2-3pages essay book review
Mary1234
10.UrbanMovements-Winter2020-LosAngeles.pptx
10. Cities and Social Movements
Kaspar Metzkow will be in touch to arrange the further details.
With kind regards,
Department of Regional and Urban Sociology and the Georg Simmel Zentrum.
Special thanks to Talja Blokland and Kaspar Metzkow
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Book Review
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Capital City
What does Stein mean by the real estate state? Is the real estate state neoliberal? Support your answer.
Interconnection between developers and government (council, planning commission, planners) (Stein)
Neoliberalism encourages cities to embrace policies that favor investors (Hackworth
They do so because of
Declining federal revenue increases dependence on locally generated taxes
Inter-urban competition for investors lock cities into such policies
Bond markets further lock
What are the principal causes of gentrification?
Consumer led: Global cities have a growing number of middle-class people with lots of income. They want to be close to their jobs, they find cultural value in inner city, and they postpone childrearing.
Production led: Rent gap results in lowering actual value of land that is potentially highly desirable. This creates extraordinary opportunities for developers and city officials to develop properties
Other gaps – function gap, value gap
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Capital City
According to Stein, what are the specific things that planners do to support gentrification?
Tax breaks (TIF, Tax Abatement, etc.) attract investors to specific places in the city.
Infrastructure and service development (parks, transportation, schools, etc.) attract investors and buyers to specific areas.
Zoning (Upzoning + downzoning) – Upzoning increases building and density, Downzoning traps in existing values
What are important consequences from gentrification?
Direct displacement: evicted and mass removal through eminent domain
Indirect displacement: Can no longer afford to live in a place
Increase tax revenue for city
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Final Exam
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Directions: Students are required to answer the questions below. Answers should be two to three pages long (double space, 12-point font, 1-inch margins). We are assessing your knowledge of course materials (lectures and readings). . MLA or APA formats are acceptable. Submit in Word or PDF format only. Do not submit in Pages format.
Due Wednesday, March 18 at 12:30 p.m. through Canvas.
The final is worth 100 points. 10 points will be deducted for papers turned in within 24 hours after the deadline. Essays will not be accepted more than 24 hours after the deadline. Submit your papers at least two hours before the official deadline. This will help prevent last minute glitches.
Your answers must be written in a standard essay format consisting of a short introduction (with a thesis statement), supporting paragraphs, and a short conclusion. The essay must address all four questions.
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Cities and Social Movements
This quarter has focused on the qualities that make cities unique environments. While these environments are riven with inequalities and problems, they also facilitate the formation of contentious political groups.
Drawing on the two books, lectures, and readings, what are the specific economic and political conditions that have worsened conditions for low-income immigrants in US cities?
Drawing on the book (Cities and Social Movements), lectures, and readings, what were the specific factors that sparked mobilizations by undocumented immigrants in the United States and France.
Describe the specific process through which immigrants developed into a political group with high mobilization capacities in Los Angeles and Paris.
According to the book Cities and Social Movements, immigrant mobilizations in Los Angeles and Paris had similar origins, but they developed very different trajectories. What are the specific factors that explain for the different trajectories?
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1. Local Movements
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Insurgent Planning
A Six Step Process of Insurgency
Step 1: Excluding Marginalized People
Step 2: Spaces of Empowerment
Step 3: Backlash from Adversaries
Step 4: Bridging to New Allies
Step 5: Communication
Step 6: Pushing City Officials
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Step 1: Excluding Marginalized People
Excluding Marginalized People
Marginalized People:
Increased immigration following 1965
Immigration Reform and Control Act 1986: Employers Sanctions
Increased demand for casual and inexpensive labor in suburban America
Immigrant day laborers looking for work
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Dirty, Scary, Bellicose Barbarians
“They're just terrible, filthy people. I don't want them in Chamblee” (Atlanta Constitution 1992).
Symbolic Exclusion
Excluding Marginalized People
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Symbolic Exclusion
2. The Right to the (white American) City
“The rights of foreign nationals are taking precedence over the rights of citizens. We came to understand that we were actually the underdogs; we were actually the victims” (NY Times, 1999).
