Office:   Raubinger 405
Phone:   973-720-3422
Email:   FilindraA@wpunj.edu
Office Hours:   Spring 2012: Mondays and Wednesdays 12:30-2:00 p.m.; Tuesdays 4:00-6:00 p.m.

Department: Political Science
Area Specialization: American politics, public policy, immigration policy, comparative politics, federalism

Education: Ph.D. in Political Science, Rutgers University; M.A. in Political Science, Rutgers University, B.A. in Political Science, Bryn Mawr College

I am Assistant Professor of Political Science at William Paterson University.  My interest in American immigration policy stems from my work in the fields of comparative federalism, welfare policy and interest group politics as well as from a fascination with issues of inequality, race and ethnicity in the context of American political development.  I am interested in the factors that influence the shaping of state-level immigration and immigrant incorporation policies in the United States and in the history of immigration policy in general.

My work on immigration advocacy and policy has led to questions about how macro-level phenomena, such as state immigration policies, can influence individual behavior.  In other words, I seek to understand the effects of the macro-context on the attitudes and behaviors of immigrants and their children. In an article for the Harvard Education Review (with C. Garcia Coll and D. Blanding, September 2011), we find that graduation rates of immigrant children are higher in states that include immigrants in their social welfare programs than in states where immigrants are excluded from the safety net. Drawing on both the sociological and the child development literatures, we argue that this finding indicates that state immigrant policies can act as a signal of welcome to immigrant families, facilitating their incorporation to American society.

Recent Publications

Filindra, A. (2012) “Immigrant Social Policy in the American States: Race Politics and State TANF and Medicaid Eligibility Rules for Legal Permanent Residents,” State Politics and Policy Quarterly (forthcoming, 2012)

Filindra, A. (2012) “Birthright citizenship and the children of undocumented immigrants: history and theory,” in D. Tichenor and J. Ganz (eds.) Debates on Immigration: Political and Legal Issues. New York: Sage (forthcoming, December 2011)

Filindra A., C. Garcia Coll, and D. Blanding (2011) “The Power of Context: State-Level Immigration Policy and Differences in the Educational Performance of the Children of Immigrants,” Harvard Educational Review, Fall 2011, Volume 81 (3), pp.163-193

Filindra, A. and M. Kovacs (2011) “The State of Immigration Discourse: Legislative Discourses on Immigration in Border States,” International Migration (January, 2011)

Filindra, A. and J. Junn (2011) “Aliens and of Color:  The Multidimensional Relationship of Immigration Policy and Racial Classification in the U.S.,” in D. Tichenor and M. Rosenblum, eds. Oxford Handbook of International Migration. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press (forthcoming, December 2011)