Expansionism

About: Expansionism is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 979 publications have been published within this topic receiving 11169 citations.

U.S. Expansionism, Mexican Undocumented Migration, and American Obligations

Abstract: In his compelling piece, “Living in a Promiseland? Mexican Immigration and American Obligations,” Rogers Smith argues that the greater the degree to which the U.S. has coercively constituted the identities of non-citizens in ways that have made having certain relationships to America fundamental to their capacities to lead free and meaningful lives, the greater the obligations the U.S. has to facilitate those relationships. Over the last hundred years, many rural communities in Mexico have been constituted more by U.S. immigration policy and the labor demands of U.S. employers than by similar policies and economic factors in Mexico. According to Smith, this means that Mexicans may be owed “special access” to American residency and citizenship, ahead of the residents of countries less affected by U.S. policies, and in ways that should justify leniency toward undocumented Mexican immigrants.

Mapping the Contours of the History of the Extension of U.S. Citizenship to Puerto Rico, 1898-Present

Abstract: The Jones Act of 1917 was neither the first nor the last law enacted by Congress containing a citizenship provision for Puerto Rico Since annexing Puerto Rico in 1898, Federal lawmakers debated at least 100 bills containing citizenship, nationality, and naturalization provisions for the island's inhabitants1 Also, between 1898 and 1952, Congress enacted eleven citizenship laws for Puerto Rico extending at least three different types of membership/citizenship to the persons born in the island, namely a Puerto Rican citizenship (1898-1900), a naturalized (individual and collective) citizenship (1906-1940), and a birthright or jus soli citizenship (1940-present) In addition, in 1989, US law and policymakers began to describe the citizenship status of persons born in Puerto Rico, as a mere "statutory" citizenship subject to the plenary will of Congress Suffice it to say that the citizenship provision of the Jones Act of 1917 should be contextualized within this larger history of citizenship legislation Below are six guideposts that map the basic contours of this storyPuerto Rico's Territorial Status, 1898-PresentBetween 1898 and 1901, United States law and policymakers invented a new expansionist tradition, global in scope, with a corresponding territorial status to rule Puerto Rico and the other Spanish ultramarine territories annexed in the aftermath of the Spanish-American War of 1898 The ensuing territorial status enabled the United States to selectively govern Puerto Rico, and subsequently annexed territories, as foreign possessions in a domestic or constitutional sense Stated differently, the new territorial status, also known as the unincorporated territory, enabled the Federal government to selectively determine whether Puerto Rico was located inside, outside or in the penumbras of the United States for constitutional and legal purposes more generally This liminal territorial status has in turn obscured the debates over the citizenship status of Puerto RicansThe ensuing ambiguity of Puerto Rico's territorial status, contingent on congressional legislation and Supreme Court rulings, has since enabled contemporary law and policymakers to declare that Puerto Rico is located outside of the United States for citizenship purposes Historically, all citizenship legislation for Puerto Rico has been contingent on the island's territorial status or more precisely on the location of Puerto Rico within the US global empire While Puerto Rico has remained an unincorporated territory for the past century, over time Congress has enacted citizenship legislation establishing treating the island as a part of the United States for the purposes of extending birthright or jus soli citizenship Notwithstanding, Federal law and policymakers have also continued to argue that Puerto Rico's unincorporated territorial status situates the island elsewhere outside of the United States The point to emphasize, however, is that Puerto Rico's liminal territorial status, again contingent on congressional legislation and Supreme Court rulings, continues to enable law and policymakers to obscure the debates over the citizenship status of Puerto RicansBetween the founding and 1898, United States law and policymakers simultaneously developed two traditions of territorial expansionism, namely a colonialist and an imperialist tradition United States colonialism was premised on the annexation of new territories that could be settled, organized into territorial governments and subsequently admitted as states of the Union Annexed territories were also situated in the United States for constitutional purposes (Baldwin 1899; Randolph 1899) Alternatively, United States imperialism was premised on the occupation of territories for strategic (economic and/or military) purposes Occupied territories were selectively situated outside of the United States for constitutional purposes (Langdell 1899; Thayer 1899) The new expansionist tradition both combined and rejected elements of U …

Living and Working on the Cusp of Contradictions

Abstract: In this article Jo Phoenix argues that the struggles practitioners face to have the complex welfare needs of sexually exploited young people recognised are likely to continue into the future. The argument is made by examining three profound tensions shaping the context which both young people and practitioners inhabit. These tensions are between the, broadly, protectionist agenda of policy development on sexual exploitation and: firstly, socio-cultural changes in respect of consumption, sex and identities; secondly political changes and punitive youth justice system expansionism; and, finally, the closed and moralist rhetoric justifying recent policy changes. In the final analysis, young people and practitioners get caught in these contradictions in ways that foreclose critical examination of policy development and recognition of the complexities of the issues involved.

In Transit: The Formation of a Colonial East Asian Cultural Sphere

Abstract: This work examines the creation of an East Asian cultural sphere by the Japanese imperial project in the first half of the twentieth century. It seeks to re-read the "Greater East Asian Co-prosperity Sphere" not as a mere political and ideological concept but as the potential site of a vibrant and productive space that accommodated transcultural interaction and transformation. By reorienting the focus of (post)colonial studies from the macro-narrative of political economy, military institutions, and socio-political dynamics, it uncovers a cultural and personal understanding of life within the Japanese imperial enterprise. To engage with empire on a personal level, one must ask: What made ordinary citizens participate in the colonial enterprise? What was the lure of empire? How did individuals not directly invested in the enterprise become engaged with the idea? Explanations offered heretofore emphasize the potency of the institutional or ideological apparatus. Faye Yuan Kleeman asserts, however, that desire and pleasure may be better barometers for measuring popular sentiment in the empire--what Raymond Williams refers to as the "structure of feeling" that accompanied modern Japan's expansionism. The negative impact of Japanese imperialism on both nations and societies has been amply demonstrated and cannot be denied, but In Transit focuses on the opportunities and unique experiences it afforded a number of extraordinary individuals to provide a fuller picture of Japanese colonial culture. By observing the empire-- from Tokyo to remote Mongolia and colonial Taiwan, it explores an area of colonial experience that straddles the public and the private, the national and the personal, thereby revealing a new aspect of the colonial condition and its postcolonial implications.