INTRODUCTION
The undocumented youth movement—sometimes referred to as the DREAMers’ movement—is an incredibly diverse coalition (Burciaga and Martinez Reference Burciaga and Martinez2017; Cebulko and Silver Reference Cebulko and Silver2016; Dao Reference Dao2017; Enriquez Reference Enriquez2014; Lauby Reference Lauby2016; Nicholls Reference Nicholls2013; Patler Reference Patler2018; Silver Reference Silver2018; Terriquez Reference Terriquez2015). This diversity comes from the racial, ethnic, gender, educational, and occupational composition of the movement, but also from the wide range of immigration statuses and citizenship present in it. In this article, I argue that racial and immigration status diversity has a direct impact on the movement's ability to “expand the scope of conflict,” that is to say recruiting new members, reaching out to elected officials, and establishing representative leadership.
The undocumented youth movement has gone through several phases of development since the early 2000s, and has faced challenges regarding its inclusion of other groups, especially older immigrants and youths who may not have gone to college (Fernandes Reference Fernandes2015; Nicholls Reference Nicholls2013). The movement also suffers from external pressures such as the public's general tendency to think of immigration as a Latino issue, which limits the ability of non-Latino youths to participate and make their own claims. The movement has recently made an effort to be more inclusive, and has greatly extended its coalition to other groups, such as non-Latino organizations, older immigrants, labor unions, and civil liberties organizations (Lauby Reference Lauby2016). It has also been spurred in many ways by the activism of LGBTQ youths (Terriquez Reference Terriquez2015). However, working with other groups may bring its own set of challenges because it adds allies of the movement who are documented and U.S. citizens. Kraemer (Reference Kraemer2007) defines allies as supporters who come from other social groups and privileged allies as activists who belong to the dominant social group. These allies differ from undocumented youths in terms of their experience, their social bases, their expectations, and their perception by elected officials (Rucht Reference Rucht, Snow, Soule and Kriesi2004). The undocumented youth movement provides an opportunity to study the relationship between activists and allies in the context of varying levels of privilege, strategic preferences, and movement authenticity.
This article focuses on two state-level coalitions working to increase undocumented youths’ access to college, one in the state of NY and the other in NJ. Due to the great diversity in the national origins of immigrants in the region (unlike in other traditional immigrant destinations where one immigrant group usually dominates), this setting provides a unique opportunity to investigate how issues of race and national origin affect the success of coalitions led by undocumented immigrants. Field research was conducted between 2012 and 2015, including participant observation in state-level campaigns and interviews with over 130 immigrant youths, allies, and elected officials. Interviews with the latter are an important part of the innovative approach of this study, since they are crucial to movement success but rarely included in the recent literature. These data provide us a rare insight into elected officials’ perception of the movement and its increasing diversity. I focus on the impact of diversity on three aspects of the campaign: recruitment, access to officials, and establishing representative leadership. These elements are critical because they bear directly on the movement's ability to sustain itself and effectively reach out to policymakers. Leadership and internal diversity also affect the authenticity of the movement and its ability to “speak” for and recruit from a particular community.
The article shows that even though changes in the racial and ethnic makeup of each coalition have occurred and are described below, Latino immigrants have historically been the dominant group in the movement. As a result, they have been more represented in its leadership and have largely relied on recruiting from the community and gaining support from Latino elected officials. Asian and Black undocumented groups have emerged in the last decade—though they have sometimes established themselves outside of the movement. This increase in diversity has allowed activists to “expand the scope of conflict,” especially in terms of recruitment and in reaching out to elected officials. Findings also indicate that immigration status diversity is an important issue in the movement. The presence of citizen allies brings both risks and benefits to the movement, as they reinforce the electoral connection sought by elected officials while at the same time jeopardizing the authenticity of the movement due to their personal experience and status.
This article contributes to the social movement literature by providing empirical evidence of the challenges present within diverse coalitions, and the impact that diversity has on recruitment, access, and leadership. I provide insights into the problem of immigration status diversity, an issue that raises questions of authenticity and legitimacy within the immigration movement but finds echoes in works on the role of privileged allies in other social movements (Kraemer Reference Kraemer2007). I also add to the growing literature on the undocumented youth movement by highlighting the efforts of two state-level coalitions in the NY metropolitan area.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Diversity in Coalitions
According to Schattschneider, “the outcome of all conflict is determined by the scope of its contagion … The most important strategy of politics is concerned with the scope of conflict” (Schattschneider Reference Schattschneider1960, 3). Participants in a social movement must therefore expand their membership, and possibly reach out to groups who are different in their characteristics, goals, and tactics. The U.S. population has grown increasingly diverse since the immigration reforms of the 1960s, which has had consequences on the political system. For example, the growing share of voters of color has reduced the white portion of total voters from 90% in 1980 to 74% in 2012 (Frey Reference Frey2015). Scholars have debated whether this increasing diversity will lead to political conflict or to a more integrated future (Alba and Nee Reference Alba and Nee2003; Hochschild et al. Reference Hochschild, Weaver and Burch2012; Lichter Reference Lichter2013).
