Demanding Rights under High Stress: Dilemmas of Leadership and Sustaining Local Participation in the U.S. Immigrant Rights Movement
Immigrants have limited opportunities for political
engagement in the United States without fear of police profiling and
deportation. Leaders in the U.S. immigrant rights movement must find ways of
encouraging participation in local immigrant rights activism efforts despite
the hostile political climate against immigrants in the United States. In the U.S. immigrant rights
movement, local participation in community-based immigrant rights organizations
(CBIROs) is an important part of sustaining immigrant rights efforts. This dissertation examines how
leaders’ interactions with members influence the likelihood that members will
continue to participate in CBIROs. I draw on 29 in-depth interviews with both
members and leaders in the Muslim-American Rights Alliance (MARA), a CBIRO in
the Midwest. MARA’s leaders use authority signals, inclusion practices, and
legitimacy tactics to address the dilemmas associated with sustaining local
member participation in the U.S. immigrant rights movement. MARA’s leaders use
supportive and inspirational authority signals to maintain the charismatic
authority of MARA’s Executive Director. MARA’s leaders use political education
and decision-making inclusion practices to counteract the consequences of
oligarchy within MARA. MARA’s leaders use professional and street legitimacy
tactics to establish the organization’s legitimacy within the local immigrant
rights community. The findings from
this dissertation allow for new insights into how leadership in CBIROs
influences sustained participation in local immigrant rights activism.
History
Degree Type
- Doctor of Philosophy
Department
- Sociology
Campus location
- West Lafayette