Excluding Marginalized People
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Symbolic Exclusion
3. Illegality
“They violate our laws and demand we feed them, clothe them and educate them in their own language. They are taking jobs away from American citizens” (San Jose Mercury, 1992).
Excluding Marginalized People
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Real Exclusion
Employers
Wage theft of immigrant workers
Excluding Marginalized People
"Why should I pay him? He's illegal.” Employer, Montgomery County, 1995
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Real Exclusion
2. Police
Illegal search and seizure
Illegal racial profiling
Illegal partnerships with Immigration Naturalization Service
Excluding Marginalized People
“The police chief had labeled all the members of the labor pool as ‘illegals’ and added that he didn't know whether undocumented aliens had any rights under U.S. law,” Reporter, Palisades Park ,New York 1995.
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Real Exclusion
3. Urban Plans and Policies
Unconstitutional restrictions on the public solicitation of work
Excluding Marginalized People
“The town was selectively enforcing the code and violating Hispanic residents' constitutional right to free speech, free assembly and due process,” American Civil Liberties Union, Mount Kisco, New York, 1996
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Step 2: Spaces of Empowerment
Unfolding Struggles in Pasadena, California and Other Cities
“Where there is Power, there is Resistance” Michel Foucault
Space of Empowerment: Locations where marginalized groups can connect to one another, draw in resources, and gain the confidence to express their voice and interests to political and planning leaders
Recognizing a Wrong: Day Laborers
"We come here to work. We're human beings, too. We work the heaviest and cheapest jobs.” Immigrant worker, Pasadena, CA, 1994
Step 2: Spaces of Empowerment
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Supportive Organizations
La Escuela de la Comunidad,
Project of Institute of Popular Education of Southern California
Villa Park Center
Pablo Alvarado
Step 2: Spaces of Empowerment
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The Importance of Supportive Organizations in Empowerment
Creating a Safe Space: Coming Out and Coming to Terms with Stigma:
“We were providing them with the means to express what they already knew to be very wrong” (Marlom Portillo, Executive Director, IDEPSCA)
Constructing Bonds and Identity among Day Laborers
Step 2: Spaces of Empowerment
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The Importance of Supportive Organizations in Empowerment
Discovering Rights and Equality through Group Interaction
“I fell for that bullshit that we didn’t have rights because of our status. Through the Association, I learned that we had rights and that the police, city, and employers were violating them on a daily basis.” (José, former member, Pasadena Day Labor Association).
Step 2: Spaces of Empowerment
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Solidary from Other Community Members
Latino residents (legal permanent residents, citizens)
Local Latino and Immigrant Advocacy Organizations
Social Service Organizations
Religious Organizations
Liberal Residents
“We are not all illegal. I'm not illegal. My daughters are not illegal. You can't say that about all of us!” Latino resident, 2004
“These are truly some of the neediest people in our community. Whether they are legal or illegal is not the question. They still have the right to work”, Director of one welfare organization, 2003
Step 2: Spaces of Empowerment
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Summary of Key Points
Exclusion Creates Grievances
Targeted Group (Day Laborers)
Supportive Organizations Play Crucial Roles
Safe Space to Meet
Construct Bonds and Identity among Excluded
Introduce Excluded to Constitutionally-Protected Rights
Solidarity Groups
Latinas/os, Service Organizations, Churches, etc.
Creates political support
Provide resources for emerging insurgents
Step 2: Spaces of Empowerment
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Step 3: Backlash from Adversaries
The Pasadena Day Labor Association Project: Creating the Jobs Center
Unions Respond to Day Labor Efforts to Create a Job Center
“As an organization whose contractual agreements require at least the minimum protection of the law for its members, we would consider the existence of such an operation, in the very shadow of our headquarters, intolerable to say the least… We question the wisdom of the City of Pasadena in considering such an arrangement, which creates a sort of Third-World hiring bazaar...”(IBEW, letter to Pasadena Day Labor Association, emphasis added).
Step 3: Backlash from Adversaries
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Unions Respond to Day Labor Efforts to Create a Job Center
“We will pursue this activity in the same manner and with the same zeal with which we defend the rights of our members … We envision, and invite you to imagine a scenario in which prospective employers, many of them local homeowners and small business owners, could expect to be investigated through their license plate numbers and perhaps turned over to a government agency for violating the law” (emphasis added).”
