Alejandro Portes

Alejandro Portes is the Howard Harrison and Gabrielle Snyder Beck Professor of Sociology and the director of the Center for Migration and Development at Princeton University.

Recent Articles

The Fence to Nowhere

More than ever, we need to craft an accord on migrant workers.

Alejandro PortesSep 23, 2007

Earlier this year as the Iraq crisis deepened with no end in sight, an administration in disgrace sought to score some kind of legislative victory elsewhere. Immigration reform was a good candidate since a coalition of both the economic right, interested in abundant migrant labor, and the moderate left, interested in human rights and ending migrant exploitation in the workplace, could overcome the cultural right's intransigent opposition to immigration reform.

Unsolved Mysteries: The Tocqueville Files II

Alejandro PortesAug 08, 2003

Immigration's Aftermath

Alejandro PortesMar 25, 2002

It is well known by now that immigration is changing the
face of America. The U.S. Census Bureau reports that the number of foreign-born
persons in the United States surged to 28 million in 2000 and now represents 12
percent of the total population, the highest figures in a century. In New York
City, 54 percent of the population is of foreign stock -- that is, immigrants and
children of immigrants. The figure increases to 62 percent in the Los Angeles
metropolitan area and to an amazing 72 percent in Miami. All around us, in these
cities and elsewhere, the sounds of foreign languages and the sights of a
kaleidoscope of cultures are readily apparent. But the long-term consequences are

Global Villagers: The Rise of Transnational Communities

A new breed of immigrant community is breaking down national borders and confounding traditional notions of citizenship.

Alejandro PortesDec 19, 2001

When the residents of Ticuani, a small farming
community in the Mixteca region of Mexico, wanted a clean water supply, they
turned to a private civic group, the Ticuani Potable Water Committee. As it had
many times before, the committee delivered: It quickly raised $50,000, mostly in
$100 donations, to purchase and install new tubing to bring clean water to
Ticuani.

Strategic Neglect

Alejandro PortesDec 19, 2001

When José Imperatori, a secretary of the Cuban mission in Washington, D.C., was ordered out of the country last February for his alleged role in a Cuban spy ring, he went on a hunger strike and hired a lawyer. It took four burly FBI agents to get him out of his apartment and into a plane to Canada. Reflecting on the episode, one wonders not only why little Cuba is still spying on the United States after the collapse of the Soviet bloc, but also why any Cuban would spy for his country. Why should an educated man like Imperatori defend a regime that he knows to be economically and ideologically bankrupt?

Search form

Alejandro Portes

Recent Articles

The Fence to Nowhere

More than ever, we need to craft an accord on migrant workers.

Unsolved Mysteries: The Tocqueville Files II

Immigration's Aftermath

Global Villagers: The Rise of Transnational Communities

A new breed of immigrant community is breaking down national borders and confounding traditional notions of citizenship.

Strategic Neglect

Pages