Walter J. Nicholls

The Immigrant Rights Movement (eBook, ePUB)

The Battle over National Citizenship

• Format: ePub

Produktbeschreibung

In the months leading up to the 2016 presidential election, liberal outcry over ethnonationalist views promoted a vision of America as a nation of immigrants. Given the pervasiveness of this rhetoric, it can be easy to overlook the fact that the immigrant rights movement began in the US relatively recently. This book tells the story of its grassroots origins, through its meteoric rise to the national stage.

Starting in the 1990s, the immigrant rights movement slowly cohered over the demand for comprehensive federal reform of immigration policy. Activists called for a new framework of citizenship, arguing that immigrants deserved legal status based on their strong affiliation with American values. During the Obama administration, leaders were granted unprecedented political access and millions of dollars in support. The national spotlight, however, came with unforeseen pressures-growing inequalities between factions and restrictions on challenging mainstream views. Such tradeoffs eventually shattered the united front. The Immigrant Rights Movement tells the story of a vibrant movement to change the meaning of national citizenship, that ultimately became enmeshed in the system that it sought to transform.

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Produktdetails

• Verlag: Stanford University Press
• Seitenzahl: 296
• Erscheinungstermin: 13. August 2019
• Englisch
• ISBN-13: 9781503609334
• Artikelnr.: 57097729

Autorenporträt

Walter J. Nicholls is Associate Professor of Urban Planning and Public Policy at the University of California, Irvine. He is the author of The DREAMers (2013) and Cities and Social Movements (2016).

Inhaltsangabe

Contents and Abstracts
Introduction
chapter abstract
The introduction provides readers with a basic overview of the book's
central concepts and arguments. It suggests that today's immigrant rights
movement has its roots in local battles scattered throughout the country.
It maps out how these local fights emerged and goes on to discuss their
aggregation into a national social movement.
1The Rights of Immigrants in the Nation
chapter abstract
Some scholars have argued that globalization and transnational migration
have weakened the importance of national citizenship. This theoretical
chapter addresses this central issue. It suggests that national citizenship
is still very much intact and constrains how immigrant rights activists
develop their claims and demands. By engaging with various literatures
including citizenship studies, social movement, and immigration, the
chapter aims to explain the continued caging powers of the nation state
over the thoughts, words, and actions of activists.
2Suburbia Must be Defended
chapter abstract
The chapter explores the local conditions that helped give rise to
ethnonational arguments by examining local responses to immigrant day
laborers. By drawing on materials from the 1990s, the chapter maintains
that the public assembly of Latino immigrants on street corners disrupted
the everyday life suburban residents. Such disruptions propelled thousands
of people to step in and debate the meanings of citizenship. From this
cauldron of conflicting passions emerged a particular understanding of
citizenship that was ethnonationalist, exclusionary, and revanchist. This
was an ethnic understanding of citizenship backed by an increasingly
violent and exclusionary state.
3Resisting Ethnonationalism, One Town at a Time
chapter abstract
The chapter examines how pro-immigrant groups bubbled up in suburban towns
around the county and pushed back on their anti-immigrant neighbors. It
does so by first describing early resistances by day laborers and their
diverse range of supporters. The chapter goes on to describe how some local
mobilizations snow-balled into sizeable struggles mostly anchored by
regional immigrant rights organizations. The chapter finishes by showing
how many campaigns succeeded in stopping many restrictive ordinances.
4Regionalizing the Fight for Immigrant Rights: The Case of Los Angeles
chapter abstract
Metropolitan Los Angeles is used as a case to illustrate how immigrant
rights activism shifted to the regional scale. The chapter begins with a
very local conflict over day laborers in the suburb of Pasadena. It
examines how highly precarious immigrants stepped out of the proverbial
shadows to resist their criminalization in the city. Following this
discussion, the chapter proceeds to a discussion of the regionalization of
the struggle. Center for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA)
played a pivotal role in connecting and coordinating battles unfolding
across the metropolitan area.
5The Resurgent Nation State
chapter abstract
From the mid 1990s onwards, the federal government became increasingly
active in the area of immigration. It passed more restrictive laws and
policies and invested more money in enforcement. Moreover, elected
officials began to talk more about immigration and immigration reform than
ever. The federal government's symbolic and legal power were overwhelming
in shaping the parameters of national citizenship. For immigrant rights
activists who had spent their formative years in local political trenches,
it became increasingly important to shift scale and enter national
politics.
6Entering the Field of National Citizenship
chapter abstract
The chapter addresses the shift to national politics by examining the
creation of a countrywide social movement infrastructure. Well-endowed and
politically connected national organizations worked with prominent local
organizations to form a string of new coalitions with national-level reach.
The primary goal of these coalitions was to create a vehicle to pursue
comprehensive immigration reform. Washington D.C.-based organizations sat
at the helm of the coalitions and reached out to local organizations in
immigrant rich metropolitan areas. These organizations co-sponsored
meetings, trainings, and other events. The coalitions fashioned new
instruments (organizations, networks, communication networks, trainings and
workshops) to transmit understandings about rights, immigration reform, and
citizenship from the centers of power (Washington D.C.) to immigrant
communities around the country.
7Money Makes the Movement
chapter abstract
The funding pie grew much larger in the 2000s and 2010s. The financial
bounty enabled leading organizations to create the infrastructure
underlying the mainstream immigrant rights movement. They could afford to
undertake costly communications research. They had the resources to
generate training materials and run local workshops in localities across
the country. Well-resourced organizations could afford to lobby national
politicians and develop relations with political elite. The infusion of
money enabled an unprecedented level of coordination, but the wealth and
professionalization of national organizations contributed to sharpening
inequalities and a veritable class divide in the social movement.
8A Seat at the Table
chapter abstract
The Obama administration provided advocacy organizations extraordinary
access. The leading organizations had many meetings with White House
officials and congressional leaders. Strong ties with federal policymakers
and politicians also provided movement leaders with direct access to
valuable information. Access did not, however, result in much political
influence. During a period of unprecedented access, the Obama White House
did not prioritize comprehensive immigration reform during its first term.
The White House and its Senate allies believed that they needed to burnish
their deportation credentials in order to win broad support from reluctant
Republicans. Between 2009 and 2013, the Obama administration removed
approximately 400,000 unauthorized immigrants a year. Thus, in spite of its
enormous reservoirs of political capital, the leadership of the immigrant
rights movement was not able exercise great influence over federal
immigration policy.
9Making Immigrants American
chapter abstract
This chapter examine how the movement generated public representations of
immigrants in their battle for comprehensive immigration reform. Entry into
the national field precipitated a process of selecting one master frame
(liberal nationalism) over others (territorial personhood,
postnationalism). Following the failure to pass immigration reform in 2007,
the leadership initiated a broad campaign to change how Americans viewed
immigrants. They set out to generate a disciplined message that would
resonate with hearts and minds of average Americans. Liberal nationalism
provided advocates with the language, ideas, sentiments, and narratives to
effectively construct a message of immigrant deservingness. America was,
they argued, a nation of immigrants and immigrants possessed essential
attributes (assimilated in norms and culture, contributing, innocent) that
made them deserving of membership.
Conclusion: Where We Stand
chapter abstract
The concluding chapter assesses the challenges facing the immigrant rights
movement in the Trump era. It suggests that new political challenges have
contributed to further splintering the movement. The chapter also describes
how the new difficulties are rooted in problems that had metastasized over
the previous fifteen years.