Step 3: Backlash from Adversaries
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Redoubling the Fight for Recognition and Equality
“This threat has thrown the Association into an unexpected level of struggle, mainly because it seems a contradiction for a union to be in opposition to our struggle (Pablo Alvarado, Letter to Margarita Ramirez, Program Officer of Liberty Hill Foundation, May 20, 1995).
Step 3: Backlash from Adversaries
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Step 4: Bridging to New Allies
Connecting to Supportive Organizations in Pasadena: More resources, connections, power
“We strongly believed that to achieve change depended on our abilities to build alliances with other groups… The question was: what kind of power do we workers have and how can we build on that power through these relations?” (Pablo Alvarado, Executive Director, NDLON).
Step 4: Bridging to New Allies
Pablo Alvarado and MALDEF
Pablo Alvarado and AFL-CIO
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Step 5: Communication – Changing Boundaries of Inclusion and Exclusion
Re-Imagining the Community as Liberal and Multicultural
Representing Marginalized Population as Good, Contributing, Deserving
Conceiving Policies as a Pragmatic Solution to Intractable Problems
Step 5: Communication and Changing Boundaries
Three Prong Communication Strategy
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Step 6: Pushing City Officials
Using Mobilization as Leverage
Disruptive Protests
Disruptive Lawsuits
Disruptive Press
"I'm angry. In fact, I'm livid. We have been painted as a whipping boy of the press, . . . a city of racist bigots. The problem is that people are performing illegal acts on private property,” Councilmember, Chamblee, 1992.
“Agoura Hills spent $100,000 defending the law in court against challenges by the American Civil Liberties Union and other civil rights group. An appellate court upheld the law, but the local sheriff has had trouble enforcing it,” Agoura Hills CA, 1995
Step 6. Pushing Elected Officials
“Officers were wrong to hand out citations to day laborers. Crackdowns can backfire and engender ill will, particularly among minority groups traditionally wary of police” (Police Chief, Roswell, Georgia, 1999)
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Raising the Cost on Existing Policy - Rendering it Ineffective Method
“We say we observed solicitation activity, but the D.A. says, ‘How do you know he wasn’t asking the guy to play golf?’ The only way we could really prove it is to go undercover, and our department is not going to do that. We don’t need that kind of press, that our officers are going undercover to arrest people looking for work” (Sheriffs Deputy, Agoura Hills, 1995).
“It’s just a waste of paper. The law has been in effect now 30 days, and there’s been no change. The most it’s been able to do is polarize our community. It’s done nothing to improve the lives of the residents or the workers. It is a lot of trouble for very little result. It seemed somewhat drastic. And I’m not sure we’re getting the results we expected to get” (City Councilmember, Chamblee, Georgia, 1997).
Step 6. Pushing Elected Officials
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Presenting Preferred Policy as Pragmatic
“The town has stated that it will support a consensus of reasonable people. It looks like the Sachem Quality of Life Organization [anti-immigrant group] wants to do the impossible” (City councilmember, Farmingville, New York, 1999).
Step 6. Pushing Elected Officials
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II. Scaling Up to a Metropolitan Movement
New Innovative Organizations Flourish, 1980s
Radical Immigrant Organizers: El Salvador, Korea, Mexico, Philippines
Innovative Union Organizers – Mobilize Immigrants
Innovative Intellectuals (UCLA, USC)
Pablo Alvarado
Intellectuals
New Immigrant Radicals
Innovative Unions
Ed Soja
Gilda Haas
Los Angeles: Movement Cohesion
Maria Elena Durazo
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Diversity of Specialized Insurgent Clusters:
Weak Ties between Activist Clusters: Contact Points and Brokers:
Thickening Ties: Reciprocal Obligations and Collective Know-How
Consolidating Ties through Culture: Emotional Interdependencies, Trust, Discursive Frames
Immigrant Rights
Labor
Intellectuals
Religious
Contact Point
Contact Point
J
UST
I
CE!
