Doctoral Dissertation Research: Rights Mobilization, Citizenship and Identity

University Of California-Berkeley, Berkeley CA

Investigators

Abstract

The rights mobilization literature suggests that a high risk of harm generally inhibits social movement activism, yet this does not appear to be the case for undocumented youth who have mobilized for social change. To understand theoretically what has allowed these youth to organize despite the threats they confront, this research explores the social movement activism of undocumented Asian and Latina/o youth advocating for immigration reform. A theoretic model of legal mobilization is proposed and tested based on data gathered from in-depth interviews and participant observation of three community-based organizations over a period of two years. Recent developments in the national landscape regarding immigration and immigrant rights point to the need for an understanding of the inner workings of legal mobilization among members of marginalized populations, and how such activism does or does not relate to conventional understandings of mobilization among members of similarly situated groups.