One of the ways through which diversity influences politics is through inter-group coalitions and pan-ethnic mobilization. Coalitions are formed when two or more social movement organizations work together on a common task (Van Dyke and McCammon Reference Van Dyke and McCammon2010, xiv). The literature on social movement coalitions has demonstrated the many advantages that coalitions bring to their members, especially in terms of bringing about the policy changes that they seek (Gamson Reference Gamson1990; Gilmore Reference Gilmore2008). Social movement coalitions are necessary for increasing the movement's resources, whether participants, money, or connections, but also to boost members’ credibility (Berry Reference Berry1997; Van Dyke and McCammon Reference Van Dyke and McCammon2010). A movement's growth in numbers will often be perceived as a sign of strength and legitimacy for the movement (Hampson and Reid Reference Hampson and Reid2003). Coalitions can also help connect different movements together to share resources, including access to elected officials. Wilson (Reference Wilson1999), for example, noted that rising inequality in the United States should be combatted using progressive, multiracial coalitions focusing on common problems. This can be more easily accomplished by including mixed-race individuals to facilitate coalition building, by pursuing policies that serve all, such as public infrastructure projects, and using rhetoric that emphasizes integrative programs (Escudero Reference Escudero2016).
Diverse racial coalitions may also help increase the political participation of people of color and immigrants. Research shows that some immigrants turn toward their own ethnic group when facing discrimination or when they experience low trust toward the government (Albarracin et al. Reference Albarracin, Munier and Bail2017; Michelson Reference Michelson2003). A diverse coalition may placate fears that political actors would ignore the concerns of one's group. Nienhusser (Reference Nienhusser2015) highlighted the role of NY Latino legislators in advocating for in-state tuition for undocumented youths in the early 2000s. Though other elements of the policy environment affected the outcome of this early mobilization, the joint efforts of advocacy groups, the governor, and Latino elected officials made the policy proposal a viable one.
This research focuses on what the demographic characteristics of members—especially their racial and ethnic background and their immigration status—can bring to the coalitions they decide to join. Based on the literature, we should expect that increasing diversity within a coalition should lead to easier recruitment efforts and greater support from a wide variety of elected officials.
Managing Diversity Within Coalitions
While expanding the scope of conflict may be beneficial for social movement coalitions, the inclusion of diverse groups may be a source of challenges, both in its implementation and for the inner workings of the coalition (Okamoto Reference Okamoto, Van Dyke and McCammon2010). Tilly (Reference Tilly2004) described the four crucial elements of social movements as Worthiness, Unity, Numbers, and Commitment. Numbers will call for more to join the coalition, including other racial/ethnic groups, but this may jeopardize the Unity of the movement. Rich (Reference Rich1996) also posited that before a group can be incorporated, it must itself have internal unity. This may be more problematic if groups have a past history of discrimination and distrust, as was the case among Black women and the predominantly white feminist movement (Matthews Reference Matthews1989). Latinos and Asians also face more internal diversity than do African Americans regarding language, culture, and immigration history (Fraga et al. Reference Fraga, Garcia, Hero, Jones-Correa, Martinez-Ebbers and Segura2009; Okamoto Reference Okamoto2014).
Diverse social movement coalitions are able to bring together groups of very different origins as long as all share some common characteristic. This shared characteristic may be different groups’ common experience as immigrants to the United States or membership in a union across racial and ethnic background (Reger, Myers, and Einwohner Reference Reger, Myers and Einwohner2008). Conditions which heighten differences between immigrants and natives—called “boundary markers” (Okamoto and Ebert Reference Okamoto and Ebert2010) encourage immigrants to make collective claims. Okamoto (Reference Okamoto2003) notes that organizing along ethnic lines tends to facilitate pan-Asian collective action. She and others find that the segregation of Asians and experiences of racial discrimination among Latinos as a group encourage panethnic consciousness and raise the frequency of pan-national collective action (Masuoka Reference Masuoka2006). Okamoto and Mora (Reference Okamoto and Mora2014) define panethnicity as the “construction of a new categorical boundary through the consolidation of ethnic, tribal, religious, or national groups … maintaining subgroup distinctions while developing a sense of metagroup unity” (221; see also Le Espiritu Reference Le Espiritu1992; Nakano Reference Nakano2013). Groups from different racial and ethnic backgrounds are more likely to organize across ethnic lines as a panethnic group when experiences of segregation situate them closer to one another than to other racial groups (Ebert and Okamoto Reference Ebert and Okamoto2013; Okamoto Reference Okamoto2014). The literature on social movements has also noted the importance of pre-existing ties for collective action (Arnold Reference Arnold2011; McAdam and Paulsen Reference McAdam and Paulsen1993). However, the reliance on pre-existing ties may limit the ability of undocumented activists to recruit new members beyond their immediate circle of family and friends, but also beyond their own national and ethnic group.
