Empowerment within Constraint: Human Rights Perspectives in Community-Based Practice with Undocumented Immigrants

Background/Purpose:

Immigrant Worker Centers are multipurpose, grassroots organizations that are emerging to address the needs of a growing population of low-wage, immigrant workers in the United States. Like the Settlement Houses of the early 20th century, Worker Centers combine distinct but overlapping methods – service delivery, organizing, and advocacy – in a single organization. For today's immigrants, Worker Centers provide organizing support to address workplace problems, basic services, community education, and advocacy with local agencies and governments. While undocumented immigrants are protected by many of the same labor laws that protect citizens and legal residents, these noncitizens cannot fully exercise their employment rights because of their precarious legal status. When faced with employment problems (such as wage theft and discrimination), undocumented immigrants have limited access to traditional organizations—e.g., labor unions and public agencies—both because of their immigration status and organizational constraints. As a result of this organizational mismatch, immigrant workers are increasingly turning to Worker Centers for help with their problems. A national study revealed that the number of Worker Centers grew from 5 in 1992 to over 160 by 2006 (Fine, 2006).

This project responds to the growing need for more research on the new social infrastructure responding to immigration and the changing institutional environment for organizing and services. As part of a larger case study of a Midwestern Worker Center, this poster presents findings on one aspect of the project: Worker Centers' use of human rights frameworks. Specifically, it considers (1) how and why do worker Centers draw on a discourse of human rights and global citizenship in their work with undocumented immigrants? (2) What are the consequences of including human rights perspectives for Worker Centers and participants in their activities?

Methods:

This project draws on a qualitative case study of Worker Center formed in 2006. Data collection included over 18 months of participant observation of Worker Center meetings and trainings; a comprehensive review of organizational documents; in-depth interviews with immigrant workers, staff, volunteers, and related service providers. Data were analyzed and coded inductively.

Results:

(1) The use of human rights frameworks emerges from a combination of the experiences and perspectives of immigrant worker participants and volunteers/staff. (2) Existing rights perspectives (specifically, civil rights and labor rights) inadequately address the issues facing transnational migrants. To address these limitations, Worker Centers integrate elements of international human rights and global citizenship in their work with undocumented immigrants.

Conclusions and implications:

The current social and political context has led grassroots organizations like Worker Centers to employ human rights as a new discursive tool in community practice with immigrants. This expanded rights discourse is shaping the way that individuals and communities on the margins think about themselves and the spaces they occupy in society, as well as their ability to advocate for themselves and their families. This example suggests new ways for thinking about empowerment perspectives and practice in the context of globalization and transnational migration.

Reference: Fine, J. (2006). Worker centers: Organizing communities at the edge of the dream. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press.