EMOTIONS
Los Angeles: Movement Cohesion
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The Cases: Los Angeles, Paris, Amsterdam
Organizational Interdependencies
Ideological and Goal Overlap: Strong Left & Rights of Immigrant Workers
Little Resource Overlap: Different members, financial supports, sources of legitimacy
Limited Resources for Individual Organizations to Achieve Ambitious Goals Individually
Conditions Encouraged Cooperation and Growing Interdependencies
Los Angeles: Movement Cohesion
The Cases: Los Angeles, Paris, Amsterdam
Weakening State Capacity: Neoliberalism
Declining revenue from property taxes (Proposition 13) and federal government subsidies
Limited resources and capacities to co-opt fast growing immigrant organizations
| Programs | 1981 | 1993 | % Cut |
| Community Development Block Grant | $6.3 billion | $4 billion | -36.5% |
| Urban Development Action Grant | .6 | 0 | -100% |
| General Revenue Sharing | 8 | 0 | -100% |
| Mass Transit (rail, buses) | 6.9 | 3.5 | -49.3% |
| Assisted Housing | 26.8 | 8.9 | -66.8% |
| Clean Water Construction | 6.0 | 2.6 | -56.7% |
Eisenger 1997, 17
Los Angeles: Movement Cohesion
Connecting and Thickening Ties between New Activist Clusters
Catalyzing Events Accelerate Alliances: Riots and Anti-Immigrant Politics (early 1990s)
Thickening Ties through Key Campaigns (Justice for Janitors, Living Wage, Figueroa Corridor, Immigration Reform, etc.)
Bottom Up Power: Insurgents Exert Influence Over Politicians
Miguel Contreras
Antonio Villaraigos
Mark Ridley Thomas
Los Angeles: Movement Cohesion
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Robust Infrastructure and High Mobilization Capacities
Consolidation in Los Angeles, 1990s & 2000s
Immigrant rights protest 2006, 500,000 participants
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Part 3
Nationalizing Urban Activist Hubs in the United States
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1. Introduction
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How did the shift from a local, poor, and fairly radical social movement to a national, professional, and moderate social movement happen?
What were the consequences of this shift for how the movement represented the rights of undocumented immigrants?
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3. Methods
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Interviews with Key Informants
42 semi-structured interviews with executive executive directors and activists
Open Society Foundation (OSF) documents
82 documents concerning immigration rights funding (2007-2016)
Established journalist rules concerning the use of leaked documents
Financial Resources: Funding Dataset
Nonrandom sample consists of 49 immigrant advocacy organization
Tax forms (IRS 990) on ‘grants and contributions’ received by the 49 organizations from the early 2000 to early 2013.
Foundation Center database provides information on foundations and organizations.
Methods
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Political Access: White House Dataset
49 organizations (2009-2014)
White House visitor webpage.
Identified organizations by the names of important employees.
Cleaned dataset by removing visits that were not directly related to immigration issues. We removed more than 100 such visits.
Media Presence: Newspaper Dataset
Koopmans, Ruud and Paul Statham (1999) “Political Claims Analysis: Integrating Protest Event and Political Discourse Approaches”, Mobilization 4 (1): 203-221
2000-2014
New York Times; LexisNexis searches to reduce regional biases.
Keywords: “immigration reform” and “immigration protest”.
Editorials and opinion articles excluded.
1254 newspaper articles included, from which 5422 claims extracted.
Coded: claimant, mode of claims made (protest, press release, etc.), scale (federal or local), affiliation and role of claimant, type of claim
Methods
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3. Findings
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Part I. Local Mobilizations in the 1990s and early 2000s
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Local Anti- and Pro-Immigrant Conflicts in the 1990s:
Municipalities Pass Restrictive Ordinances
Pro-immigrant resistance
Localities become frontline of immigration conflict
Regional Immigrant Rights Organizations
Metropolitan-wide Campaigns
Headquartered in central cities (e.g. Los Angeles, New York, Baltimore, Chicago, etc.)