Diversity creates challenges for keeping coalitions together over time. Most coalitions stand together because of a common ideology, interests, or collective identity (Krinsky and Reese Reference Krinsky and Reese2006; Stammers Reference Stammers1999; Whittier Reference Whittier2014). Commitment to the movement is sustained when individuals continue to see themselves as part of a group and position themselves in regards to established symbolic or material group boundaries (Taylor and Whittier Reference Taylor, Whittier, Freeman and Victoria1992). The literature has identified several elements which can serve as the base for a common identity, including ethnicity, language, rhetoric, and ideology (Chávez Reference Chávez2011; DeSipio Reference DeSipio and Rich1996). Shared ideology is particularly important when there is no obvious collective identity or few resources to develop one. Enriquez (Reference Enriquez2014) argues that shared ideology, rather than collective identity, served to put together a cross-immigration status DREAM Act coalition in CA.
Diversity may be an asset for increasing the size of a movement, but it may also threaten the unity and legitimacy of a coalition. Rich (Reference Rich1996) notes that groups do not have equal power, resources, and clout within a coalition. In the context of the undocumented youth movement, while citizens may join the coalition, their experiences of hardship in higher education and ability to pressure elected officials at the ballot box will differ greatly from those of undocumented youths. This discrepancy of experiences may jeopardize the authenticity of the movement, especially if these allies take on leadership roles and participate in decision-making on an equal footing with undocumented youth members. Diversity also makes coalitions vulnerable to politicians’ own reelection strategies as they exploit the differences in goals and circumstances between members of the movement. Brilliant (Reference Brilliant2010) provides a clear example of this in his description of the civil rights movement in CA. Though focusing on common experiences of discrimination allowed civil rights leaders to bring together African Americans, Asians, and Mexican Americans into the California Federation for Civic Unity, politicians like Ronald Reagan and his “Southwestern Strategy” pitted the bilingual education sought by Latinos against the busing plans favored by African Americans.
Through the study of the undocumented youth movement, scholars can investigate the shifting boundaries created when a movement includes multiple ethnic groups and immigration statuses. Based on the literature, we can expect that racial and ethnic diversity and the presence of multiple immigration statuses will create rifts in the coalition.
Diversity in the Undocumented Youth Movement
Coalition building is often a necessary step for groups with fewer resources such as undocumented youths. Wong, García, and Valdivia (Reference Wong, García and Valdivia2018) found that undocumented youths had higher levels of political participation than would be expected of youths facing such barriers to political activity as lack of status, low socio-economic standing, and experiences of discrimination. Social movements also provide an opportunity for members of disadvantaged groups to gain access to leadership roles. However, the undocumented youth movement faces diversity issues that are different from the ones traditionally discussed in the literature on social movements. The growing literature on the movement has often described the efforts made by undocumented youths to join forces with others in order to secure better access to college, healthcare, the workplace, and drivers’ licenses (Burciaga and Martinez Reference Burciaga and Martinez2017; Cebulko and Silver Reference Cebulko and Silver2016; Enriquez Reference Enriquez2014; Nicholls Reference Nicholls2013; Patler Reference Patler2018; Silver Reference Silver2018; Terriquez Reference Terriquez2015). They have joined forces with groups who are of different age, racial and ethnic backgrounds, and who occupy different occupational and educational spaces, or have different immigration and citizenship statuses. The undocumented youth movement has been a place of inclusion for those who lack immigration status and for LGBTQ youths who have benefitted from the spillover “coming out” strategy adopted by the movement (Terriquez Reference Terriquez2015).
NY and NJ are home to a very diverse undocumented population, and local coalitions have included groups representing a variety of national origins, language, and cultures. The inclusion of immigrant youths from different regions of the world is an innovative feature of this research when the majority of the literature on the movement, with the exception of Enriquez (Reference Enriquez2014), tends to focus on a single ethnic group or national origin at a time (Cebulko and Silver Reference Cebulko and Silver2016; Gonzales 2016; Silver Reference Silver2018; Terriquez Reference Terriquez2015). According to Batalova et al. (Reference Batalova, Hooker and Capps2014), the top-10 countries of origin for DACA-eligible youths nationally are Mexico (65%), El Salvador (4%), Guatemala and Korea (3% each), Honduras (2%), Colombia, the Philippines, Peru, China, and India (1% each). In NY and NJ, the distribution was different. In NY, Mexican-born youths represented only a quarter of applicants. Youths from El Salvador represented 8% of applicants, and those from Ecuador, China, and Guyana represented about 7% of applicants. In NJ, Mexican-born youths also represented a quarter of applicants, but youths from Ecuador, El Salvador, and Korea each represented 5% of applicants. In both states, Asian and African youths represented a larger share of DACA recipients than in states like CA or IL. Even though not all undocumented youths are eligible for the program, these data still give us a picture of the diversity of this hard to reach population.
While Latinos make up a large portion of the total, Asian youths constitute a significant portion of those affected by changes in immigration policy, yet their participation in the movement is not always sustained. Previous literature shows that levels of engagement vary among immigrant groups. For example, second-generation Asians tend to be less politically active compared to other groups (Kasinitz et al. Reference Kasinitz, Mollenkopf, Waters and Holdaway2008; Ramakrishnan Reference Ramakrishnan2005). Others have linked the lack of participation of non-Latino immigrants in the 2006 marches to a lack of identification with the undocumented population targeted by the proposed congressional bill (Zepeda-Millán Reference Zepeda-Millán2014). Lack of identification and of effective recruitment means that Latinos have often represented the majority of the leadership of the movement—though other groups have been present since the beginning.
