Dynamics of Distinction and Solidarity within Social Movements: Explaining Relations between Privileged and Underprivileged Groups in the U.S. Immigrant Rights Movement

Nicholls, Walter J.; Uitermark, Justus; Haperen, Sander van

doi:10.1177/0731121421990067

Cited by 4 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 45 publications

(44 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…With a socially skilled leadership (Anderson 2018), SMO leaders build a trust-based, personal relationship with a legislator to work together by following a goal-oriented approach in their interactions and in framing their messages. Together, these interpersonal strategies signal their reliability to work with a legislator, but also translate an SMO’s tactical capacities into actual legislative work (e.g., increasing lobbying effectiveness) and mitigate tensions that may arise due to policy setbacks (Borland 2014; Nicholls et al 2021).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This requirement goes beyond legislators’ merely voting in favor of the movement goals, which is a common standard in the field (see Soule and King 2006; Johnson et al 2010). Also, since social movements can be active over multiple issues, these tasks are deployed over time and not necessarily at the height of a particular campaign (Amenta 2006; Nicholls et al 2021).…”

Section: Data and Analytical Strategymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Their decision to ally with actors like activists may respond to instrumental reasons (e.g., activists' bolstering their congressional work or their reelection chances) or altruistic motives (e.g., personal values) (Burden 2007;Kingdon and Stano 1984;2). Legislators' perceptions about a group (e.g., threat or deserving recipient) mediate their response to the tactics activists deploy (Skrentny 2006), making them selective about the SMOs they work with (Nicholls et al 2021).…”

Section: The Processual Formation Of An Alliance: Tactical and Interp...mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

A Strategic Approach to the Alliance-Formation Process Between Activists and Legislators in Chile

López¹

2023

Lat Am Polit Soc

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Legislative allies are widely recognized as key to social movement success, but the emergence of their alliance with activists remains understudied. This article proposes a strategic approach to this phenomenon based on the cases of the environmental, labor, and LGBT+ movements in Chile and their allied legislators. According to this approach, an alliance emerges due to two necessary conditions. Movement organizations must display tactical capacity, which signals their adaptability and competence to participate in Congress. And a socially skilled leadership creates the trust required for movement leaders and legislators to cooperate during the lawmaking process. This approach emphasizes that alliances emerge from activists’ strategic efforts to build a social tie, whose effectiveness is mediated by legislators’ expectations and congressional norms. By specifying the strategic dimension of an alliance, this study highlights the capacity of activists to foster cooperative relations with state actors.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Data and Analytical Strategymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Processual Formation Of An Alliance: Tactical and Interp...mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

A Strategic Approach to the Alliance-Formation Process Between Activists and Legislators in Chile

López¹

2023

Lat Am Polit Soc

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Legal status categories often result in the fragmentation of migrant mobilizations as groups of migrants with different legal statuses may formulate divergent claims, follow different strategies, or give rise to dynamics of distinction among groups (Nicholls et al, 2021;Swerts & Nicholls, 2021). In Berlin, for example, different legal statuses produced divisions in the mobilization associated with the protest camp that was established by migrant activists in Oranienplatz between 2012 and 2014 (Ataç & Steinhilper, 2020;Fontanari, 2017;Fontanari & Ambrosini, 2018;Steinhilper, 2021;Stierl, 2019).…”

Section: Migrant Activism and Classification Struggles Challenging Ex...mentioning

confidence: 99%

‘We are all refugees’: how migrant grassroots activism disrupts exclusionary legal categories

Perolini

2022

Social Movement Studies

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Migrant activists with precarious legal status mobilize against border regimes in Berlin under the label of 'refugees'. They engage in a classification struggle through which they disrupt the legal notion of refugee by reappropriating an externally assigned category. Their struggle is crucial because legal status categories produce an exclusionary system in which only some migrants can obtain residence rights as well as other rights. I contend that migrants, in the context of their mobilization, collectively interpret their structural position vis-a-vis border regimes, characterized by oppression and exclusion. This collective interpretation is associated with the emergence of a refugee* collective identity that disrupts the legal notion of refugee. I argue that migrants mobilize under the label of 'refugee' not only for strategic reasons but also because of their shared beliefs regarding the unfairness of the asylum system. The refugee* collective identity not only disrupts exclusionary legal status categories but also interrupts some of the divisions among migrants that border regimes produce. This article contributes to showing that while migrant activism takes place in a political field that is not chosen by migrants, it has an impact on the regulatory framework that characterizes that political field. Moreover, my findings emphasize the importance of the connections between structural forms of oppression, including regulatory frameworks and classificatory systems, and collective identity processes emerging in the mobilization of subaltern groups.

show abstract

“…On the other side, the idea of 'deservingness' as a strategy to acquire acceptance, can be reversed into a tool of selection, distinguishing migrants and asylum seekers who deserve to be received, and migrants and asylum seekers not deserving shelter. The affirmation of deservingness, according to criteria which are ultimately established by the receiving society, implies a separation between deserving and not deserving immigrants (Nicholls et al, 2021). Critics show not only that the frame of deservingness has been severely restricted in immigration policies, but also that the concept of 'deservingness', as defined by the local majority, induces the exclusion of a growing number of immigrants (Marchetti, 2020).…”

Section: Deservingness As a 'Moral Bridge' Between Immigrants And Rec...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Moral economy and deservingness in immigration policies. The case of regularisations in Italy

Ambrosini

2022

Ethnicities

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This paper has two purposes. The first is theoretical: to revise use of the concept of moral economy in migration studies, and the related concept of deservingness. I will identify different versions and meanings, showing their significant contribution to the understanding of migration issues, but discussing their lack of consideration of a particular aspect: the conflict between competing moral economies. The second and related purpose will be to apply the concept of moral economy to an analysis of the public debate on the recent measure, related to theCOVID-19 pandemic, enacted to regularise unauthorised immigrants in Italy (May–August 2020). The measure, almost unique in Europe and in the Global North has involved only workers, and workers employed in two sectors: agriculture and domestic/care services. This decision can be seen as a choice in terms of moral economy: some sectors and some immigrant workers have deserved more consideration than other workers. The empirical material is constituted by declarations and statements by social and political actors who took part in the debate, using moraleconomic arguments to support their position. I will review it through the lens of competing moral economies and different notions of deservingness. In the conclusion I argue that in migration policies, relevant moral and political values are involved: human rights and national sovereignty, the right to mobility and citizens’ rights, the right of asylum and social cohesion. I wish for a more subtle use of the concept of moral economy to feed a better discussion of these crucial topics.

show abstract

Dynamics of Distinction and Solidarity within Social Movements: Explaining Relations between Privileged and Underprivileged Groups in the U.S. Immigrant Rights Movement

Cited by 4 publications

References 45 publications

A Strategic Approach to the Alliance-Formation Process Between Activists and Legislators in Chile

A Strategic Approach to the Alliance-Formation Process Between Activists and Legislators in Chile

‘We are all refugees’: how migrant grassroots activism disrupts exclusionary legal categories

Moral economy and deservingness in immigration policies. The case of regularisations in Italy

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About