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ABSTRACT
Social movement analysts have long recognized that it is not easy to assess outcomes of social activism since direct causality between activism and social, cultural, political, or legal changes is often difficult to trace. This article analyzes the complexities in evaluating the tangled relations between migrant rights activism and migration policy-making by drawing on insights from social movement theories and particularly the concepts of cognitive resonance and political opportunities. The case of Mexico’s civil society advocacy for the rights of Central American migrants and its impact on legal and administrative reforms provides an illustration of such a complex relationship. While admitting that civil society organizations contributed to certain migration reforms in Mexico, we suggest additional explanations for the Mexican state’s seeming openness to the demands advanced by pro-migrant civil society organizations. Furthermore, we argue that the Mexican state’s recent intensification of migration control, despite civil societies’ persistent criticisms, illustrates that, in fact, civil society organizations do not have much sway in shaping migration policies in this country.
RESUMEN
Los analistas de los movimientos sociales han reconocido que no es fácil evaluar los resultados del activismo social, ya que la causalidad directa entre el activismo y los cambios sociales, culturales, políticos o legales es difícil de determinar. Este artículo analiza las complejidades en la evaluación de las intrincadas relaciones entre el activismo por los derechos de las personas migrantes y la formulación de políticas migratorias, con base en las ideas de las teorías del movimiento social y, particularmente, de los conceptos de sintonía cognitiva y oportunidades políticas. El caso de la incidencia de la sociedad civil de México por los derechos de migrantes centroamericanos y su impacto en las reformas legales y administrativas, es un ejemplo de una relación de suyo compleja. Aunque se admite que las organizaciones de la sociedad civil contribuyeron a determinadas reformas migratorias en México, sugerimos explicaciones adicionales con relación a la aparente apertura del Estado mexicano a las demandas de organizaciones de la sociedad civil pro-migrantes. Asimismo, argumentamos que la reciente intensificación del control migratorio por parte del Estado mexicano, a pesar de las persistentes críticas de la sociedad civil, demuestra que, en realidad, las organizaciones de la sociedad civil aún no tienen la suficiente influencia en la formulación de políticas migratorias en este país.
Acknowledgements
We would like to acknowledge the generous financial support provided by the Social Science and Humanities Research Council and the contributions from the other two team members, Danièle Bélanger and Guillermo Candiz. We would also like to thank all the participants in our study, as well as the two anonymous reviewers whose helpful comments made our article stronger.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes
1. The relationship between the concern for the treatment and rights of the diaspora and the pro-migrant rights turn in domestic migration policies is evident in other countries, e.g. Argentina, Ecuador, and Brazil (see Acosta Arcarazo and Feline Freier Citation2015) and Morocco (see Üstübici Citation2016).
2. The US State Department’s support for the Merida Plan included non-intrusive scanning equipment, helicopters, patrol boats, intelligence technology, biometric technologies, and capacity building. USD86 million in funds were allocated to this initiative through the International Narcotics Control and Law Enforcement (INCLE) account (Knippen, Boggs, and Meyer Citation2015).
3. The contradictions between liberal pro-migrant discourses and illiberal practices towards all or selected migrants are also discussed by Sandoval (Citation2014) and Acosta and Feline (Citation2015).
6. By comparison, according to the same source, in 2011 and 2012, the number of deported migrants was 61,202 and 79,643, respectively.
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Notes on contributors
Tanya Basok
Tanya Basok is a Professor of Sociology in the Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Criminology, University of Windsor, and a co-author Rethinking Transit Migration: Precarity Mobiligy, and Self-Making in Mexico (Palgrave Macmillan, 2015).
Martha L. Rojas Wiesner
Martha Rojas is a Researcher in the Department of Society and Culture, El Colegio de la Frontera Sur, San Cristóbal, de Las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico, and a co-author of Rethinking Transit Migration: Precarity Mobiligy, and Self-Making in Mexico (Palgrave Macmillan, 2015).