Untangling the Political Roots of Immigration and Inequality in the United States

Introduction  1. Marxism, Migration, and Inequality  2. The Making of the American Working Class in a “Nation of Immigrants”  3. Imperialism, Neoliberalism, and Movements for Immigrant Rights and Worker Power  4. Intersectional Internationalism: Pathways Toward Empowerment Across Borders

Biography

Ron Hayduk is Professor of Political Science at San Francisco State University. His research centers on social movements, elections, and immigrant political incorporation, including Democracy for All: Restoring Immigrant Voting Rights in the United States (Routledge) and Gatekeepers to the Franchise: Shaping Election Administration in New York. Hayduk is co-editor of several book anthologies including Immigrant Crossroads: Globalization, Incorporation and Placemaking in Queens, New York (with Tarry Hum, Michael Krasner and Francois Pierre-Louis, 2021) and From ACT UP to the WTO: Urban Protest and Community Building in the Era of Globalization (with Benjamin Shepard) as well as numerous articles in scholarly journals and popular venues. Formerly a social worker and government official, Hayduk remains active in labor union organizing and social movement making.

“This book advances questions of managing the multiple crises (economic, ecological, democratic etc.), showing how migrant activism intersects with racial and gender justice and environmental sustainability. A unique contribution of the work is that it is based on Hayduk’s direct experience with social movement/worker-led policy, which allows concrete insight into alternatives alongside the historical and contemporary analysis of migrant struggle. This will be an important and timely volume as social sciences take a turn towards strategy. I am sure it will have a long shelf life as it covers an important historical moment.”

Hannah Cross, Senior Lecturer in Sociology, University of Westminster

“This book offers a useful contribution to the fields of immigration studies and labor studies. While there has been a growing volume of work written about immigration, especially since 2006, this work offers a comprehensive and cumulative look at how immigrants, migrants, and refugees have integrated into the ranks of the US working class. It also establishes in chronological documentation, how immigrant workers have inspired and/or been integral to recent episodes of class struggle, revitalized the labor movement, and have made clear the intersectional connections and shared/mutual class interests within and across borders in way that have informed and shaped the outlook of a new generation of the political left within and around unions, NGOs, and different social movement organizations of the last two decades. This kind of work connects multiple threads that link a historical analysis with a theoretical framework that identifies and promotes new landscapes for working class struggle.”

Justin Akers Chacón, Professor of Chicana/o History, San Diego City College

“In Untangling the Roots of Immigration and Inequality in the US, political scientist and organizer, Ron Hayduk, asks what are the forces that cause so many people to feel a need to leave their homes? And what can be done to build movements based on solidarity that will allow people to live well wherever they find themselves? Now more than ever, as xenophobia is a rising force in the US, and in many other countries, it is crucial that we explore the deep causes of mass migration and inequality, and use that deeper understanding to point to deeper solutions. This book does a masterful job arguing for both a right to stay, and right to leave, as core human values.”

Cynthia Kaufman, Director, Vasconcellos Institute for Democracy in Action, Faculty in Philosophy, De Anza College

“Marx argued that capitalism creates the working class, taking the violent enclosure process and the rise of the mills in England as his means to show historically the way the system itself was born. Ron Hayduk brilliantly argues that in two key half-century periods U.S. capitalism acted similarly, creating a migrant workforce that has formed, and is today, a key part of this country's working class. His argument is the kind of deep class analysis the movement for immigrant rights needs. Hayduk unpacks the creation of the ‘illegal’ social category, shows who created it and how, and most importantly, who benefits. He clearly connects the imperial system abroad with the displacement of communities, and their criminalization and exploitation as migrants. But migrant workers, like all workers, are not simply the objects or victims of a cruel system. Their actions, especially when they become aware of their place in it, have been a powerful force for change. Hayduk’s Marxist framework does more than just expose the bones of exploitation. He shows that migrant workers are not tangential to changing the system fundamentally. In fact they have a clear motivation for changing it, and formidable potential power because of their place within it. That makes his book a truly revolutionary contribution.”

David Bacon, former union organizer, photojournalist, documentarian, and writer