Reconceptualizing and de-nationalizing repertoires of migrant political activism

Abstract

This chapter deals with the scope and forms of migrant political activism as inherent to migration governance. After shedding light on the definition of the term, we identify key approaches that consider migrants as political activists and actors, such as social movement studies, citizenship studies, international relations and intersectionality studies, and highlight their contribution to the literature. Moreover, we focus on the repertoires of migrant activism and discuss two key lines of activism: activities that aim at improving migrants' formal rights in the context of the differentiation of rights, and space-related activism that employs spatial strategies for collective action. We argue that these perpsectives must be integrated in order to develop a sufficiently differentiated analysis of migrant political activism. Such an inetgrated approach can show how migrant activism shapes, and is shaped by, the politics and governance of migration, while being sensitive to power relations and differences within and between movements, communities and geographic locations. © Emma Carmel, Katharina Lenner and Regine Paul 2021.