The undocumented youth movement also faces the issue of the age of its participants. Many of the policies pursued since 2001 have had an age cap—the original DREAM Act bill had an age cap of 21, the most recent bill of 2010 had an age cap of 30, and DACA has an age cap of 31. These proposals were crafted in large part by the outside immigrant rights organizations which shaped the movement in its early stages (Nicholls Reference Nicholls2013). The age caps helped promote the message that these policies would help those recipients that were considered to be “worthy,” most notably young and high achieving youths (Lauby Reference Lauby2016). These decisions, often made by outside organizations, had a large impact on the overall perception of the movement as young and primarily Latino. Most of those advocating for these policies tend to fall within the age range of eligibility for the policy. However, since debates have been ongoing since 2001, activists age out of eligibility and leave the movement. The particular time period for activism—late teens and 20s—is also a very particular one for any individual, since it includes finishing high school, going to college, entering the labor market, and possibly starting a family. Any of these events can contribute to a decrease in activism, and the movement has to constantly renew itself by recruiting more members.
Finally, the undocumented youth movement presents the interesting feature of including documented immigrants and citizens into its folds. Many undocumented youth live in mixed-status households, meaning those where there are at least one unauthorized parent and one U.S.-born child. Scholars estimate that at least 9 million people live in these families (Taylor et al. Reference Taylor, Lopez, Passel and Motel2011). As a result, those who have a stake in policies affecting undocumented youth include documented immigrants and citizens, some of whom become active in the movement. This is particularly the case when undocumented youths become mobilized through community or immigrant organizations who are themselves staffed with immigrants, as was the case at the beginning of the “Dreamers” movement (Nicholls Reference Nicholls2013). Of course, legal permanent residents and citizens do not face the same barriers to political engagement that undocumented youths face (Hochschild and Mollenkopf Reference Hochschild and Mollenkopf2009). Though their access to resources such as the right to drive and vote means that they can provide significant support, their participation leads to questions about the authenticity of the movement because their experiences do not reflect those of undocumented youths.
Based on the literature, we should expect to find that racial and status diversity has implications for leadership roles within the coalition, but also for the movement's relationship with elected officials.
METHODOLOGY
This paper is part of a project on immigrant youth political incorporation in NY and NJ. During the first phase of the project in 2013, 60 in-depth interviews were conducted with undocumented Latino youths age 18–29 living in the metropolitan area of NY City and northern NJ. The sample was equally divided between men and women. Half of these youths were politically active either in pursuing federal immigration reform or better access to higher education at the state level, while the other half was not active. These interviews were conducted between February and August 2013, and were supplemented with observation and participant-observation of campaigns waged in both states—the one in NY in support of granting undocumented youth access to state aid, and the one in NJ which favored access to in-state tuition and state financial aid.
During the second phase of the project in 2015, the data collection procedure was modified to provide a more comprehensive approach to these movements. An additional 72 in-depth interviews were conducted. Most of them were with undocumented youth activists (n = 29), with no restrictions on the national origin of the respondents—unlike the first phase of the project when only Latino undocumented youths were interviewed. These youths formed a more diverse group than during the first phase of the project, and included 20 immigrants from Latin America, eight from Asia, and one from Africa. The vast majority of them (n = 20) were women, and their ages ranged from 18 to 37. The advantage of using NY and NJ as research sites is that while these states are traditional immigrant destinations, they have a more diverse immigrant population than other traditional destinations such as CA, TX, or FL (Foner Reference Foner2013; Hirschman and Massey Reference Hirschman, Massey and Massey, Douglas2008). Interviews were also conducted with 22 community organizers, union representatives, and educators who provided support in these campaigns. Almost half of them (n = 10) were born outside of the United States and the majority (n = 15) were Latino, with two Asian respondents and one African American respondent. Finally, respondents also included elected officials who had been involved in the legislative side of the campaigns, either because they were sponsors of the proposed bills, or because they had argued or voted against them. In case an elected official was unavailable for the project, their legislative director was sometimes able to participate in the interview. Twenty-one such interviews were included for the project. Among elected officials interviewed for this study, 10 were white, seven were Hispanic (including five with a recent immigration background), three were Black and one was Asian (and second-generation himself).
The interviews were supplemented with the observation of campaign events and campaign materials produced by the undocumented youth movement in favor of policies granting greater access to education. Events included protests, legislative visits, rallies, and strategy meetings. Materials included flyers, posters, but also online outreach materials. Interviews and other materials were transcribed and explored using qualitative data analysis software. Interview transcripts were analyzed using some codes which had been developed based on the literature on immigrant political incorporation, while allowing other codes to emerge as the analysis proceeded, following a grounded theory approach (Charmaz Reference Charmaz2014; Deterding and Waters Reference Deterding and Waters2018).