Local Mobilizations in the 1990s/ early 2000s
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Regional Organizations and Grassroots Organizing
Organize Immigrant Workers (Day Laborers, Domestic Workers, Vendors)
Base Community Model:
Popular Education
Leadership Development of Workers
Musical Band
Soccer / Football Clubs
Newsletter
Musical Band
Soccer Team
Weekly Newsletter
Local Mobilizations in the 1990s/ early 2000s
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Local Mobilizations in the 1990s/ early 2000s
”Free speech is a right, we speak with our voices but also with our hands and the many gestures we use to communicate, when you are on the sidewalk you are expressing yourself or communicating an idea, basically practicing free speech. No law can prohibit someone from standing on a public sidewalk, talking about religion for example. So how can one prohibit someone from talking about work?”
Association of Day Laborers (1997) “Letter to Executive Director of Liberty Hill Foundation”
Framing Rights Claims: Immigrants have Constitutionally Protected Rights Irrespective of Legal Status, Cultural Assimilation, or Economic Contributions
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Part II. Shifting Scale: Threat and Opportune Relations
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Threats to Immigrants from Federal Government
Federal Immigration Restrictions
1990 Immigration Act
Operation Blockade, Operation Gatekeeper, 1993
Illegal Immigration Reform and Responsibility Act, 1996
Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (AEDP), 1996
Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) , 1996
2001 USA Patriot Act Created Department of Homeland Security:
2004 National Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Protection Act:
2006 Secure Fence Act:
Meissner, Doris, Donald Kerwin, Muzaffar Chishti, and Claire Bergeron. 2013. Immigration enforcement in the United States. The rise of formidable machinery. Washington, DC: Migration Policy Institute.
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Federal Threat – But, Regional Organizations Lack Resources to Mount National Campaign
Regional Organizations Form New Relations to Large National Organizations
Center for Community Change (CCC) in Washington D.C.
National Campaign for Jobs and Income Support (1997-2001)
Immigrant Organizing Committee
Broker Relations to National Organizations and Funders
National Council of La Raza, National Immigration Forum, Center for American Progress
Ford Foundation, Soros Foundation…
Opportune Relations at the Federal Level
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Federal Threat
+
Opportune Relations with National Organizations
Movement
Shifts from Local to National Politics
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Part III. Institutionalizing Scale Shift: A National Social Movement Infrastructure
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Fair Immigration Reform Movement (FIRM) Established in 2003
A national coalition of regional immigrant rights organizations
Funded and directed by Center for Community Change (DC-based)
CHIRLA
CASA M.
ICIRR
….
“With FIRM, we have had weekly conference calls for the last 15 years. That is how we connect with the Center for Community Change, which created and still plays a major role to bring us together. Right now, I am the co-chair of FIRM and every Thursday at 11:00” (Gustavo Torres, CASA Maryland)
CCC
Institutionalizing Shift: Movement Infrastructure
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The Coalition for Comprehensive Immigration Reform (2006, 2007)
Reform Immigration for America (RIFA) (2009,2010)
Alliance for Citizenship (A4C) (2013,2014)
Three National Campaigns for
Comprehensive Immigration Reform
Institutionalizing Shift: Movement Infrastructure
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Division of Labor of Three Campaigns (2006-2014)
1. National Organizations Lead (design campaign strategy, lobby, design policy, communication)
Center for Community Change (CCC), National Immigration Forum,
National Council of la Raza, etc.
