Western Hemisphere Immigration and United States Foreign Policy

Christopher Mitchell is Associate Professor of Politics at New York University. He is the author of The Legacy of Populism in Bolivia: From the MNR to Military Rule (1977) and the editor of Changing Perspectives in Latin American Studies: Insights from Six Disciplines (1988).

“Although immigration policy has traditionally been considered as falling within the sphere of domestic affairs, recent developments worldwide have propelled international migration on the agenda of decision-makers and scholars concerned with foreign policy and international relations. By virtue of its dominant position in the Western Hemisphere and its strategic as well as trade policies toward source countries, the United States plays a major role in determining the region's population movements; and its response to these movements is in turn shaped in large measure by foreign policy considerations. Christopher Mitchell and his colleagues have provided the first thorough exploration of these complex linkages, replete with detailed interdisciplinary case studies that will provide material for further scholarly reflections.”—Aristide R. Zolberg, New School for Social Research