Agents of Transnationalism and US Political Incorporation: Lessons from Chicago-based Mexican Immigrant Hometown Associations and Coalitions

Purpose: Chicago has long served as a crucial site for understanding the community mobilization and political movements by its disenfranchised communities. The many Mexican hometown associations (HTAs) in US cities have been recognized as important forms of voluntary, grassroots, first-generation Mexican immigrant civic participation. Much of the research on HTAs has focused on their ability to sustain transnational ties through cultural events, philanthropic infrastructure projects and influence in local elections within their hometowns in Mexico and to foster important paisano (countrymen) network connections in the US (Goldring, 1998, 2002; Rivera-Salgado, 2002, R.C. Smith, 1995, 1998, 2006; Alarcon, 2002; Orozco & Lapointe, 2004; Portes et al., 2007; M.P.Smith and Bakker, 2008). Yet recent activities in Chicago, including HTA leadership of the dramatic 2006 marches for immigrant rights, suggest that this kind of organization—-and, indeed, mobilization itself-—may become a significant agent of political incorporation for US immigrants.

Research Question, Theoretical Approach, and Methods: This paper investigates the question, what are Chicago-based Mexican HTAs: transnational community organizations, social movement organizations, or interest-group actors? This paper uses social movement theory to investigate how the mobilizations and the responses by state actors on both sides of the border have influenced many HTAs to expand their agendas to include both US-centered and Mexican-oriented concerns. Since 2003 numerous Chicago HTAs and their federations have operated within a larger confederation, CONFEMEX, comprised of nine federations and 280 HTAs. This grassroots coalition facilitates first-generation immigrant actors to make unified membership claims in both Mexico and US political circles. At the same time, CONFEMEX serves as an arena of internal contentions as immigrant leaders manage multiple pressures from both Mexico and US state actors along with tensions between leadership goals and membership base.

The paper's findings are based primarily on two years of ethnographic participant observation fieldwork and in-depth interviews with the leaders of CONFEMEX. The ethnographic methodology within this unique leadership coalition provides an “experience-near” (Fairbanks, 2004, p.65) vantage point for viewing how HTA leaders strategically respond and make demonstrable effects within this changing political environment. Furthermore, it enables me to explain ethnographically how Chicago HTAs came to incorporate mass mobilization into their strategic repertoires and the impacts of this type of activism on their current developments.

Findings: This paper finds that certain transnational associations in Chicago exhibit significant characteristics of both social movement and interest group organizations. As a result of political power generated from the 2006 marches, many Chicago-based HTAs have further prioritized domestically-oriented activities resulting in several recent Illinois immigration policy initiatives, US-centered interest group advocacy, and electoral participation focused on local urban and state-level campaigns. At the same time, they continue to advocate for Mexican-focused initiatives, including improved consular services, policy changes in absentee voting rights, and smoother facilitation and expansions for remittance-funded donation projects.

Implications: This paper offers implications for future research and practice of immigrant HTAs and other activists who are often divided over whether to pursue social-movement or interest-group strategies in pursuit of rights, recognition and influence.