What Houston can teach US cities about immigrant rights

In addition to Bayou City, Space City and H-Town, Houston has been called the Prophetic City - a reference to its majority-minority status previewing demographic changes to come in growing cities and suburbs across the U.S.

Yet scholars have devoted surprisingly little attention to immigrant rights in the nation's fourth-largest city, where nearly one-third of the 2.3 million residents are foreign-born, says Shannon Gleeson, the Edmund Ezra Day Professor in the Department of Global Labor and Work at the ILR School, and in the Cornell Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy.

In a new book, "Advancing Immigrant Rights in Houston," Gleeson and co-author Els de Graauw, a political scientist at the City University of New York, argue that Houston offers important insights as a city distinct from more established and progressive gateway cities such as Chicago, Los Angeles and New York.

"Houston highlights how immigrant rights can be advanced in a place resistant to change," the authors write, "yet facing a demographic reality that demands it."

Gleeson discussed the book - based on nearly 200 interviews since 2005 with local government officials, advocates, labor movement staff, faith leaders, philanthropic funders and business owners - with the Chronicle.

Q. Why did you begin focusing research on Houston? Do you have any personal connection to the city?

A. I was raised in southwest Houston for most of my childhood and my family still lives there. It's a place I often barely recognize, given its rapid change and breakneck speed of development, but it's a place to which I have continued to return as a visitor and scholar. My colleague Els de Graauw is an expert, too, on immigrant integration efforts in Houston, having lived there as well, and built many connections with dedicated leaders throughout the region. It's a place like none other that keeps drawing us back.

Q: What significant advances in rights have immigrants won there?

A: In the book we discuss four key cases where immigrant advocates have made headway: federal immigration enforcement; efforts to implement federal immigration benefits such as naturalization and the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program; the creation of an immigrant affairs office; and a successful campaign to create a local mechanism to address the problem of wage theft.

Q: To what do you attribute those gains, achieved within a state political context that is less welcoming to immigrants?

A: Several factors shape Houston's approach, including a "purple" political environment that is deeply divided across partisan lines (slightly more Democrat recently, but slightly more Republican in the not-too-distant past), a relatively thin civic context (characterized by fewer nonprofits and funders than in other large traditional immigrant gateways), and a diverse immigrant population (indeed, Houston is the most diverse city in the nation). We discuss a number of factors driving these immigrant campaigns, including the role of "strange bedfellow" coalitions, which were imperative in a place dominated by moderate and business-friendly Democrats, and strong and influential conservative electorate and contingent of elected officials.

Q: Is Houston a higher-risk place to be an immigrant than more progressive big cities?

A: Certainly the counties and suburban jurisdictions surrounding the core of the Greater Houston region have had a pattern of more restrictionist policies, and a dearth of immigrant services. Additionally, state policies in Texas have tracked decidedly in more nativist directions, more recently characterized by the proposed Senate Bill 4 (which legalizes racial profiling of immigrants by law enforcement), state challenges to the DACA program, and alarming efforts to militarize the border with National Guard troops and tactics that defy federal orders and human rights standards. However, it is important to not idealize the context for immigrant populations in any place in the country right now. As federal efforts toward comprehensive immigration reform become more and more divisive and unable to reach consensus, and bipartisan efforts to close the border or slow the flow of migrants has had major humanitarian implications, noncitizen immigrants in particular have become more vulnerable everywhere. But amidst this national stalemate, we seek innovative approaches to address the rights of immigrant workers, students and patients, among others. And Houston is a place - like many others - where advocates and local officials are finding a way to make this a reality, despite the many challenges.

Q: What can other cities learn from Houston?

A: A key lesson from the example of Houston is the importance of demographic change, but the reality that demography is not destiny. Not all immigrant destinations are created equal, and there is no one template for campaigns intending to advance immigrant rights. A lot hinges on the political landscape, the civic infrastructure and the balance of power in a place. The coalitions required to make policies a reality are very locally determined. Further, immigrant populations are far from a monolith politically. In a place like Houston, immigrants are just as divided on key election issues, and indeed immigrants have become a critical part of the conservative base in the city. It is important to not make assumptions about immigrant desires and preferences.

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