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How Their Laws Affect our Laws: Mechanisms of Immigration Policy Diffusion in the Americas, 1790–2010

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2024

David Cook-Martín Open the ORCID record for David Cook-Martín [Opens in a new window]  and
David Scott FitzGerald
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Abstract

Why do laws become similar across countries? Is the adoption of similar laws and policies due to factors operating independently within each country? Do countries develop similar rules in response to similar challenges? Or is the similarity of laws and policies due to the interdependent responses that scholars have referred to as processes of policy convergence, transfer, and diffusion? We draw on an analysis of immigration and nationality laws of 22 countries throughout the Western Hemisphere from 1790 to 2010, and of seven case studies of national and international policymaking, to show that policies are often interdependent, even in the domain of immigration law, which scholars have presumed to be relatively immune to external influence. We argue that specific mechanisms of diffusion explain the rise of racist immigration policies in the Americas, their subsequent decline, and the rise of an anti-discriminatory norm for policies. Most striking among our findings is that at key junctures after 1940, weaker countries effectively advanced an anti-discriminatory policy agenda against the desires of world powers. We identify the conditions under which weaker countries were able to reach their goals despite opposition from world powers.

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Law & Society Review , Volume 53 , Issue 1 , March 2019 , pp. 41 - 76
Copyright
© 2019 Law and Society Association.

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Footnotes

We thank generous colleagues for important insights, correctives, and stimulating discussions. We are especially but not exclusively indebted to: participants in the speaker series at Universidad Carlos III-Juan March Institute, Max Planck (Gottingen), and NYU-Abu Dhabi; Peter Stamatov, and Paula England; and our respective departments at UC San Diego and NYU – Abu Dhabi. Errors remain ours.

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