Are Some Immigrants Inherently "Better Quality" than Others? Addressing and Disproving Common Anti-Immigrant Rhetoric

For her human rights capstone, Jasleen Gosal participated in the course SOC 189: “Race and Immigration” where she produced a paper exploring and seeking to disprove the claim that certain immigrants are of "higher quality" than others. Through engaging with harmful racialized overgeneralizations, theories of migration, and factors such as refugee and immigration status, Gosal argues that contrary to common right-wing talking points, there is no inherent quality that makes Asian and European immigrants any "better" than Latino or African immigrants. (In fact, even categorizing immigrants together in such groups is harmful, as it completely overlooks the diversity present within each one). Rather than "quality," it is structural racism embedded into immigration law, access to resources, and other racialized disadvantages that set some groups up for success once they enter this country, while others are set up to struggle. Student project deposited by department for archival purposes. Original work unavailable for public download due to permission restriction preferences of the author.