An estimated 10 million undocumented immigrants now live in the United States, prompting calls for law enforcement crackdowns and pleas for stringent immigration controls. Social workers and agencies lack the resources to address the needs of this population and are often hindered in service delivery efforts by local anti-immigrant ordinances. This article argues that the sociological theory of social space can be used within a person-in-environment analysis to scrutinize the imbalances of power propelling migration by impoverished populations worldwide and to frame approaches for work with this population at the mezzo and micro levels. Sociologist Henri Lefebvre's tripartite conceptualization of social space is advocated because of its potential to delineate the spatial practices inherent in the question of immigration.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AguirreA.Jr., EickV., & ReeseE. (2006). Introduction: Neoliberal globalization, urban privatization, and resistance. Social Justice: A Journal of Crime, Conflict, and World Order, 33(3), 1–5.
2.
AndreasP. (1999). The escalation of U.S. immigration control in the post-NAFTA era. Political Science Quarterly, 113(4), 591–615.
3.
BlochA. (2000). A new era or more of the same? Asylum policy in the UK. Journal of Refugee Studies, 13, 29–42.
4.
BronfenbrennerU. (1979). The ecology of human development. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
5.
ClaffeyJ. (2006). Anti-immigrant violence in suburbia. Social Text, 24(3), 73–80.
6.
CleavelandC. (2010). We are not criminals: Social work advocacy and unauthorized migrants. Social Work, 55(1), 74-81.
7.
CleavelandC., & PiersonL (2009). Parking lots and pólice: Undocumented Latinos’ tactics for finding day labor jobs. Ethnography, 10(2-3), 423–441.
8.
Delgado-WiseR., & CovarrubiasH. M. (2007). The reshaping of Mexican labor exports under NAFTA: Paradoxes and challenges. International Migration Review, 41(3), 656–679.
9.
Fernandez-KellyP., & MasseyD. (2007). Borders for whom? The role of NAFTA in Mexican-U.S. migration. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 610(1), 98–118.
10.
FurmanR., LangerC., SanchezT., & NegiN. (2007). A qualitative study of immigration policy and practice dilemmas for social work students. Journal of Social Work Education, 43(1), 133–147.
11.
GarlandJ., & ChakrabortiN (2006). Race, space and place: Examining identity and cultures of exclusion in rural England. Ethnicities, 6, 159–179.
12.
GermainC. B., & GittermanA. (1996). The life model of social work practice (2nd ed.). New York: Columbia University Press.
13.
GilD. (1998). Confronting injustice and oppression: Concepts and strategies for social workers. New York: Columbia University Press.
14.
GittermanA., & GermainC. B. (2008). The life model of social work practice: Advances in theory and practice. New York: Columbia University Press.
15.
HallJ. C. (2007). Perceptions of need and the ethicality of male social work practice. Families in Society: The Journal of Contemporary Social Services, 88(2), 214–223.
16.
HassanL. (2000). Deterrence measures and the preservation of asylum in the United Kingdom and United States. Journal of Refugee Studies, 13, 184–204.
17.
Hondagneu-SoteloP., GuadinaG., LaraH., & OrtizB. C. (2004). “There's a spirit that transcends the border”: Faith, ritual and postnational protest at the U.S./Mexico border. Sociological Perspectives, 47(2), 133–160.
18.
HumphriesB. (2004). An unacceptable role for social work: Implementing immigration policy. British Journal of Social Work, 34, 93–107.
19.
JonasS. (2006). Reflections on the great immigration battle of 2006 and the future of the Americas. Social Justice, 33(1), 6–20.
20.
KempS. P. (2001). Environment through a gendered lens: From person-inenvironment to woman-in-environment. Affilia: Journal of Women in Social Work, 16(1), 7–30.
21.
KondratM. E. (2002). Actor-centered social work: Re-visioning “person-inenvironment” through a critical theory lens. Social Work, 47(4), 435–448.
22.
KunJ. (2000). The aural border. Theatre Journal, 52(1), 1–21.
23.
LefebvreH. (1991). The production of space. Malden, MA: Blackwell.
24.
LewisM. (2008). Familias in the heartland: Exploration of the social, economic, and cultural realities of Latino immigrants. Families in Society: The Journal of Contemporary Social Services, 89(2), 193–201.
25.
Martinez-BrawleyE. E., & GualdaE. (2009). Portraying immigrants to the public: Mexican workers in the U.S. and African workers in Spain: Is there a role for social work?International Social Work, 52(3), 299–312.
26.
MasseyD. (2005). For space. London, UK: SAGE.
27.
MasseyD. S., DurandJ., & MaloneN. J. (2002). Beyond smoke and mirrors: Mexican immigration in an era of economic integration. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
28.
MichalowskiR. (2007). Border militarization and migrant suffering: A case of transnational social injury. Social Justice: A Journal of Crime, Conflict and World Order, 34(2), 62–77.
29.
MoralesI. (1997). The Mexican crisis and the weakness of the NAFTA consensus. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 550(1), 130–152.
30.
MorrisS. D., & Passe-SmithJ. (2001). What a difference a crisis makes: NAFTA, Mexico and the United States. Latin American Perspectives, 28(3), 124–149.
31.
OrganistaK. (2007). Mexican migration for dummies: What social workers and the public need to know. Journal of Ethnic and Cultural Diversity in Social Work, 16(3), 189–198.
32.
PadillaY. C., ShapiroE. R., Fernandez-CastroM. D., & FaulknerM. (2008). Our nation's immigrants in peril: An urgent call to social workers. Social Work, 53(1), 5–8.
33.
ParisR. (2008). “For the dream of being here, one sacrifices…”: Voices of immigrant mothers in a home visiting program. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 78(2), 141–151.
Pinedo-TurnovskyC. (2006). A la parada: The social practices of men on a street corner. Social Text, 24(3), 55–72.
36.
PivenF. F. (2001). Globalization, American politics, and welfare policy. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 577(1), 26–37.
37.
RedcliftM. R. (2006). Frontiers: Histories of civil society and nature. Boston: MIT Press.
38.
RiffeH. A., TurnerS., & Rojas-GuylerL. (2008). The diverse face of Latinos in the Midwest: Planning for service delivery and building community. Health and Social Work, 33(2), 101–110.
39.
SakamotoI. (2007). A critical examination of immigrant acculturation: Toward an anti-oppressive social work model with immigrant adults in a pluralistic society. British Journal of Social Work, 37(3), 515–535.
40.
SassenS. (2006). Territory, authority, rights: From medieval to global assemblages. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
41.
ScottJ. C. (1990). Domination and the arts of resistance: Hidden transcripts. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
42.
ShieldsR. (1999). Lefebvre, love & struggle: Spatial dialectics. New York: Routledge.
43.
SibleyD. (2001). The binary city. Urban Studies, 38(2), 239–50.
44.
SojaE. J. (1989). Post-modern geographies: The re-assertion of social space in critical social theory. New York: Routledge, Chapman & Hall.
45.
TheodoreN. (2003). Political economies of day labor: Regulation and restructuring of Chicago's contingent labor markets. Urban Studies, 40(9), 1811–1828.
46.
UngarM. (2002). A deeper, more social ecological social work practice. Social Service Review, 76(3), 480–497.
47.
ValenzuelaA. (2003). Day labor work. Annual Review of Sociology, 29(1), 307–333.
