Power and Agency within Migrant Solidarity Networks

Abstract

At a time when restrictive immigration policies and the tightening of borders are high on the political agenda of many nation states, resistance to such policies is emerging from below. In many countries in Europe and beyond, restrictive policies have given rise to the emergence of protest movements by migrants and asylum seekers themselves, as well as to the emergence of solidarity movements with migrants. Often, these solidarity movements are composed of a multiplicity of actors, from large and well-established NGOs to newly founded citizens’ initiatives, from local religious leaders and sympathetic politicians, from racialized migrants with precarious legal status to privileged members of the host society. How are the power relations within protest movements and solidarity campaigns structured? What are the possibilities for different actors to exercise agency, and what types of agency are there? How can we explain different features of a protest or solidarity campaign – its form (contentious or cooperational), its claims, the perception it enjoys – and how do these features impact the outcomes of such a campaign? This panel invites papers that tackle these or related questions with reference to various protest and solidarity movements, be they church asylum campaigns, sanctuary cities, search-and-rescue missions on the border, anti-deportation movements, or any other form of protest or solidary campaign.

Title	Details
The Criminalization of Solidarity in Today’s European Union	View Paper Details
Power and Agency within Faith-Based Sanctuary Networks	View Paper Details
Sanctuary assemblages and power relations: the example of the Sea to the City campaign	View Paper Details