It is time to change the focus of the U.S. debate over immigration. Competing interests and ideologies have narrowed the issue to the question of how to deal with undocumented workers. While reform of the U.S. immigration system is certainly important, there is a greater challenge. How will the growing population of Hispanics be integrated into U.S. society?

 

According to U.S. Census figures, an estimated 45 million Hispanics made up 15 percent of the total U.S. population in 2007. Most of them are either legal permanent residents or citizens, and about 60 percent were born in the U.S. Less than 20 percent of Hispanics are undocumented immigrants. Irrespective of their legal status, all have been negatively affected by the discriminatory practices and rhetoric that have resulted from the recent anti-immigrant backlash.

 

Having already surpassed...

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Alexandra Délano is a PhD candidate in international relations at Oxford University. She teaches a course on Mexican immigration at the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs.