Abstract
Given the finding that the marginalized are less politically engaged, we examine those who are arguably the most marginalized—the undocumented—and ask: what underwrites recent cases where the undocumented have been politically engaged in meaningful and substantive ways? Additionally, how does this compare with the existing literature on the practice of citizenship for those with formal rights? And what are the implications for our understanding of political participation in the contemporary USA? We seek to address these questions by examining cases where undocumented immigrants act like citizens even though they lack formal political rights. Our cases deviate from previous literature which argues that more marginalized people participate less and that those without formal rights engage in contentious politics in lieu of “normal,” institutional politics. Our analysis of the DREAMers and of immigrant worker centers helps us rethink this traditional distinction between “normal” and contentious politics. Moving beyond a focus on the specific actions that fall into each category, we instead emphasize how the context for these actions is crucial to understanding the foundations of political participation. In particular, we argue that the same “normal” political actions taken by citizens versus noncitizens reveals different foundations underneath; for those without formal rights, what underwrites participation in “normal” and contentious politics alike is what we call grassroots citizenship. We examine how the political participation of undocumented workers and DREAMers takes place within immigrant organizations and how it relies on three pillars: solidarity, critical analysis, and collective action. While previous literature has emphasized the urban and local nature of active, alternative citizenships, our cases operate at multiple scales, demonstrating how grassroot citizenship can be leveraged and “scaled up” to state and national levels. Additionally, through an analysis of grassroots citizenship, we get some purchase on the question of why politicians sometimes listen to people who cannot vote.
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Notes
Milkman (2011, p. 369) connects various movement strands arguing that “the immigrant rights movement can be understood as a form of labor activism,” although she is not writing about the DREAMers and youth activism specifically.
In her study of contemporary community unions, Fine (2005) argues that worker centers have seldom pursued their political goals through parties. Instead, they pursue them by crafting new laws and then organizing members and allies to bring pressure to bear on elected officials. Similarly, Wong suggests, in her study of Chinese and Mexican immigrants to the USA, that community organizations step into the fold with non-electoral strategies for immigrants who are left out of traditional party politics.
The DREAM Act is proposed federal legislation that would provide a pathway to legalization, if a set of criteria are met, for undocumented students who were brought to the USA as children.
By 2012, Dreamactivist.org was being visited by two thousand unique visitors a day.
The Supreme Court ruled in the Hoffman Plastics case that undocumented workers can file unfair labor practices if they are fired for engaging in protected activity and they can collect back pay but employers cannot be forced to reinstate them.
The latest Supreme Court ruling in April of 2002 in Hoffman Plastic Compounds vs. NLRB, that undocumented workers are not entitled to the same protections as US workers if they are wrongly terminated (for union organizing, for example), has imperiled the right to organize. The decision held that while it was illegal for the company to fire the worker for his union activity, he was not entitled to back wages. The absence of “meaningful sanctions” in the words of Justice Breyer, might encourage employers to hire undocumented workers since they could violate their rights with relative impunity.
Those states are: California, Texas, New York, Washington, Illinois, Kansas, Nebraska, New Mexico, Utah, Wisconsin, Maryland, and Connecticut.
Martinez finds that “US citizens were much more likely to participate in protest than non-citizens, perhaps because the latter associate unconventional participation with grater costs.” Her data, however, are from 1989 to 1990, well before the Immigrant Freedom Rides of 2003 and the recent surge in immigrant political protest.
De Sipio (2012, p. 176) finds that “Naturalization is an important political step for immigrants, but political engagement in the country of migration can begin well before immigrants naturalize. Just as important, most community-level political activities do not require citizenship, so civic engagement and community-level political activities are also open to unauthorized immigrants and legal immigrants not yet eligible for naturalization.”
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Meyer, R., Fine, J. Grassroots Citizenship at Multiple Scales: Rethinking Immigrant Civic Participation. Int J Polit Cult Soc 30, 323–348 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10767-017-9261-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10767-017-9261-y