“Mexicanness” as an indicator of criminality and danger. : A study on the influence of negative stereotyping regarding Hispanic Immigrants in immigration and welfare policy in California and Arizona at the end of the 20th century.

Sammanfattning

This Bachelor's thesis examines the influence of racialised discourses, tropes and fears regarding hispanic immigrants on the development of increasingly inhumane immigration reforms and enforcement in California and Arizona between 1986 and 1999. Relying on secondary sources, this thesis analyses prevalent themes in public discussion of Hispanic immigrants, comparing these findings to the resultant laws and enforcement, focusing on The Save Our State Committee’s Proposition 187 and the Chandler Roundup. The author utilizes theory from Michel Foucault’s (1975), Giorgio Agamben (1998) and Hana E. Brown (2013). The results were that key themes present in the anti-immigrant discourse were ‘The browning of America', ‘Criminality’ and the supposed ‘Racial-Character and Welfare-Dependency’ of Mexicans. These narratives were politically leveraged by groups such as SOS and led to increasingly punitive and racially-discriminatory policy and enforcement, infringing on the Human rights of Latinos. The author argues that this case can be illustrative for contemporary immigration debates and should prompt us to re-centre universal human rights instead of nativism.