We Are More Than Paperless People: Reflections on Creating Spaces, Narratives and Change with Undocumented Communities

Autor: Maria del Cielo Mendez, Jennifer Ayala, Kimberly Rojas
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2021
Předmět:
Zdroj: Societies, Vol 11, Iss 2, p 47 (2021)
Druh dokumentu: article
ISSN: 2075-4698
DOI: 10.3390/soc11020047
Popis: In this piece, we share some insights gleaned from oral histories of immigrant organizers involved in New Jersey state campaigns for access to higher education, weaving them with scholarly personal narratives (Nash & Viray, 2013) from the authors on their own youth organizing and/or experience working in an undocumented student support center. We are guided by the following questions: (1) How do New Jersey immigrant organizers make meaning of and create spaces of hope and home through their organizing? (2) What propels this work and sustains it across cohorts of organizers? We discuss five general areas in response: the experience of invisibility and organizing efforts that aim to counter it, the co-construction of homespaces within higher education institutions, the importance of (re)setting narratives, celebrating wins while pressing for more, and the intergenerational work that inspires and sustains change. We close the article with reflections on the ways in which formal and everyday organizing are acts of love and care, from which home is collectively built.
Databáze: Directory of Open Access Journals