FINDINGS
The section presents findings relative to the movement's ability to harness its diversity in order to be more effective in their dealings with elected officials, while also addressing the shortcomings associated with immigration status diversity. The first section provides an overview of the early stages of the movement in NY and NJ, which was primarily dominated by Latino organizations. The second section documents the growing diversity of the movement in both states. The last section shows how diversity affected recruitment and access to elected officials, and the relationship between the movement's leadership and legislators. Finally, I focus on the issue of immigration status diversity and its consequence for both movement authenticity and support from elected officials.
Latino Dominance in the Movement
Throughout the campaigns observed in NJ and NY, the predominance of Latino youths in leadership positions stood out. This was the case during protests, press conferences, and legislative visits. In NY, even though there are now a few Asian and Black organizations that have sprung up since 2012, the two largest organizations—the New York State Youth Leadership Council (YLC) and Make the Road New York—are primarily Latino. Irene, a member of the YLC, described the membership of her organization in these terms: “Our members are mostly women, and mostly from Spanish-speaking countries.” Most of the youths who spoke during public events in the 2012–2013 campaign were Latino, which prompted movement leaders to address crowds in Spanish—even though the investigator observed that youths from other communities were sometimes present. In addition, other core members of the coalition in NY experienced the same dominance of Latino youths. As noted above, Make the Road New York was a member of the coalition and provided tremendous organizational and logistical support to the movement. All of the youths from this organization met by the investigator through observation and interviews were Latino. Finally, the movement also relied on a growing network of “Dream Teams” within the City University of New York (CUNY) system. Most of these organizations were primarily made up of Latino youths, thereby guaranteeing Latino dominance within the leadership of the movement overall.
In NJ, one of the early organization formed by undocumented youths was the New Jersey Dream Act Coalition (NJDAC), which emerged in 2010 in response to the reintroduction of the DREAM Act in the U.S. Congress. Most of the founding members were Latino youths born in Ecuador, Peru, and Mexico. The group benefitted from the early mobilization of other Latino undocumented youths working with Wind of the Spirit, a Morristown, NJ-based immigrant rights organization that provided support when early versions of the in-state tuition bills were introduced in 2007 and 2009. Rebecca, who was involved early in the state mobilization and reflected on the 2013 campaign, admitted that “the majority of [the] group probably was Latino,” in spite of the efforts to diversify the coalition. One Asian organization, Anakbayan, an organization serving the Filipino community, joined the coalition in the 2012–2013 campaign. One of its members, Stella, reflected on the role of Filipino organizations within the movement: “One of the challenges for us as Filipino organizers is, how do we increase the representation of our communities? Because mostly immigrant rights groups [are] very Latino-centered. We definitely felt it [was] our role, as Anakbayan to bring out that narrative.” Yet, in spite of the efforts to increase diversity, the chairperson for the state-wide campaign, who became the most visible youth in the state on the issue of undocumented immigration, was a Latino male. This led to some criticism after the campaign by former youth activists, one of whom, Amy, lamented the fact that the main spokesperson for the campaign was, as she described him, financially better off and light-skinned. She asked, “What are we building?” She referred to the risk that maintaining this type of monolithic and male leadership would turn off potential members of the coalition—and jeopardize its authenticity.
These issues with the leadership in the NJ campaign were compounded with communication issues between the movement leaders and the rank-and-file. Franklin, a former member of the coalition, noted that conversations about strategy felt very one-sided and that most decisions were made by “a very select few.” The lack of communication came to a head at the end of the campaign, when the coalition faced the governor's veto on state financial aid: “There were a lot of backroom deals between these select few and politicians, and [youth leaders] would tell [elected officials], ‘This is what we're willing to lose to get [in-state],’ when not necessarily everybody who was working on the tuition equity campaign were in line with those views.” This state of affairs was made possible by the way the coalition was structured, placing male Latino leaders as the face of the movement and giving them the ears of elected officials.
Elected officials also noted the predominance of Latino youth in leadership positions. Those who had received delegations of youths in their offices could not always recall exactly what countries they were from, but they were able to say whether they were Latino or other. An assembly member from NJ commented on what he viewed as diversity within the campaign: “What was fascinating to me was that it was cross-cultural. The Peruvian kids sitting with the Colombian kids sitting with the Mexican kids … They overcame their own parochialness, which is tremendously important … I think that all of them were [Latino].” Another assembly member in NJ lamented the lack of diversity, which he associated with a lack of education:
What gets lost a lot is that it's [not] a Latino issue, it's viewed that way, but actually Asians are also very affected by it, which is a large part of my constituency. [When activists came to my office], most were Latino, which is understandable, because they are the minority-majority, so they would have the biggest voice.
Even though some Asian youths from his district had come to speak with him about their difficulties in higher education, they had not been the ones sent by the coalition, who instead scheduled a visit from the campaign chairperson and other Latino youth leaders. The predominance of Latino youths in a leadership position can perpetuate public misunderstandings about immigration as a Latino issue, and can deter non-Latino youths from joining a movement where they do not see themselves being represented. Chris, who was born in Guinea and got involved in the NJ movement was amazed by how much he learned through his activism: “I never knew the campaign was so diverse … diverse in ideas, diverse in different backgrounds, diverse in different origins, diverse in different situations and how they were affected by their status.” As such, racial and ethnic diversity needs to be addressed by youth movements in order to ensure their own sustainability.
