Political Parties and Immigrant Associations: Alliances in the Resolution of Local Conflicts related to Diversity. An Interpretive Framework

Most studies on the collective participation of immigrants at the local level have focused on how public institutions have shaped the channels of political participation for immigrant associations or how immigrants have organized themselves as collective actors. So far, however, research has not centered on the interaction and alliances between specific actors (i.e. NGOs and political parties or pressure groups and the media) who can be determinant in the dynamics of participation. Taking a conflict-driven perspective, the aim of this article is to propose an interpretive framework for studying the influence of political parties on the political opportunities for immigrant associations through their alliances in the resolution of local conflict areas. This framework will be constructed within the political opportunity structure (POS) debate that exists in relation to the importance of institutions in the actions of social actors. In our new framework, the city emerges as the zone of interaction where personal trust and closeness between actors is more significant than impersonal interaction with higher levels of government. The first part of this paper will provide evidence for the validity of studying the political alliances between political parties and immigrant associations through the lens of POS. The second part will propose a framework to explore the influence of political parties on the local POS for immigrant associations. It is envisioned that this framework will be capable of capturing the political environment around this set of allies while identifying their alliances vis-à-vis local conflict areas.