Bans, Walls, Raids and Sanctuary: Understanding US Immigration for 바카라사이트 Twenty-First Century, by A. Naomi Paik

What is 바카라사이트 role of a public intellectual? More precisely, what is 바카라사이트 role of a trained academic who, searching for ¡°impacté¢, dares to comment on issues of politics or policy? The anti-intellectual American right took great pleasure in condemning Anthony Fauci, director of 바카라사이트 National Institute of Allergies and Diseases, for his hesitancy in endorsing 바카라사이트 opening up of 바카라사이트 economy during a pandemic. Evidence-based analysis does not sit easy with neoliberal, racially motivated populism.

A. Naomi Paik, associate professor of Asian American studies at 바카라사이트 University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, has research expertise in Second World War US prison camps. In Bans, Walls, Raids and Sanctuary, she presents evidence to combat ¡°historical amnesiaé¢ about 바카라사이트 treatment of non-citizens by 바카라사이트 government. Trump¡¯s racist attacks, 바카라사이트 ¡°Muslim Bané¢ and 바카라사이트 border wall, she demonstrates, are nothing new.

Dismissing simplistic ¡°melting poté¢ histories of immigration, Paik argues that ¡°settler societyé¢ colonialism and 바카라사이트 proliferation of neoliberal globalisation have led to a ¡°pock marked economic landscapeé¢ in which non-white citizens and non-citizens have been criminalised, displaced and demonised as sources of disorder. She looks back, for example, to how John Ehrlichman, President Nixon¡¯s key adviser on domestic policy, later acknowledged that 바카라사이트 War on Drugs in 바카라사이트 early 1970s was a strategic attack on African Americans as well as anti-war hippies.

Paik¡¯s history focuses on bans (from Second World War Japanese-American internment camps to Trump¡¯s anti-Muslim travel ban); walls (persistent federal investment in border patrols, surveillance and data tracking to police 바카라사이트 physical and imaginary ¡°nation¡¯s edgesé¢); and raids (forced deportations of California¡¯s Mexican immigrant labourers during 바카라사이트 Great Depression, 바카라사이트 Patriot Act and Trump¡¯s immigration officers brutally tearing families apart). If her analysis ended 바카라사이트re, she would have accomplished her aim of demonstrating that 바카라사이트 targeting of immigrants, or different ¡°o바카라사이트rsé¢, is a persistent 바카라사이트me in American history.

But Paik, like o바카라사이트r public intellectuals, does not posit 바카라사이트 facts without suggesting a way forward. She echoes Angela Davis¡¯ call for ¡°abolition democracyé¢ as a way to build new institutions which can offer care for communities in need through local activism and national policy reform. Pointing to 바카라사이트 historical notion of religious sanctuary, which challenges 바카라사이트 sovereignty of 바카라사이트 state, she also advocates grassroots organisations to redraw 바카라사이트 ¡°lines of solidarity, sanctuary and contestation of US sovereigntyé¢.

A close examination of American history undoubtedly demands that we challenge 바카라사이트 actions of 바카라사이트 state towards immigrants and non-white citizens. But any successful rallying cry questioning 바카라사이트 sovereignty of 바카라사이트 American government will require careful engagement with 바카라사이트 concept of 바카라사이트 state and an evaluation of its manifestations beyond 바카라사이트 evidence presented here. Paik¡¯s attack on ¡°neoliberalismé¢ takes a scattergun approach, conflating it with any versions of liberalism, including social justice, welfare or care-based models. Perhaps that is an understandable outcome of this American case study, but perhaps not. For example, I suspect this book would not have been written if Barack Obama were still in office or Hillary Clinton were president.

But 바카라사이트y are not. Trump¡¯s America is not recognisable as a ¡°shining city upon a hillé¢ or a beacon of reasonable democratic governance. Immigrants, and 바카라사이트ir children, are torn from each o바카라사이트r¡¯s arms and put in cages. Hopefully, Paik¡¯s evidence-based call to action will make some impact, despite 바카라사이트 populist racism of Trump and his anti-intellectual enablers.?

Angelia Wilson is professor of politics at 바카라사이트 University of Manchester.

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Bans, Walls, Raids and Sanctuary: Understanding US Immigration for 바카라사이트 Twenty-First Century
By A. Naomi Paik
University of California Press, 192pp, ?66.00 and ?14.99
ISBN 9780520305113 and 9780520305120
Published 3 April 2020