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UC Davis experts: Latino politics and immigration

The UC Davis faculty has a broad expertise regarding Latino border issues issues. Spanish-language media members, please note the list consists of mostly fluent Spanish speakers. If you need information on a topic not listed, please contact Claudia Morain at the UC Davis News Service, (530) 752-9841, cmmorain@ucdavis.edu or Pat Bailey, News Service, (530) 752-9843, pjbailey@ucdavis.edu.

Immigration

Politics and economics

IMMIGRATION ISSUES

Undocumented immigrants and civil rights

Professor Kevin Johnson of the School of Law can talk about the disconnect between national rhetoric, the law and public policy over undocumented immigrants. He has extensively studied U.S.-Mexico relations from the time of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848 to the present, including issues surrounding the North American Free Trade Agreement. Also associate dean for academic affairs at the law school, Johnson teaches and publishes on civil rights and is a professor and director of the Chicana/o Studies Program. Johnson's new book, "The 'Huddled Masses' Myth: Immigration and Civil Rights" was published in December 2003. He is a member of the American Bar Association's Coordinating Committee on Immigration, a director of Legal Services of Northern California and a member of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights for the San Francisco Bay Area. Contact: Kevin Johnson, School of Law, (fluent in Spanish) (530) 752-0243, krjohnson@ucdavis.edu.

Mexican immigrant communities

James Grieshop, specialist and lecturer in human and community development, has extensive applied research and educational experience with Mexican immigrant communities in California. In the past 10 years he has completed a number of collaborative projects with the Mixtec immigrant community in the Central Valley of California and in Mixtec areas of Mexico. A primary focus of his work has been on the incorporation of Mixtec into local communities and schools as well as their ongoing cross-border connections to home communities in Oaxaca. He has used print and film media to document and communicate the stories of Mixtec immigrant families in California. Contact: James Grieshop, Human and Community Development, (fluent in Spanish) (530) 752-3008, jigrieshop@ucdavis.edu.

Labor and migration

Philip Martin, professor of agricultural and resource economics, is an authority on migration and labor issues, particularly agricultural labor. He can discuss labor and migration as they affect U.S. and Mexico relations. He has published extensively on labor, migration, economic development and immigration policy issues and has testified before Congress and state and local agencies on those issues. He recently co-authored a report urging California policy-makers to develop strategies that will encourage and hasten the integration of immigrants into the state's economy and society. Contact: Philip Martin, Agricultural and Resource Economics, (530) 752-1530, plmartin@ucdavis.edu.

U.S. migration: Economic effects on home countries

Agricultural and resource economics professor Edward Taylor studies migration and its impacts on Pacific Rim countries, specifically Mexico, Central America and Ecuador. Taylor can talk about salary remittances as economic multipliers, how immigration promotes survival in native villages, and other economic issues triggered by immigration. He can also talk about the rural economics of the Americas and Pacific Rim. He is co-directing a $1 million national study in Mexico of the effects of immigration in rural villages with the assistance of El Colegio de Mexico, a national university system. Contact: Ed Taylor (fluent in Spanish), Agricultural and Resource Economics, (530) 752-0213, taylor@primal.ucdavis.edu.

POLITICS AND ECONOMICS

Chicanos and state politics

Adela de la Torre, chair of the Chicana/o Studies Program at UC Davis, can comment on both California Latino politics and labor economics. Her topics include a range of issues regarding the Latino vote and elections, both in California and nationally. These include redistricting, the relationship between Chicano political power and federal manpower and health programs, Hispanic labor and income issues, and the influence of the California Legislature's Chicano Caucus on state resource allocation. A labor economist, de la Torre can talk about how Latinos are essential to key sectors in the California economy. She wrote "Moving From the Margins: A Chicana's View of Public Policy." Contact: Adela de la Torre (fluent in Spanish), Chicana/o Studies, (530) 752-3904, adelatorre@ucdavis.edu.

Chicano issues

UC Davis historian Miroslava Chávez-García teaches about the gamut of Chicano issues: immigration policies, U.S. border relations with Mexico, state politics, maquiladoras, people and drug smuggling, environmental problems and community activism in the Southwest. An assistant professor in the Chicana/o Studies Program, she also is well-versed in Chicano history of the 20th century, as well as colonial and 19th century California Chicano history. Contact: Miroslava Chavez-Garcia (fluent in Spanish), Chicana/o Studies Program, (530) 752-1265, chavezgarcia@ucdavis.edu.

Trade, foreign investment and wages

Robert Feenstra, professor of economics, has written extensively on the impacts of international trade and foreign investment, including the effects of NAFTA. Of special interest are the effects of trade and investments on wages earned by workers. In both the United States and Mexico, the trend has been for the wages of higher-skilled workers to rise relative to those of less-skilled workers. This is a predictable response when companies in the United States "outsource" some of their activities to Mexico, as has occurred under NAFTA. Feenstra is editor of the Journal of International Economics, directs the Center for International Data at UC Davis, and is also the director of the International Trade and Investment program at the National Bureau of Economic Research (Cambridge, Mass.). Contact: Robert Feenstra, Economics, (530) 752-7022, rcfeenstra@ucdavis.edu.

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Last updated January 22, 2004