S4 E2 No place for migrants in the American Dream

Castañeda, Ernesto and Benson, Michaela and Sigona, Nando (2025) S4 E2 No place for migrants in the American Dream. Who do we think we are? Presents MAGA and Migration.

Audio (WDWTWA S4 E2)
WDWTWA_S4_E2.mp3
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs.
Download (73MB)

Abstract

American Dream? Or American nightmare? The targeting of migrants and minoritised populations under President Trump poses a serious challenge to the long-standing idea that if a person comes to the USA and works hard, they will enjoy social mobility and ‘success’. Continuing our series on the role of borders and migration in the roll out of the ‘MAGA’ project of Trump and his backers, we’re joined by Professor Ernesto Castañeda, Director of the Center for Latin American and Latino Studies and the Immigration Lab at American University, Washington, DC. We ask: who still believes in the American Dream? How long can its demolition hold, in a country built on immigration and migrant labour? And what happens - in the USA and beyond - when people start to realise that immigration is not necessarily the cause of the problems they face? A myth-busting conversation on hope, solidarity and change.