I also learned that resources increase due to immigration and immigration makes the United States more ethnically diverse.  I realized that Latinos are exercising their voting rights and participating in community-based civic activities.  In conclusion, immigration influenced society, politics, and international relations.