2. Regional Immigrant Organizations Mobilize Migrant Communities
Fair Immigration Reform Movement (FIRM)
| Affiliation | Name | Affiliations | Title in A4C |
| Center for Community Change | Susan Chinn | Center for Community Change | Campaign Manager |
| Aimee Nichols | Center for Community Change | Campaign Coordinator | |
| Ruth Lopez | Previous Background: RIFA, FIRM, CCC employee | Legislative Manager | |
| Jorge Neri | Center for Community Change, Former White House Official | Campaign Manager for Field |
Alliance for Citizenship, Managing Directorship in 2013, 2014
Institutionalizing Shift: Movement Infrastructure
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Part III: Accumulating Resources: Money, Political Access, Media
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More Financial Resources
Contributions and Grants to 43 organizations, IRS tax forms
2000 – 2014:
43 organizations raised almost $1.7 billion
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More Political Access
| Number of meetings with one or more organizations with White House Officials | |
| 2009 | 34 |
| 2010 | 80 |
| 2011 | 95 |
| 2012 | 82 |
| 2013 | 107 |
| 2014 | 105 |
| Total | 503 |
White House Meetings with 49 Immigrant Advocacy Organizations
Janet Murguía, executive director of
National Council of La Raza, with President Obama
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Pro- and Anti-Immigrant Rights Claims (%) by Nonbusiness Organizations
Movement Consolidation
More Media Coverage
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Part IV. Resource Inequalities & Oligarchy
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Unequal Distribution of Money
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Share of grants given by top 20 and top 10 foundations (%)
Top 4 Funders:
Ford Foundation
Atlantic Philanthropies
Open Society
Carnegie Foundation
Unequal Distribution of Money
Several Foundations Take a Leading Role in Funding Organizations
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Leading Foundations Coordinate with One Another
”Funders are coming together again to ensure that the investments made last year as the foundation to build upon for the long haul until reform is achieved” (Open society report, 2008)
On December 20, U.S. Programs [Open Society] and Ford will co-sponsor a briefing for funders to learn more about the plans of leading immigrant rights advocates to help create a pathway to citizenship (Open society report, 2013a)
In early April, OSF, Ford, and the Carnegie Corporation coordinated a panel at the Council of Foundations annual meeting featuring A4C leadership (Open society report, 2013b)
Unequal Distribution of Money
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Leading Foundations Coordinate with Leading National Organizations
Frequent Meetings between Executive Directors and Foundations
Executive Director of Center for Community Change, Open Society Board Member
“We ended up in a place where we would be communicating quite a bit with the funders and either answering their questions, where dollars needed to go, and other times re-granting or contracting dollars out that foundations would, for campaign related purposes” (Ali Noorani, National Immigration Forum)
“His [Deepak Bhagava, CCC executive director] multifaceted role provided unique and thoughtful insights that enabled us to quickly understand complex dynamics and marshal resources, beyond what other funders could or would do, in support of immigrant rights (Open society report, 2014).
Unequal Distribution of Money
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Unequal Distribution of Money
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Unequal Distribution of Money
Unequal Political Access
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| NAME OF ORGANIZATION | Number of White House Meetings | Most Visited Official |
| National Council of La Raza (NCLR) | 115 | Barack Obama |
| National Immigration Forum (NIF) | 96 | Julie Rodriguez |
| Center for American Progress (CAP) | 85 | Obama/Rodriguez |
| Center for Community Change (CCC) | 70 | Julie Rodriguez |
| Service Employee International Union (SEIU) | 68 | Julie Rodriguez |
| National Immigration Law Center (NILC) | 45 | Valencia/Rodriguez |
| American Immigration Council (AIC) | 44 | Felicia Escobar |
| America's Voice | 36 | Barack Obama |
| American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) | 33 | Julie Rodriguez |
| United Farm Workers (UFW) | 31 | Cecilia Muñoz |
Top 10 Organizations Meeting with White House Officials
Unequal Political Access
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Location and Average Number of White House Visits Per Organization
Unequal Political Access
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| Name | Position in Government | Organization Affiliation |
| Cecilia Muñoz | Director of the Domestic Policy Council | National Council of La Raza, Former Senior Vice President for the Office of Research, Advocacy, and Legislation |
| Julie Rodriquez | Office of Public Engagement | Granddaughter of United Farm Workers founder, Cesar Chavez; Director of Programs at the Cesar E. Chavez Foundation |
| Jorge Neri | Nevada State Field Director (Obama Campaign); Office of Public Engagement; Nevada State Field Director (Hilary Clinton Campaign); | Center for Community Change (2008-2011); Deputy Campaign Manager for, Alliance for Citizenship. |
| Felicia Escobar | Office of Public Engagement | National Council of La Raza |
| Janet Murguía | deputy assistant in the Clinton White House; campaign manager and director of constituency outreach for Al Gore’s presidential campaign in 2000. | National Council of La Raza (director) |
The Revolving Door between Movement and White House:
Unequal Political Access
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Unequal Access to Media
80
Media Influence (%) of Organizations By Geographical Location
Movement Consolidation
Unequal Access to Media
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Part V. Framing Rights Claims through Nationalism
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Communication Leadership
National Immigration Forum (Frank Sharry)
America’s Voice (Frank Sharry)
Method for Producing Frames
Test messaging with surveys and focus groups with “normal Americans”
Framing Rights Claims through Nationalism
“In the mid-2000’s, the National Immigration Forum probably had done most of the messaging,” Rich Stolz, then-director of RIFA.
