From political opportunities to niche-openings: the dilemmas of mobilizing for immigrant rights in inhospitable environments
- Walter J. Nicholls
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This article examines how undocumented immigrants mobilize for greater rights in inhospitable political and discursive environments. We would expect that such environments would dissuade this particularly vulnerable group of immigrants from mobilizing in high profile campaigns because such campaigns would carry high risks (deportation) and have little chance of success. However, we have witnessed many mobilizations by undocumented immigrants in both Europe and the United States over the past 20 years. This article uses the case of undocumented youths in the United States (DREAMers) to examine how a group of undocumented immigrants have overcome important barriers and become a powerful voice for immigrant rights in the country. The article suggests that while undocumented immigrants faced inhospitable contexts, cracks and “niche-openings” they continued to present themselves to groups with the right set of cultural, legal, and economic attributes. Immigrants in possession of these attributes (in this case, youth) could target a niche-opening and argue that they are particularly deserving of legalization. This article also highlights an important dilemma: In contexts characterized by general closure and hostility, narrow mobilizations targeting niche-openings provide the only path to legal status for some, but they can also differentiate (discursively and legally) between “deserving” and “undeserving” undocumented immigrants. Differentiation can contribute to stratifying the immigrant population, with those deemed more deserving facing greater rights and entitlements and those deemed less deserving facing greater restrictions and repression. This carries the risk of magnifying normative and legal inequalities between immigrant groups while introducing many points of conflict within the broader immigrant rights movement.
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- Organizer 1, California Dream Network.
- Organizer 2, California Dream Network.
- Organizer 3, California Dream Network.
- Organizer 4, California Dream Network.
- Organizer 5, California Dream Network.
- Organizer 6, California Dream Network.
- Organizer 7, California Dream Network.
- Organizer 8, California Dream Network.
- Organizer 9, California Dream Network.
- Former Director, California Dream Network/Center for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA).
- Director, Central American Resource Center.
- Organizer 1, Dream Activist.
- Organizer 1, Dream Team Los Angeles.
- Organizer 2, Dream Team Los Angeles.
- Organizer 3, Dream Team Los Angeles.
- Organizer 4, Dream Team Los Angeles.
- Organizer 5, Dream Team Los Angeles.
- Organizer 6, Dream Team Los Angeles.
- Organizer 7, Dream Team Los Angeles.
- Organizer 8, Dream Team Los Angeles.
- Director, Instituto de Educacion Popular del Sur de California (IDEPSCA—Institute of Popular Education of Southern California).
- Organizer 1, Improving Dream, Equality, Access, and Success, University of California Los Angeles, (DREAMS UCLA).
- Organizer 2, Improving Dream, Equality, Access, and Success, University of California Los Angeles, (DREAMS UCLA).
- Organizer 1, Inland Empire Dream Team.
- Organizer 1, Orange County Dream Team.
- Organizer 2, Orange County Dream Team.
- Organizer 1, San Fernando Dream Team.
- Organizer 1, San Gabriel Valley Dream Team.
- Director, National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON).
- Director, Hermandad Mexicana Latinoamericana/Mexican American Political Association.
- Director, Southern California Immigrant Rights Coalition (SCIRC).
- Director, University of Los Angeles California, Labor Center.
- Project Director, University of Los Angeles California, Labor Center.
- Former Organizer, United We Dream.
- Title
- From political opportunities to niche-openings: the dilemmas of mobilizing for immigrant rights in inhospitable environments
- Journal
-
Theory and Society
Volume 43, Issue 1 , pp 23-49
- Cover Date
- 2014-01-01
- DOI
- 10.1007/s11186-013-9208-x
- Print ISSN
- 0304-2421
- Online ISSN
- 1573-7853
- Publisher
- Springer Netherlands
- Additional Links
- Topics
- Keywords
-
- DREAM Act
- Immigrant rights
- Social movements
- Political opportunity structure
- Industry Sectors
- Authors
- Author Affiliations
-
- 1. Department of Sociology, University of Amsterdam, Oudezijds Achterburgwal 185, Amsterdam, 1012 DK, The Netherlands
