Compassionate Migration and Regional Policy in the Americas

This book explores the contested notion of compassionate migration in its discourse and practice. In the context of today's migration patterns within the Americas, compassionate migration can play a fundamental role in responding to the hardships that many migrants suffer before, during, and after their journeys. This volume explores the boundaries of compassion from legal, political, philosophical, and interdisciplinary perspectives, and supplies examples where state and non-state actors engage in practices of compassion and humanity through formal and informal regimes. Despite the lack of a concise and precise definition of the concept and practice of compassionate migration, all authors in this volume agree on the pressing need for more humane and compassionate treatment for those leaving their home country behind in search of a better life.

This book explores the contested notion of compassionate migration in its discourse and practice. In the context of today's migration patterns within the Americas, compassionate migration can play a fundamental role in responding to the hardships that many migrants suffer before, during, and after their journeys. This volume explores the boundaries of compassion from legal, political, philosophical, and interdisciplinary perspectives, and supplies examples where state and non-state actors engage in practices of compassion and humanity through formal and informal regimes. Despite the lack of a concise and precise definition of the concept and practice of compassionate migration, all authors in this volume agree on the pressing need for more humane and compassionate treatment for those leaving their home country behind in search of a better life.

Introduction; Steven W. Bender and William F. Arrocha.- Part I. So Far From Compassion: The U.S.-Centric and Exclusionary Framework of Current and Past Immigration Policy, Steven W. Bender.- Chapter 1. The Power of Exclusion: Congress, Courts, and the Plenary Power; Victor C. Romero.- Chapter 2. The Subnational Response: Local Intervention in Immigration Policy and Enforcement; Karla McKanders.- Chapter 3. Federal Regulatory Policymaking and Enforcement of Immigration Law; Bill Ong Hing.- Chapter 4. Short-Hoeing the Long Row of Bondage: From Braceros to Compassionate Farm Worker Migration; Gilbert Paul Carrasco.- Part II. Exploring New Spaces for Dialogue and Regional Cooperation in the Americas to Protect Migrants’ Human Rights; William F. Arrocha.- Chapter 5. The Need for a Compassionate Migration Regime for North and Central America: Restoring and Extending Universal Human Rights to Migrant Workers, Their Families, and “Survival Migrants”; William F. Arrocha.- Chapter 6. The Challenges and Potential of a Universal Human Rights Regime to Manage Migration in the Americas; Raquel Aldana.- Chapter 7. The Response of Government and Organized Civil Society to the Nightmare of U.S. Deportations of Mexican Migrant Women; Ana Stern Leuchter.- Chapter 8. Visible and Invisible: Undocumented Migrants in Transit through Mexico; Rodolfo Casillas.- Chapter 9. Challenges in Building Institutions to Protect Transmigrants’ Human Rights: The Mexican Case; Evelyn Cruz.- Chapter 10. Toward a More Compassionate Regional Migration Regime in South America; Juan Artola.- Part III. Envisioning Compassionate Migration: From Canada to Desert Trails and the Cities in Between; Steven W. Bender.- Chapter 11. Is Canada a Model for Compassionate Migration Policy?; Sasha Baglay.- Chapter 12. The Compassion of “Compassionate Migration”; John Shuford.- Chapter 13. Social Readiness: Care Ethics and Migration; Maurice Hamington.- Chapter 14. The Role of Arizona Desert Humanitarians in Compassionate Migration; Rebecca A. Fowler.- Chapter 15. Sourcing Compassionate Migration Policies: Searching for Venues of Humanity; Steven W. Bender.