We see all around us the evidence of a new politics of immigration. On any given day in the major newspapers and Twitter feeds of Western states, there is some story about immigration. These stories span people needing refugee protection, people being deported, people threatening our border, people dying in search of a new home, people in detention, international students, wealthy investors buying up real estate, communities welcoming newcomers, or dividing along previously invisible cultural cleavages. Immigration is big news. And even bigger politics. President Obama has an immigration agenda. Chancellor Merkel and Prime Ministers Cameron, Turnbull, and Trudeau are regularly involved, along with almost every leader of a Western democratic state. Immigration is an issue in every election in Europe, North America, and the antipodes. And while much of the new politics of immigration is Western driven, Western states are not its only location. When Indian Prime Minister Modi visited Canada in 2015, one of the key issues covered by the Canadian press was whether the visit would be a catalyst for allowing Canadians to participate in a preferential visa scheme. Kenya has called for closure of the world's largest refugee camp. Kiribati is calling for new laws to allow its citizens rights of entry elsewhere when their island nation sinks below sea level. South Africa is grappling with anti-immigrant violence.

The newness of this politics is found in its intensity, its urgency, and its legality. Never before have immigration issues been at the center of the political stage in so many places at the same time. Never before has the political attention to immigration drawn such a highly legalized response. Never before has hostility towards immigrants been quite so widespread, and quite so nasty. The politics of immigration has taken a sharp turn in the early years of the twenty-first century. This turn is decisive and irrevocable, and we are only just beginning to grapple with the how and why of it.

For some time now, analysts have been writing about the global convergence of immigration policy. This convergence is a vital clue to explaining the new politics. The explanation takes the multilayered dimensions of convergence as a starting point and looks behind them to see what has changed, and what the consequences will be for the future.