“America’s Voice will coordinate the communications efforts, including the work being done by the Four Freedoms Fund’s Communications Initiative, the Opportunity Agenda, Media Matters, and others” (Open Society, 2009).
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There are five key themes that are emerging as priorities for the campaign:
Who are we as a country? Will we be defined by our ideals and the promise of the American Dream for all, or by the fear, intolerance, and the extremism of those pushing mass deportation?;
Who are immigrants? Immigrants are workers, families, taxpayers, citizens, soldiers, people of faith, Americans in all but paperwork;
What policies work? Mass deportation won’t work, practical solutions including smart enforcement and earned citizenship will;
What are the politics? Anti-immigrant forces make noise but don’t turn elections; immigrants vote on this issue and do influence elections;
Who and what will be helped by broad immigration reform? American workers, local communities, immigrant families, local economies, and the rule of law.
Reform Immigration for America (RIFA) Policy Memo, 2009
Framing Rights Claims through Nationalism
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Downward Diffusion of Nationalist Language
D.C.-based Leadership Develops Communication Strategy (Frank Sharry, America’s Voice)
Regional Immigrant Rights Organizations Provide Local Activist Training
Each Local Activist is Trained to Train Other Activists to Use Message
Snowflake Approach Diagrams from Training Manual
“An organizer’s job is to reach out and find leaders in your community who can help you recruit and coordinate others. These leaders will be the backbone of your local campaign. You must be able to trust them to delegate responsibility to other dedicated, reliable people, and to follow through on commitments. You may be the leader in the middle, or part of a leadership team in the middle, guiding volunteer efforts and being held accountable for outcomes, but you will be deeply reliant on your relationships with others for success” (Marshall Ganz, New Organizing Institute).
Framing Rights Claims through Nationalism
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Part VI. Consequences of Scale Shift
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1. Elite Dominance of an Undocumented Immigrant Movement
Consequences
D.C. Organizations as Leaders and Gatekeepers
Funders
Political Elites
Media
Regional Organizations
Serve as Relays to Grassroots
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2. Continued Political Access to White House Depended on Not Criticizing Obama Administration
Consequences
“People trade their currency on access and information. D.C. folks were squeamish about criticizing Obama. They didn’t want to lose their access. And, they didn’t want to have to answer for one of the local organizations taking a more critical message” (Laurence Benito, co-director of ICIRR – Chicago).
Interviewer: Did the White House signal that?
Torres: Oh, yeah. Of course!
Interviewer: They signaled that if you push on them, then you’ll lose access?
Torres: They don’t say exactly that but we know when the next meeting, they don’t invite me, or the next meeting, they move to a different strategy. We know that. They don’t need to say it (Gustavo Torres, Executive Director, CASA Maryland).
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3. Reinforcing Nationalism as a Condition of Deservingness
Consequences
“The goal of the new campaign is to turn the tide of public debate and to develop policy solutions for broad immigration reform rooted in the American values of earned citizenship, the rule of law, and the promise of the American Dream” (Open Society, 2009).
“That is something we all agree on. You can never have a Mexican flag waving at your rally. One time we said, ‘Hey, wouldn't it be cool to have a rally showing our different flags, you know, flags from Mexico, Korea, Honduras, etc… We thought it would be nice to celebrate the fact that we are from all over the world but we didn’t want to risk it” (Jesus, California Dream Network, personal interview).
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Conclusion
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The Consequences of Becoming a National Social Movement
Shifted power away from working class immigrant communities to professional social movement elite in Washington D.C.
Movement’s leaders were beholden to the Obama Administration at a period of mass deportations.
The leadership embraced nationalism as a condition for migrant deservingness.
A movement originally for the equal rights of undocumented working class immigrants was transformed into a movement for the legalization of “deserving immigrants” (e.g. most economic contributions + most assimilated) within a well-bordered nation-state.
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