Biography
I am an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Baruch College, CUNY, and during the 2011-2012 academic year, I am an Immigration Research Associate at the Institute for the Social Sciences at Cornell University.
My research lies at the intersection of immigration studies, (sub)urban politics, and public policy. I study the processes through which immigrants are incorporated into various aspects of American political life. My current research covers four areas:
Immigrant Nonprofit Organizations
I recently completed a book manuscript that analyzes the role of immigrant nonprofit organizations as advocates on behalf of marginalized immigrants in urban America. I use three innovative policy case studies (on language rights, labor rights, and municipal identification cards in San Francisco) to analyze the challenges and triumphs of nonprofit advocacy in support of immigrant-friendly local policies. The case studies highlight dynamics in nonprofit-government relations, nonprofit-union collaborations, and immigration federalism. The three case studies also reveal that nonprofit advocacy on behalf of immigrants fosters a qualitatively unique form of immigrant political incorporation: nonprofits contribute to the increased bureaucratization of immigrant rights and they offer immigrants access to urban, rather than national, citizenship. Overall, I make the case that immigrant nonprofit organizations are powerful, yet under-appreciated, agents of immigrant political incorporation in contemporary urban America.
Undocumented Immigration
As it continues to be a hotly debated political issue nationwide, responses to undocumented immigration vary across the United States. On one end of the spectrum are states (e.g., Arizona, Georgia, Alabama, South Carolina, and Utah) and localities (e.g., Hazleton PA, Escondido CA, and Farmers Branch TX) that have adopted anti-immigrant legislation that seeks to drive undocumented immigrants away. On the opposite end are states and localities that have enacted pro-immigrant policies that actually accommodate undocumented immigrants. Since 2007, for example, six U.S. municipalities (New Haven CT, San Francisco CA, Oakland CA, Asbury Park NJ, Trenton NJ, and Princeton NJ) have either issued or endorsed local identification cards to undocumented immigrants with the goal of facilitating their civic integration. Not much is known, though, about how these ID card programs came about and how they are faring. I am working on a project that maps and analyzes the different models these six cities have adopted to enact and implement local ID card programs and their differential impact on the civic incorporation of undocumented immigrants.
Immigrant Bureaucratic Incorporation
Scholars traditionally have looked towards electoral politics to understand advancements in immigrant political incorporation. New research, however, shows that local bureaucratic institutions also can be responsive to the needs and interests of immigrants, especially those who tend to be ignored in the electoral process because they lack the right to vote. As testimony of this trend toward immigrant bureaucratic incorporation, several cities have put in place mayoral offices (and commissions) of immigrant affairs in efforts to foster immigrant integration. New York City, San Francisco, Houston, Baltimore, and Washington, DC, are some of the cities that have created such offices in the last decade. In institutionalizing cities’ commitment to immigrant wellbeing, these offices are touted as effective ways for cities to tackle local immigrant integration challenges and for immigrants to gain representation within the ranks of local government. Yet not much is known about these administrative offices. I am working on a comparative study of local offices of immigrant affairs, with a focus on their institutional histories, policy outputs, and community-building capacities.
Urban vs. Suburban Responses to Immigration
Immigrant integration in the United States has long been an urban phenomenon. Today, however, more and more immigrants bypass central cities and directly settle in outlying suburban areas, which provide an altogether different context for immigrant integration. I am working on two projects that study urban-suburban differences in immigrant integration. One project (in collaboration with John Mollenkopf at the CUNY Grad Center) compares and contrasts the immigrant integration dynamics in New York City and Long Island, with a focus on local involvement in federal immigration enforcement initiatives, labor rights, language access, and immigrants’ political representation. A second project (in collaboration with Irene Bloemraad at UC Berkeley and Shannon Gleeson at UC Santa Cruz) focuses on the San Francisco Bay Area to explain why cities and suburbs that are Democratic strongholds and favorably disposed towards immigrants nonetheless respond to immigration differently. We show that differences in city size and migration history help explain why suburbs are less inclusive of immigrants than central cities.
My interest in immigration partly stems from own background as an immigrant. I grew up in the Netherlands and migrated to the United States when I was in my 20s. I earned an M.A. (cum laude) in American Studies from the Katholieke Universiteit Nijmegen (the Netherlands), as well as an M.A. and Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of California at Berkeley. Prior to joining the Political Science faculty at Baruch College-CUNY, I was a Hauser Center Postdoctoral Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. I currently live in Ithaca, New York. In my spare time, I like to cook (and eat), bike, hike and camp in the great outdoors, take photographs, and watch movies.
