Social Activism in the Making

Abstract

The preceding two chapters examined the dimension of status and the practices of migrant citizenship in irregular migration at the individual and household levels. Taking into consideration James Scott’s (1985) insight that marginalized groups tend to resort to a less coordinated form of resistance and to avoid direct, open confrontations with dominant groups,¹ I have so far focused on the more individual mode of struggles of migrant citizens from the Philippines in Schönberg. While these everyday acts of resistance are the predominant forms of citizenship contestation, I have observed that new forms of engagement by migrants and their supporters—both individuals and organizations—have been emerging in specific local contexts: the role of Christian-faith-related activities, local networks enabling access to health care, and support networks for legal action by an irregular migrant care worker to demand unpaid wages. This is something that can be called “social activism,” defined as “action on behalf of a cause, action that goes beyond … conventional or routine [politics]” (Martin 2007, 19).² Thus, this chapter zooms in on the practices of domestic workers in relation to (trans)local institutional settings as a way of negotiating their migrant citizenship, shifting the level of analysis toward the migrants’ interaction with the meso-level of communities, networks, and organizations.