Increasing Diversity within the Movement
Coalitions are set up because they provide greater strength to a movement. This strength is represented in a number of participants, resources, information, and access to elected officials. Having a more diverse coalition also helps educate voters and their elected officials about immigration issues and the constituents who would benefit from their support. This was noted by Denise, an immigrant youth who stayed involved in the movement even after in-state tuition was adopted in NJ in 2013. She explained that the newly formed coalition was striving to be more inclusive and to educate people about immigration: “it's not a Latino issue; [there are] a lot of African immigrants, a lot of European immigrants. So, we try to be more aware of that, and we try to connect with other movements.”
In NY and NJ, youth coalitions became more diverse over time. As noted above, the NJ campaign worked together with Anakbayan, a Filipino organization, to mobilize youths throughout the state in favor of in-state tuition. As Vincent, a Filipino youth from NJ noted, the inclusion of a Filipino organization in the NJ coalition was key:
The media would love to portray us as Latinos and it became a strength that Anakbayan's presence there broke that stereotype … We were there, we were mobilizing Asian American youths as well … At the time there weren't a lot of organization doing that kind of messaging out there.
However, putting together these different groups into a single coalition is not always easy. The differences in backgrounds sometimes prevent the identification of common goals and strategies, and cultural norms may also make it difficult for some youths to join the movement. Stella, a member of the Filipino organization Anakbayan, explained the challenges for youths from the community to become politically active: “Culturally, we are kind of discouraged to stick our necks out, to challenge authority. Even being seen as an activist in the Filipino community has a negative connotation to it. That's why we have to build a front with other organizations in the area, so it's not too much activism, it's more service-oriented.” As a result of the community's reticence to participate politically, the nature of the organization has to change from a political group to a service-oriented organization. This may eventually affect the type of activities which are put together by this organization, or the type of actions that they will be willing to engage in as part of the coalition. In addition, racial and ethnic differences sometimes also come with a lack of knowledge of each other's language, norms, and culture, and can create mistrust between different groups.
The recent founding of Asian youth organizations in NY may indicate that some non-Latino youths prefer to mobilize outside of the coalition and of established, primarily Latino-led organizations. In NY, new groups such as Revolutionizing Asian American Immigrant Stories on the East Coast (RAISE), Desis Rising Up & Moving (DRUM) and the UndocuBlack Network have emerged since 2012 to provide more avenues for Asian and Black youths to become more engaged. Tamara, an undocumented youth from Ecuador, explained that youths from non-Latino communities were hesitant to join her college-based organization. This can be the case either because of cultural barriers to political participation, or simply because of the pervasive perception of immigration as a “Latino” issue. In order to make sure that youths from other communities become involved, she has to rely on non-political partner organizations such as the MinKwon Center in NY City that cater to specific national-origin communities:
We have people from Poland, from Europe, from Africa, India, Haiti … It's very hard for us to reach out to the community from Hong Kong, from China, from Korea, to get involved, because they're very particular in who they talk to and who they trust. So having the MinKwon Center be part of the New York Immigration Coalition, and seeing them come to events together, it's what helped us get connected to them.
Even though issues of representation and diversity are now being addressed within the movement, the needs of non-Latino groups are sometimes first met outside of the core organizations of the undocumented youth movement. As the literature anticipated, the coalition faced difficulties in recruiting and retaining youths from non-Latino groups within the movement.
Racially diverse coalitions can provide youths from many different background avenues for participation that they are comfortable with. Diverse coalition needs to come together through shared experiences or ideology. For youths mobilizing in NY and NJ, lack of immigration status and personal experience as an undocumented person became the common identity that tied activists together across racial and ethnic lines. Even when youths from different countries or ideologies met, their common struggle as undocumented youths brought them together. Franklin, who now works for a national undocumented youth-led organization explained: “We were all DREAMers. If I spoke to anybody and … I told them my story, we were friends, without knowing each other.” The common thread of undocumented status helped bridge the gaps created by national origin, culture, language, and ideology. This shared identity, however, only applies to undocumented members of the coalition, and does not provide greater ties to members of other organizations such as labor unions or civil rights groups.
Effects of Incorporating Diversity
Access to Elected Officials
The main effect of incorporating non-Latino groups within the coalition was to grant the movement greater access to elected officials. This was particularly the case for Assembly or City Council members who represented Asian and Black communities. Rebecca, who was involved in NJ for over a decade, saw the difference between the 2012–2013 campaign and previous efforts: “That's why [Filipino organization] Anakbayan was so crucial … they open up different doors for us. And that diversity was very important … we're still struggling to make immigration not a Latino issue. It still is a Latino issue.” By working with other organizations that cater to different racial and ethnic groups, the coalition gains new members and new tactics. It also gained access to elected officials and voters they could not reach before. Through Anakbayan, the NJ coalition was able to secure the support of locally elected officials in order to pass ordinances urging the state's legislature to adopt in-state tuition and financial aid. When asked about his support for the local ordinance, a council member of Filipino descent explained: “I believe it was Anakbayan who approached me about it. I know them from inside the Filipino community.” Having a more diverse coalition thus increases the number of connections to elected officials and “expands the scope of conflict” beyond representatives of the Latino community.