My research lies at the intersection of immigration studies, (sub)urban politics, and public policy. I study the processes through which immigrants are incorporated into various aspects of American political life. My current research covers four areas:
Immigrant Nonprofit Organizations
I recently completed a book manuscript that analyzes the role of immigrant nonprofit organizations as advocates on behalf of marginalized immigrants in urban America. I use three innovative policy case studies (on language rights, labor rights, and municipal identification cards in San Francisco) to analyze the challenges and triumphs of nonprofit advocacy in support of immigrant-friendly local policies. The case studies highlight dynamics in nonprofit-government relations, nonprofit-union collaborations, and immigration federalism. The three case studies also reveal that nonprofit advocacy on behalf of immigrants fosters a qualitatively unique form of immigrant political incorporation: nonprofits contribute to the increased bureaucratization of immigrant rights and they offer immigrants access to urban, rather than national, citizenship. Overall, I make the case that immigrant nonprofit organizations are powerful, yet under-appreciated, agents of immigrant political incorporation in contemporary urban America.
Undocumented Immigration
As it continues to be a hotly debated political issue nationwide, responses to undocumented immigration vary across the United States. On one end of the spectrum are states (e.g., Arizona, Georgia, Alabama, South Carolina, and Utah) and localities (e.g., Hazleton PA, Escondido CA, and Farmers Branch TX) that have adopted anti-immigrant legislation that seeks to drive undocumented immigrants away. On the opposite end are states and localities that have enacted pro-immigrant policies that actually accommodate undocumented immigrants. Since 2007, for example, six U.S. municipalities (New Haven CT, San Francisco CA, Oakland CA, Asbury Park NJ, Trenton NJ, and Princeton NJ) have either issued or endorsed local identification cards to undocumented immigrants with the goal of facilitating their civic integration. Not much is known, though, about how these ID card programs came about and how they are faring. I am working on a project that maps and analyzes the different models these six cities have adopted to enact and implement local ID card programs and their differential impact on the civic incorporation of undocumented immigrants.
Immigrant Bureaucratic Incorporation
Scholars traditionally have looked towards electoral politics to understand advancements in immigrant political incorporation. New research, however, shows that local bureaucratic institutions also can be responsive to the needs and interests of immigrants, especially those who tend to be ignored in the electoral process because they lack the right to vote. As testimony of this trend toward immigrant bureaucratic incorporation, several cities have put in place mayoral offices (and commissions) of immigrant affairs in efforts to foster immigrant integration. New York City, San Francisco, Houston, Baltimore, and Washington, DC, are some of the cities that have created such offices in the last decade. In institutionalizing cities’ commitment to immigrant wellbeing, these offices are touted as effective ways for cities to tackle local immigrant integration challenges and for immigrants to gain representation within the ranks of local government. Yet not much is known about these administrative offices. I am working on a comparative study of local offices of immigrant affairs, with a focus on their institutional histories, policy outputs, and community-building capacities.
Urban vs. Suburban Responses to Immigration
Immigrant integration in the United States has long been an urban phenomenon. Today, however, more and more immigrants bypass central cities and directly settle in outlying suburban areas, which provide an altogether different context for immigrant integration. I am working on two projects that study urban-suburban differences in immigrant integration. One project (in collaboration with John Mollenkopf at the CUNY Grad Center) compares and contrasts the immigrant integration dynamics in New York City and Long Island, with a focus on local involvement in federal immigration enforcement initiatives, labor rights, language access, and immigrants’ political representation. A second project (in collaboration with Irene Bloemraad at UC Berkeley and Shannon Gleeson at UC Santa Cruz) focuses on the San Francisco Bay Area to explain why cities and suburbs that are Democratic strongholds and favorably disposed towards immigrants nonetheless respond to immigration differently. We show that differences in city size and migration history help explain why suburbs are less inclusive of immigrants than central cities.
My interest in immigration partly stems from own background as an immigrant. I grew up in the Netherlands and migrated to the United States when I was in my 20s. I earned an M.A. (cum laude) in American Studies from the Katholieke Universiteit Nijmegen (the Netherlands), as well as an M.A. and Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of California at Berkeley. Prior to joining the Political Science faculty at Baruch College-CUNY, I was a Hauser Center Postdoctoral Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. I currently live in Ithaca, New York. In my spare time, I like to cook (and eat), bike, hike and camp in the great outdoors, take photographs, and watch movies.
