Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: RSS
I was honoured to speak with Douglas Massey, Professor of Sociology and Public Affairs at Princeton University. Massey’s specialty is the U.S.-Mexico border, and back in 1982 he started the Mexican Migration Project, which tracks data on migration between the two countries.
This is a fascinating and wide-ranging conversation, starting in the mid 19th century and right up to the present day. We cover everything from the foundation of the border as a means of colonizing Texas (as well as to spread and preserve the institution of slavery), to the shift towards a criminalization of border crossing along with the rapidly expanding (and shockingly ineffectual) U.S. Border Patrol, to Massey’s own struggles getting leaders to listen to both reason and conscience instead of political expediency.
This interview is completely free and public, but our hope and plan is to make many more similar interviews available as bonus content to Patreon subscribers, as a way of funding our main work, which involves extensive research, travelling, interviews and editing. Any small monthly contribution helps. To subscribe, go here:
https://www.patreon.com/polarities
To see some of the data cited in this interview:
https://mmp.opr.princeton.edu/
As always, thanks for listening!
