Theorizing Migrant-Led Activism

Much attention has been paid to migrant associations in the scholarly literature, in the media and at policy level. This is not surprising, given their effectiveness in supporting and lobbying for migrants in contexts which often render them invisible and discriminate against them. The study of migrant associations and other forms of migrant activism is a prism through which we can understand the participation and integration of people who move and settle in new countries. It is through these associations that the state and other actors can address migrants as a collective, contributing directly and indirectly to the elaboration of migrants’ identities, in part by defining the grounds on which their associations are granted legitimacy (Kastoryano, 2003; Schrover and Vermeulen, 2005; Lucassen and Penninx, 2009). In turn, migrants’ collective claims lead states to negotiate their identities and redefine notions of citizenship, belonging and ‘national’ values (Koopmans et al., 2005). Migrant associations mediate the boundaries between states and migrant groups, and, because migrant groups are never homogeneous, they are often also the loci of intra-group negotiations and between migrants and their countries of origins and diaspora.