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? Part II Political Mobilization and Claims Making The four chapters in this section explore political mobilization among immigrant populations with special attention to associative practices and to factions that form as various claims to authority are made within these groups. All four chapters also illustrate the advantages of an ethnographic approach that combines close observation of political behavior “on the ground” with considerations of wider political debates and processes. The chapters by Davide Però and Michal Garapich examine Latin Americans and Poles in the United Kingdom, respectively, providing interesting comparisons about the ways in which generation and other elements of “infrapolitics” within these populations affect both their civic engagement in London and involvement in transnational political behavior. Però both engages and critiques the concept of political opportunity structure as part of his analysis of how the newest immigrant population in the United Kingdom, Latinos, have become political actors. He emphasizes the multidirectional politics of migrants that engages the country of origin, that of arrival, and no country in particular. The latter involves activities such as disseminating information and advice on legal issues, resettlement matters, housing and health availability, as well as protesting racism, sectarianism , and political exclusion. Some of these activities are carried out in the context of organizations that are bounded and hierarchical or loose and horizontal. Però, here, notes what several other scholars of migration are beginning to note—the significance of voluntary associations to civic and political life (see, for example, Brettell and Reed-Danahay 2008; Fennema and Tillie 1999; Hamidi 2003; Odmalm 2004; Tillie 2004). Però focuses his analysis on two associations: the Latin Front, a loose organization founded by two middle-class Columbian women to represent the interests of Latin Americans in the United Kingdom, and the Latin American Workers Association (LAWA), founded by four Latino trade unionists. The Latin Front directs its attention to influencing political parties in the United Kingdom through claims making and identity politics while LAWA primarily addresses issues of economic exploitation, workers’ rights, and employment abuse. concludes that structural constraints as well as opportunities explain mobilization, but equally important are social capital, networks, political socialization, and perspectives. Michal Garapich, who, like Però, engages the concept of political opportunity structure, offers an intriguing analysis of the differences between Socialist and post-Socialist migration streams from Poland to the United Kingdom. He focuses in particular on the construction of a Polish emigration ideology about the “good” and “moral” migrant (the political exile) and how this shapes a form of political participation and identity that is different from that among more recent economic migrants, who are constructed as individualistic. He also draws a careful distinction between ethnic- and class-based discourses in public claims making, whether in the host society context or in the transnational arena. Polish émigrés in London have taken it as their mission to remind the British about the sacrifices made by Polish soldiers and the Polish people during and after World War II in the struggles against fascism and communism, but their voice is becoming weaker as they find themselves sharing an historical identity with new immigrants from a different class background and with a different political project. Garapich draws on Frederik Barth’s (1969) ideas about boundary construction as he analyzes the significance of these internal differences within the Polish diaspora . These differences are reflected in the institutions and organizations that have emerged among Polish immigrants in the United Kingdom, and in particular political positions that are taken toward such issues as voting rights abroad. With Robert Gibb’s chapter we are transported across the English Channel to France, a European country that has been much in the news in relation to the politics of immigration and to the political activism of immigrants . Like Però, Gibb also offers an analysis of immigrant associative practice in his discussion of SOS-Racisme, an organization founded in the early 1980s by Paris-based students and political activists to combat racism. Gibb traces the contested history of this organization and places it in relationship to other immigrant associations in France and to the legislative and other institutional contexts within which it operates. In particular he explores the forms of civic engagement promoted by SOS-Racisme and how these activities are viewed by the Franco-Maghrebi population. Also of note are his efforts to situate SOS-Racisme in the context of conspiracy theories that “imagine” politics as confrontations between a majority and a minority 100 Political Mobilization...

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