God's Heart Has No Borders

In this timely and compelling account of the contribution to immigrant rights made by religious activists in post-1965 and post-9/11 America, Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo provides a comprehensive, close-up view of how Muslim, Christian, and Jewish groups are working to counter xenophobia. Against the hysteria prevalent in today's media, in which immigrants are often painted as a drain on the public coffers, inherently unassimilable, or an outright threat to national security, Hondagneu-Sotelo finds the intersection between migration and religion and calls attention to quieter voices, those dedicated to securing the human dignity of newcomers. Based on years of fieldwork conducted in California's major centers as well as in Chicago, this book considers Muslim Americans defending their civil liberties after 9/11, Christian activists responding to death and violence at the U.S-Mexico border, and Christian and Jewish clergy defending the labor rights of Latino immigrants. At a time when much attention has been given to religious fundamentalism and its capacity to incite violent conflict,God's Heart Has No Bordersrevises our understanding of the role of religion in social movements and demonstrates the nonviolent power of religious groups to address social injustices.

Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo is Professor of Sociology at the University of Southern California, the author of Gendered Transitions: Mexican Experiences of Immigration and Domestica: Immigrant Workers Cleaning and Caring in the Shadow of Affluence, and the editor of Gender and U.S. Immigration: Contemporary Trends, all from UC Press