Religious Activists in the Immigrant Rights Movement

From UC San Diego:

A Burning Issue: Motivating Factors for Religious and Secular Activists in the Immigrant Rights Movement

Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo
Professor of Sociology, University of Southern California

Mia Diaz-Edelman
Ph.D. Candidate in Sociology, Boston University

Tuesday, December 9, 3:00 PM
Eleanor Roosevelt College Administration Building
Conference Room 115, First Floor

This seminar will feature two related presentations.

Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo will examine and analyze how religious people are using religion to promote immigrant rights, and immigrant integration in the United States. The talk will examine three cases: the efforts of Christian and Jewish clergy to support labor rights among disenfranchised immigrant workers;l Christians who are organizing against militarization and violence at the U.S.-Mexico border; and Muslim American immigrants mobilizing to defend their civil rights in the post-9/11 era. A particular focus will be placed on the different aspects of religion that the groups use, and the facility with which they can deploy religion in public sphere engagements. Also, how these activists negotiate changing political and religious identities, and how gender and race are involved in these processes will be considered.

Mia Diaz-Edelman will look at ways that religious and secular activists in San Diego County, As part of the national Immigrant Rights Movement, are committed to obtaining “just and humane comprehensive immigration reform” and improving the quality of life for documented and undocumented immigrants. While many persons do not move beyond passionate dialogue around immigration, activists continue their struggle for immigrant rights despite personal sacrifice and repeated setbacks. What is it about this particular topic that makes it a burning issue for movement organizers? Why do they connect to the Immigrant Rights Movement and the current political and economic refugees with enough ganas so as to motivate action and much sacrifice? Is there something about participants’ faith and value systems that inspire such boundary crossing for and with immigrants? From April 2006 until November 2008, Diaz-Edelman gathered data from eleven faith-based, interfaith-based, and secular organizations through ethnographic participant observation and forty-eight, in-depth, formal interviews in San Diego County. Using preliminary results from this qualitative study, she will propose a framework for understanding what factors motivate local activist efforts for immigrant rights.

Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo is Professor and Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of Sociology at the University of Southern California. Her published research has focused on gender and immigration, Latino sociology, informal sector work, and religion and the immigrant rights movement. She is the author or editor of seven books, the most recent of which is God’s Heart Has No Borders: How Religious Activists are Working for Immigrant Rights (University of California Press 2008).

Mia D. Diaz-Edelman is a Guest Scholar at UCSD’s Center for Comparative Immigration Studies and a doctoral candidate in Sociology at Boston University. Her doctoral research investigates coalitions between faith-based, interfaith-based, and secular organizations in San Diego County organizing within the national Immigrant Rights Movement. Her research interests include social movements, religion, immigration, gender, race and ethnic relations, political sociology, and sustainable business practices.
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These seminars are open to all members of the UCSD community, as well as faculty and students from other universities and the general public. For directions to CCIS, visit our website. Parking permits can be purchased at the information booth on North Point Drive (north end of campus). Visitors may also use metered parking spaces (max. 2 hours) in the North side parking lot. Papers previously presented at CCIS seminars can also be downloaded from our website under “Working Papers.” For further information, please contact Ana Minvielle (E-mail: aminvielle@ucsd.edu, Tel#: 858-822-4447).

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