Rick Halpern

Immigration policy and the racialization of migrant labour: The construction of national identities in the USA and Britain

Abstract This article is a comparative study of the racialization of migrant labour. Taking the USA 1900–1925 and Britain 1948–1962 as case‐studies, we examine the role of the state in constructing migration in ‘race’ terms and shaping the conditions under which certain categories of migrant workers participate in the labour market. We focus on debates over immigration and citizenship policy because these are key moments in the ‘race making’ process and the construction of national identities. Through an investigation of government discourses surrounding restrictive legislation in both countries, we argue firstly, that notions of ‘race’, nation and national identity are political constructs that require constant policing and refurbishment. Secondly, we contend that the state plays a key role in the racialization of populations through immigration and nationality controls. Thirdly, the racialized nature of immigration regulation both structures the way in which migrants are situated within the labour marke...

Meatpackers : an oral history of Black packinghouse workers and their struggle for racial and economic equality

Meatpackers provides an important window into race and racism in the American workplace. In their own words, male and female packinghouse workers in the Midwest-mostly African-American-talk of their experiences on the shop floor and picket lines. They tell of their fight between the 1930s and 1960s for economic advancement and racial equality. In cities like Chicago, Kansas City, Omaha, Fort Worth, and Waterloo, Iowa, meatpackers built a union that would defend their interests as workers-and their civil rights.

The Persistence of Exceptionalism: Class Formation and the Comparative Method

A true historical perennial, American exceptionalism shows no signs of losing its emotive power. Despite the institutionalisation of social history and the growth of rigorously comparative fields of enquiry, exceptionalism continues to beguile, frustrate, and excite students of the American past. Declared dead at periodic intervals, this is a corpse that continually springs back to life, calling forth defenders and detractors from successive generations of historians.