Diversity also helps with voter education, which ultimately puts more pressure on elected officials. This was noted by a member of the New Jersey Assembly who has sponsored the bill to provide access to in-state tuition, and who sat on hearings during which undocumented youths testified about their experiences: “We had a Haitian young lady who came [to testify]. I think it sheds a lot of light, because I think too many people think this is a Latino thing. I think that is something that [youths] need to strengthen, and have more people come out to speak outside of Latinos.” Though many of these elected officials could only remember “Latino kids” who had visited them in their office, they also noted the racial diversity of the movement. They indicated that this was a strength for the movement, since it allowed youth leaders to expand to other communities and increase the legitimacy of their demands. As the literature anticipated, when the coalitions grew more diverse, undocumented youth leaders were able to reach out to elected officials who may not otherwise have picked up issues such as in-state tuition and state financial aid. The inclusion of other racial and ethnic groups therefore added to the strength of the movement.
Immigration Status Diversity
A feature of the undocumented youth movement is that it has long collaborated with organizations who do not necessarily serve immigrants, let along undocumented immigrants. In this sense, diversity within the movement also means diversity in immigration status, which can range from undocumented, temporary visa-holder, legal permanent resident, and U.S. citizen. Undocumented youths live in families which include residents and U.S. citizens, just as young citizens can come from families where their parents and older siblings are undocumented. This diversity of experience within the movement means that some members may have more of a personal stake in securing in-state tuition and state financial aid than others, because they will be directly affected by it. This type of diversity requires that particular attention be paid to the structure of the coalition and its decision-making process. Kraemer (Reference Kraemer2007) noted that privileged allies—such as men in the feminist movement, or U.S. citizens in the undocumented movement—may bring the dominant position they enjoy in the society into the movement. While this dominance is associated with additional resources such as access to power and skills, organizational expertise, and economic assistance, it also imposes new responsibilities for activists, especially those who traditionally enjoy an outsider position in society (Rucht Reference Rucht, Snow, Soule and Kriesi2004; Schock Reference Schock1999). One of these responsibilities consists of establishing proper roles for activists and allies depending on the needs of the movement (Gordon Reference Gordon2007). In the undocumented youth movement, the role of allies is strongly related to movement authenticity and legitimacy. For example, those who are directly affected by barriers to higher education may prefer to be more involved in decision-making than those who do not share this experience, who may retain a more supporting role.
In several instances, undocumented youths and community organizers brought up the role of allies and questioned when each group should step back or take the lead in order to maintain the authenticity of the movement. Some undocumented youths in NY feared that allies could jeopardize undocumented youths’ process of empowerment. Patricia, a CUNY Dream Team leader, described the complicated role of citizen allies: “We [undocumented youths] struggle with [having] citizens speak on behalf of us. We're like, ‘you're taking our power. The little power that I have, you're taking it away from me, because I can't even use my voice.’” In this sense, authenticity is synonymous with the inclusion for undocumented youths. In NJ, the campaign was primarily led by two individuals, one undocumented and one who is a naturalized citizen. A former undocumented member of the coalition recalls that decisions were not always reached through consensus, and expressed concern that the coalition allowed for a display of the varying levels of privilege tied to citizenship within it. At a tuition equity strategy meeting observed in 2013, activists and allies debated the types of political actions the campaign should put together. An ally brought up sit-ins, which carry the risk of an arrest, though with varying consequences depending on the immigration status of the individual arrested. While the whole group initially agreed that a lawyer should be brought in to gain information about the protections afforded by DACA, another ally later brought up again the issue of “arrestable actions.” One of the staffers from an ally organization then suggested that it “would help with messaging if several of the youths arrested [were] undocumented.” By the end of the meeting, none of the undocumented members committed to this action as most preferred to speak to a lawyer first. While the visuals of youths arrested during sit-ins have been common in the movement, and reminiscent of other non-violent movements in the U.S. history, this discussion was an example of the differences in experiences and risks associated with immigration status, and of the privilege enjoyed by allies in the movement. It also showed that when dealing with the public at large, movement authenticity requires that undocumented youths play a leading role.
Allies within the campaign had mixed feelings about their role and their place in the movement. Emily, a naturalized citizen, explained that she understands that her immigration history and her college experience would make her a poor representative of the needs of the undocumented community. She sees a place for residents and citizens in the movement, but in a supporting rather than leadership role:
I think I have a good sense of when it's my role to step back. I know that there are sectors of the immigrant movement that are very much undocumented youths-only, that's not what it's like in New Jersey … I do feel some kind of weight about being a paid organizer, realizing that a lot of immigrant youths who do it for free wish they could be paid. The identity of “DREAMer,” is really powerful, and there are situations, especially when you're engaging people for the first time, where I'm not going to be as powerful and inspiring … as somebody who experienced it first hand, telling their story.
