Performative Citizenship in the Civil Rights and Immigrant Rights Movements

In this paper, Kathryn Abrams observes "that the discourse, the strategies, and the specific tactical repertoires of the civil rights movement have become symbols and templates for the immigrant justice movement..." However, there are also "performative dimensions" to both movements that may explain their power and effectiveness. One such dimension is "self-narration, " which rejects the stereotypical notion of how a marginalized or exploited person should interact with the rest of society. As undocumented young people, for example, "come out,"  they "reject the fear, and the resulting posture of hiding, that governmental officials have sought to impose on them through anti-immigrant legislation and enforcement efforts." Another performative dimension is "multifaceted civic engagement," where people model the rights which they seek (and in the case of undocumented immigrants without any legal claim to assert those rights).  The "Know Your Rights" sessions sponsored by the ACLU in conjunction with immigrant rights organizations are one example of this approach. When undocumented young people, i.e. the DREAMers,  knocked on doors in Arizona trying to convince Latino citizens to go to the polls to defeat anti-immigrant state legislators, they were engaged in the democratic process, at the same time that they were trying to get more Latino citizens to the polls. The author concludes that both the civil rights movement and the immigrant rights movement relied on the "alchemy" of claiming rights which may be emergent or precarious as a means of securing their formal recognition." (Abstract courtesy of Nicholas V Montalto.)

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