Civil Society’s Role in Conflicts in Migration (e.g. refugees) and Citizenship Policies Across the EU

Abstract

Immigration and ethnic-relations are contested issues in Europe (Koopmans and Statham 2000). Research has tackled various issues related to social and political mobilization in the field of immigration and ethnic-relations, including a focus on migrants’ collective claim-makings (i.e. Koopmans, Statham, Giugni & Passy 2005), as well as migrants’ individual political participation (i.e. Morales & Giugni 2011; de Rooji 2012; Heath et al. 2013). In this framework, much remains to be learned about civil society active in the field of immigration and ethnic-relations (Vermeulen 2006; Fennema and Tillie 2001; Eggert and Pilati 2014). We invite contributions that address theoretically informed empirical studies from a variety of perspectives, either examining case studies or cross-national comparative analyses, on any of the following issues: • Civil society actors: topics may focus on the characteristics of actors, considering any organizational form, i.e. both formal groups such as organizations as well as informal groups; their engagement in different types of activities like service-delivery and more focused political mobilization in issues concerning immigration and ethnic-relations; the repertoires of actions; examination of leadership and internal structure, and strategies • Civil society networks: topics may focus on organizational structures and relationship built with other civil society and institutional actors; factors leading to the formation of inter-organizational exchanges among civil society actors in different contexts • Issues and agendas of civil society actors active in the immigration and ethnic-relations field • Role of contextual opportunities, and of local and national policy divergence in shaping civil society actors’ mobilization in immigration and ethnic-relations issues; in shaping agendas and activities; in shaping different organizational structures; in affecting the engagement by individuals in different types of organizations; • Outcomes of civil society’s mobilizations. How do civil society mobilization shape collective efficacy and responses by political authorities? How do civil society actors affect policy-making in the field of immigration and ethnic relations?