What is it about?
Using several original surveys of Mexican immigrants conducted over nearly a decade, my collaborators and I show that a good many immigrants continue to take part in protest activities, even if the level of mobilization these days does not match that of the springtime demonstrations in 2006. We further find that participants in social movements are similar in some respects to participants in more conventional models of involvement. Immigrants who are older and more conversant in English, for example, are more inclined now to take part in "immigrant rights" protests. This trend matches those that have been found over time for social movement activism in a variety of other issue contexts.
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Why is it important?
The number of immigrants residing in the United States has increased markedly over the last thirty years. This phenomenon has prompted social scientists to pay increasing attention to questions concerning immigrant incorporation into American politics and civic life. The findings presented here provide much fresh light on the dynamics of immigrant participation.
Perspectives
This piece fits into my larger research program on immigrant acculturation and representation. It also demonstrates how teaching and research might be linked. Much of the data that my collaborators and I analyzed were drawn from surveys that I conducted with bilingual undergraduate students at Purdue University as part of a special applied research course on immigration. One of the co-authors is a former undergraduate of mine; another is a former doctoral student.
Dr. James A. McCann
Purdue University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: The Changing Contours of the Immigrant Rights Protest Movement in the United States: Who Demonstrates Now?, The Forum, January 2016, De Gruyter,
DOI: 10.1515/for-2016-0018.
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