The Face of the Nation
The Face of the Nation shows why immigration is a uniquely revealing policy arena in which a polity chooses what it will be, a collective decision that shapes a nation's identity and defines itself. It focuses on three aspects of immigration policy: the regulation of admission to the United States for permanent residency, the regulation of admission of people fleeing political repression, and the efforts to cope with the flow of unsanctioned migrants across the U.S.-Mexico border. The Face of the Nation seeks the answers in modern theories of public policy formation, especially the currently popular new institutionalism.
The author shows why immigration is a uniquely revealing policy arena in which a polity chooses what it will be, a collective decision that shapes a nation's identity and defines itself.
He offers an enhanced version of this approach, which he calls "improvisational institutionalism," and applies it to the paradoxes of immigration policy.