Review by Choice Review
Labor unions in industrialized countries have increasingly abandoned their traditional hostility toward immigration. In this modest monograph, Watts (politics, Pomona College) examines this shift by comparing the experiences of Spain, Italy, and France. After documenting the evolution of immigration policy over the past few decades, she uses evidence from interviews with union officials to bolster her central arguments that "labor leaders increasingly see immigration as an inevitable consequence of globalization and believe efforts to restrict it will fail" because "restrictive policies do little more than force immigrants into a precarious legal and economic position, which ultimately undermines the wages and working conditions of all workers." Additional chapters examine why European employers have kept such a low profile on the immigration issue; show how unions have tried--often successfully--to influence immigration policy; contemplate changes that will occur as the European Union adopts a common immigration policy; and consider American developments in light of European patterns. The book would be stronger if it probed more deeply into union leaders' motivations and incentives. In addition, the concept of "globalization" is never adequately defined and examined, thus hiding as much as it illuminates. Appropriate for lower-division undergraduate through professional collections. R. M. Whaples Wake Forest University
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
