David Scott FitzGerald. Culling the Masses: The Democratic Origins of Racist Immigration Policy in the Americas

-
Blumer Room - 402 Barrows Hall

 

Monday, February 8, 2-3:30pm in 402 Barrows Hall

Culling the Masses: The Democratic Origins of Racist Immigration Policy in the Americas

Professor Fizgerald will present his recently co-authored (with David Cook-Martín) book. Culling the Masses (Harvard University Press 2014) questions the widely held view that in the long run democracy and racism cannot coexist. The authors show that democracies were the first countries in the Americas to select immigrants by race, and undemocratic states the first to outlaw discrimination. Through analysis of legal records from twenty-two countries between 1790 and 2010, the authors present a history of the rise and fall of racial selection in the Western Hemisphere.Biography:

David Scott FitzGerald is Theodore E. Gildred Chair in U.S.-Mexican Relations, Professor of Sociology, and Co-Director of the Center for Comparative Immigration Studies at the University of California, San Diego. He is co-author of Culling the Masses: The Democratic Roots of Racist Immigration Policy in the Americas(Harvard University Press, 2014); author of A Nation of Emigrants: How Mexico Manages its Migration (University of California Press, 2009), and co-editor of six books on Mexico-U.S. migration.FitzGerald’s work on the politics of international migration, citizenship, and research methodology has been published in the American Journal of Sociology, International Migration Review, Comparative Studies in Society and History, Ethnic and Racial Studies, Qualitative Sociology, New York University Law Review, Journal of Interdisciplinary History, and Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies.FitzGerald was awarded the American Sociological Association’s International Migration Section “Award for Public Sociology” in 2013. His current project examines asylum policies in comparative perspective.