Michele Wucker writes about 
immigration and integration, 
 the politics of culture, 
Latin America and the Caribbean, 
and international finance and debt crisis. 

Internationale Politik (Transatlantic Edition)
Security Threats and Immigration Policy A review of Immigration and National Security by Christopher Rudolph. Summer 2007

"Defining Citizenship" Spring 2006. Navigating the complex terrain of dual citizenship.

The New York Times 
A Safe Haven in New Haven, April 15, 2007: As Washington tussles over the fate of the nation’s estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants, municipal governments are taking sides -cracking down or opening their arms. City councils can’t change the federal government’s failed immigration policies, but they can choose whether to offset or intensify the damage.

Family Second, February 28, 2007:  It makes no sense that roughly as many green cards are available to adult siblings and adult children of citizens - with no regard for their job abilities - as for skilled workers-- or that adult relatives often are in line ahead of spouses and minor children.

The New York Times Book Review, March 28, 2004: Distant Neighbor  A review of Samuel Dillon and Julia Preston's new book, Opening Mexico.

The Guardian
"Borderline Pandering." April 11, 2007. (CommentIsFree.com) George Bush and John McCain used to support sensible immigration reform. So why are they now pandering to a vocal minority of immigration hardliners?

"Fences and Smokescreens." December 26, 2006. (CommentIsFree.com) It's been a watershed year for U.S. immigration reform.

"Keep Stirring the Melting Pot." April 8, 2006. (Guardian Unlimited) Much more is at stake in the Senate immigration debate than just the fate of the roughly 11 million unauthorized immigrants in America.

The Texas Observer
March 23, 2007: Wanted But Not Welcome Three new books bring different interpretations to the nation's struggle with immigration.

World Policy Journal
Winter 2006-07: Fixing the Border --Without A Wall With strong momentum for change, a mandate for bipartisan cooperation, and a brief window of opportunity before the 2008 presidential elections, the time is now to address these questions. To create an orderly, sustainable flow of immigration, Congress would do well to embrace issues that received little attention over the past year, yet will be crucial to the success of any reform project: how to decide whom to let in, how to fix a deeply flawed immigration bureaucracy, and how coordination with sending countries might help to ease migration pressure.

Fall 2004: Political Power in the Perpetual Migration Machine Dual citizenship and absentee voting rights have not only turned the idea of national loyalty upside down, they have become a key element in a global perpetual migration machine fueled by wealthy countries’ need for migrant workers and poor countries’ need for the money those workers send home

Summer 2004:  Remittances: the Perpetual Migration Machine. Money transfers from émigrés—what Bangladesh calls “manpower exports”—are helping the least developed countries stay afloat, for now. Yet remittances have side effects that may create other problems in the future.

Spring 2004: Haiti: So Many Missteps Instead of being a bicentennial celebratory year, 2004 is a time of anguish, of dashed hopes for a once-beloved leader, of carnage, recrimination and revenge, of the return to Haiti of troops from its former occupiers, the United States and France, and of the glaring recognition of how badly Washington and the international community have failed Haiti.

Winter 2002/2003: Searching for Argentina's Silver Lining.  (excerpt) 
A year after Argentina's presidency, banking system, currency, and good credit collapsed, the country is still mired in crisis. The question that must be answered if the world is to avoid future Argentinas is why so many people saw disaster coming for so long yet failed to do what was needed to avert it. 

Summer 2001: Passing the Buck: No Chapter 11 for Bankrupt Nations.  Just over a decade after the 1980s debt crisis found a medium-term fix, the problem of international debt still makes headlines --highlighting the alarming reality that the international approach to nations' financial troubles is still jury-rigged.

Fall 1996: Democracy Comes to Hispaniola. For the first time, the Dominican Republic and Haiti have presidents whose elections were not tainted by vote scandals.

HuffingtonPost.com
"Farmers Branch Folly: Local Immigration Laws Do More Harm than Good" November 28, 2006. In the absence of badly-needed action to reform immigration laws to make it easier for hard-working immigrants to come here legally so that it is feasible to enforce workplace labor and immigration violations, state and now local governments have been approving increasingly draconian laws to punish illegal immigrants and those who rent to or hire them.

"Election Note to Wall-Builders: Don't Count On It" November 3, 2006. If past experiences with tough-guy immigration policies are any guide, it's clear that this kind of posturing may win very short-term political benefits, if any at all.

The "Illegals Voting" Hoax. October 20, 2006. Election officials are hard-pressed to come up with any evidence that widespread voting by non-citizens is a serious problem.

Jaywalkers and the Border Fence. October 7, 2006. The new law to build a fence on the Mexican border reminds me of those barriers that Mayor Rudy Giuliani put up in midtown Manhattan in 1998 to try to stop people from jaywalking.

Opendemocracy.net
" 9/11, Five Years On" September 5, 2006. The lesson of 9/11 is how quickly cynicism and complacency supplant the heroism and compassion that tragedy calls forth.

"Don't Get Immigration Wrong--Again" June 20, 2006. The United States would benefit itself and the world by learning from the errors of its past immigration policies.

Argentina and the IMF: Will They Benefit From Hindsight? April 9, 2003. Argentina is slowly emerging from the devastating economic collapse it suffered in late 2001. But to avoid a repetition, reforms in the way global financial institutions anticipate and manage crises are essential.

Immigration Policy Center Perspectives
"The Top Ten Ways America Gets Immigration Wrong" June 2006. The most striking thing about today’s immigration debate is how many times America has been here before—and how many times it has made the same mistakes. With respect to David Letterman, here is a list of the biggest errors that U.S. policymakers have made in designing immigration policy.

Heinrich Boell Foundation
"America Wrestles With Immigration Reform" June 2006. United States lawmakers can agree on only one thing about what to do about immigration: something must be done.

TPMCafe.com
"Idealism Gone Awry" May 18, 2006. Comments on Greg Grandin's new book, Empire's Workshop.

Folha de Sao Paulo
"Por que os EUA nao acertam quando o tema e a imigracao" (scroll down page for article) April 11, 2006. America keeps getting immigration wrong because it makes policy based on emotion, not on facts and self-interest.

Foreign Policy in Focus
"The Benefits of Dual Citizenship." March 8, 2006. Dual citizenship benefits America by helping to promote U.S. ideals and values around the globe. It promotes U.S. understanding of and connections to the world, to our own benefit politically and economically, and removes practical obstacles to naturalization.

Harper's
"Diminishing Returns." An annotation on migrant worker remittances (with Benjamin Pauker). December 2005.

The Washington Post 
Bookworld, June 19, 2005: Losing Our Edge. A review of Richard Florida's The Flight of the Creative Class.

Outlook, March 7, 2004: Haiti is not Alone in this Crisis  Any policy toward Haiti cannot ignore the Dominican Republic.

Outlook, May 25, 2003: A need to come clean in Argentina  Why not set up a Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Argentina to come to terms with corruption, just as El Salvador and South Africa did for human-rights violations?

Bookworld, January 16, 2003: Going for Broke.  A review of James MacDonald's A Free Nation Deep in Debt and Bruce H Mann's Republic of Debtors.

Migration Information Source
November 1, 2004. Immigrant Voting Rights Receive More Attention. With Ron Hayduk.

Newsday
September 29, 2004. Storms Add to Misery in Caribbean Crisis.

Worth
June 2004. The Cost of Corruption. Efforts to curb bribery boost economic growth.

April 2004. The Language of Money America stands to gain from integrating the millions of Latino immigrants here.

New York Daily News
September 22, 2003. With Ron Hayduk. Let legal immigrants vote in city  Allowing immigrants to vote in municipal elections would only be fitting for the city that is home to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.

The American Prospect 
July 1, 2003: Civics Lessons from Immigrants. What happens when a large part of the American working class does not enjoy a civic voice via voting? Immigrants have come up with creative, even inspiring, alternatives.

International Financing Review
July 2001: Muddling Is Not Enough.  A warning about Argentina's approaching default.

Americas 
May-June 2000: Edwidge Danticat: A Voice for the Voiceless.  A profile of the Haitian-American novelist, teacher and activist.

IntellectualCapital.com
July 13, 2000: Book Review: Which Came First?  A review of Culture Matters: How Values Shape Human Progress, edited by Lawrence E. Harrison and Samuel P. Huntington. 

April 20, 2000: Haiti, Again.  Has democracy taken hold in Haiti? Not exactly. Michele Wucker examines a Clinton administration foreign-policy debacle.  

April 6, 2000: Book Review: Two Worlds Converging.  A review of John Seabrook's Nobrow: The Culture of Marketing, The Marketing of Culture. 

January 27, 2000: How Not to Deal With Debt.  The broader implications of Ecuador's financial troubles.  

November 25, 1999: One Hemisphere, Ready or Not.  A global free trade area? The prospects and promise of the latest step toward globalization.

September 16, 1999: Some People Good, Other People Better. Exposing the draconian nature of a series of 1996 anti-immigration laws; a call for reform.

August 26, 1999: Book Review: Apocalypse Like Me.  Alex Heard's Apocalypse Pretty Soon: Travels in End-Time America reminds Michele of her days as a teenager in Waco at a high school built by Davidian believers in an imminent end of the world.

Tikkun
November-December 1998.  The River Massacre: Hispaniola's Real and Imagined Borders  

January-February 2000. Americans: Who We Are, What We Lost.  A white American considers the costs of the old mantra that to become American, you must give up what you were.

Working Woman  
November 1998. Raising Oklahoma. A devastated city gets a fresh look

June 1998. Human Rights 'R Us. With a new, international seal of approval, companies can show they're not using child labor

December/January 1998. Keep on Trekking. How did a small Wisconsin business become the top exporter in its field? Trek is just one company whose worldwide expansion is helping to fuel the economy back home.

November 1997. Wild, Wild East.  A look at the exploding stock markets in Eastern Europe and Russia. with Susan Benesch

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Book Reviews
Sept. 24, 1999 Immigration: Tough questions, answers. Heaven's Door: Immigration Policy and the American Economy. George J. Borjas. Princeton University Press.

February 28, 1999. Latina's story told with tender care. Empress of the Splendid Season. By Oscar Hijuelos. Link not currently available.

January 17, 1999  There's fun, faith in 'Box of Saints' Esperanza's Box of Saints. By Maria Amparo Escandon. Scribner Paperback Fiction

November 02, 1998. It's best to pay attention to the subtle 'Master Georgie'. Master Georgie. By Beryl Bainbridge. Carrol & Graf. 

November 8, 1998.  Lost homeland at the heart of 'Hunger'. Hunger: A Novella and Stories. Lan Samantha Chang. WW Norton. Link not available.

September 13, 1998. Danticat at her best in compelling story.  The Farming of Bones. By Edwidge Danticat. Soho Press. 

May 31, 1998. Novel's ending hard to forgive. What We Keep. By Elizabeth Berg. Random House

March 15, 1998. Love and money drive 'Spending.'  Spending. By Mary Gordon. Scribner

Last updated April 15, 2007

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