Not everyone agreed with this view. This was the case for Denise, a citizen, who joined the movement because her parents and her best friend in high school were undocumented. She explained her discomfort during campaign strategy meetings when she realized that the input from residents and citizens was not given the same weight as that of undocumented members:
We were talking about something, and [a resident] said that he didn't think it was the right thing to do right now. And this [undocumented] person … said, “It's easy for you to say because you're not undocumented” … This person felt like he didn't have the right to make his comment … because he was no longer undocumented. And I sat there … thinking, “I'm a citizen, so that means I'm not allowed to say anything then.” To be honest, I stopped participating for a while because of that … My personal view is that I'm not going to speak over someone who is directly affected by this issue, but I do have valuable opinions about this issue which affects people that I care about, so I'm not going to try to sabotage [it].
The difficulty in dealing with the role of allies in the movement comes from the demands made by legislators themselves. Several legislators were anxious to meet with the citizens during the campaign and mentioned status diversity—thus emphasizing the privileged situation of these allies. An assembly member from NJ commented the “electoral connection” while describing the youths who had been sent by the campaign for legislative visits:
They were very smart to bring some people from the district. Where the sophistication was lacking on their part was to bring in other students or people who were documented, who are American citizens, to get them to take a vocal role in the discussion, with the understanding that, “I'm a voter, this is an important issue for me.”
Even though leaders of the movement may have preferred to highlight the experiences of undocumented youths who were directly affected by the policy in question, they also had to take into account the importance of reelection and bring in citizen members—regardless of their experience in gaining access to college. As a result, the authenticity of the movement may have to be sacrificed for strategic reasons, at least when dealing with elected officials. With the multiplicity of immigration statuses come traditional issues related to political participation and representation, as laid out by Verba, Schlozman, and Brady (Reference Verba, Schlozman and Brady1995). Most particularly, the loudest may not speak for the whole, and the needs of activists and allies may be different from the needs of the community. The undocumented youth campaign provides an example of the discrepancy between the needs of allies and the needs of the community. As the literature anticipated, the coalition faced difficulties in managing the presence of documented immigrants and citizens within the movement. The diversity of immigration statuses within the coalition provides strong, election-related arguments for elected officials, but it also jeopardizes the authenticity of the movement and its ability to represent undocumented youths.
CONCLUSION
Diversity within the undocumented youth movement—especially racial and immigration status diversity—has an effect on the movement's ability to reach its goals. This is the case because both help expand the “scope of conflict” and thus alter the movement's relationship to elected officials. I find that racial and ethnic diversity has helped undocumented youths reach out to other communities—and the politicians who serve them. When more groups are included in the coalition, the movement gains access to elected officials who may otherwise not pick up issues such as in-state tuition and state financial aid for undocumented students. Status diversity—the inclusion of permanent residents and citizens in the movement—has also reinforced the “electoral connection” of immigrant issues for these legislators, and has provided an additional argument to gain their support. However, the presence of documented immigrants and U.S. citizens adds more pressure on the movement to ensure that its structure and message remain authentic and serve the needs of undocumented youths.
Some of the limitations of the study arise from the type of data which were collected—interviews with campaign participants and supporters. Most of the participants in the second phase of the study were individuals who participated in the campaign or who had provided some degree of support—either through a community organization or in the state legislature. These participants all supported the policies sought by the campaign, which may provide a limited view of the strength of the movement and its impact. Though efforts were made to contact elected officials who opposed in-state tuition and financial aid policies, only one agreed to participate in the study. In addition, since a large number of interviews were conducted in 2015 regarding the 2012–2013 campaign, the data include recollections of participants, which may be incomplete or inaccurate. Finally, other participants who were active at the time may have “aged out” or simply left the movement and were therefore not recruited into the sample.
This paper contributes to the literature on social movements by highlighting the challenges present within diverse coalitions, and the implications that diversity has for recruitment, access, and leadership. It builds on Burciaga and Martinez’s (Reference Burciaga and Martinez2017) work that focused on “localized political contexts” and showed how context shapes undocumented youth movements, especially one where the immigrant population is very diverse and not dominated by a single national origin or ethnicity. Racial and ethnic diversity lends strength to the movement, even though it may be difficult to attain. Using interview data from elected officials is one of the key innovations here, as most of the research conducted on the movement so far has primarily relied on interviews with undocumented youths and their allies. An important contribution to the growing literature on undocumented youths’ political incorporation lies in the paper's focus on immigration status diversity and its impact on a campaign. Building on Enriquez’s (Reference Enriquez2014) work on cross-status mobilization, I provide a comparative perspective where immigration status diversity is occurring on multiple sites and two states. I show that status diversity is a strength of the movement and a key element to its authenticity. Though immigration status—or lack thereof—is traditionally considered as a barrier to political participation, this article shows that it is also a resource for undocumented youths, who use it as a proof of authenticity and legitimacy for the movement.
Acknowledgments
This research was supported (in part) by funds from a Summer Stipend from the Research Center for the Humanities and Social Sciences at William Paterson University.
