Migrant Advocacy, Representation, and Intersectional Identities

ABSTRACT

This study explores advocacy efforts of organizations working with immigrants, refugees, and asylees in the U.S. Southwest border region. It examines how organizations’ public discourses respond to different imaginings of migrants, and how these are informed by institutional contexts and ethnic identities of advocates and imagined audiences. Findings suggest that advocates representing mainly white organizations with ties to powerful government and religious institutions tend to invoke a discourse of deservingness, whereas Latinx-centric organizations reject this in favour of a human rights argument for welcoming migrants. The article concludes with implications for advocacy and collaboration across groups.

KEYWORDS:

• Migration
• advocacy
• representation
• identity
• intersectionality

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.