Protest Movements in Asylum and Deportation by Sieglinde Rosenberger Verena Stern & Nina Merhaut

Author:Sieglinde Rosenberger, Verena Stern & Nina Merhaut
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Springer International Publishing, Cham

We observe that such far-reaching and unconditional commitment emerges when the beneficiary’s request for assistance echoes with either profound values of the members of the hard core (e.g., human rights, love of one’s neighbors, charity, social justice), or a (biographical) sensitivity, or a preexisting history of activism in humanitarian, philanthropic or political causes. Furthermore, the beneficiary’s request for help often coincides with a favorable timing in the protester’s life. The protester is open to consider such a commitment. One could say that the request falls on “fertile ground”.

In some instances, we observe that involvement in the protest is seized as an opportunity to pursue personal projects or political goals and gain media attention. Often, members of the hard core do not measure accurately the time they will invest in their cause. Once they are engaged, the achievement of the initial goal – helping the beneficiary to obtain permanent residence – progressively becomes a personal project towards which considerable personal resources are mobilized – yet “without regret” according to the protesters interviewed.

The importance of the hard core is equivalent in both ideal-types of protest, even though its members’ motivations to participate may vary radically. In a personifying protest, the involvement of the hard core is essentially motivated by the sympathy towards the beneficiary’s personality and life story, thus a personal tie to them. Even though this tie is weak (according to Granovetter’s understanding), it is strong enough to trigger emotions of compassion and solidarity that will lead to action. Our analysis suggests that the involvement of the hard core is not the result of a long-term pro-migrant activism or the adoption of political ideas in favor of immigration but rather appears as the result of knowing about the beneficiary’s distress and the emotion this knowledge provokes. The fact that the hard core of personifying protests does not collectively carry an ideological claim but stands together only to prevent the beneficiary from deportation explains the presence of multiple political orientations among the protesters. A broad political spectrum is represented: conservative right-wing politicians (among them several of the Swiss People’s Party) are enrolled side to side with center and left activists for the beneficiary’s ‘right to stay’. The participation of actors hostile or critical towards immigration can be understood in two ways: first, people holding very different views on societal issues such as migration sporadically join in order to defend a particular person or case they consider worthy of their support; second, the “degree of pacification of the Left” (Giugni 2004, 169) and their use of moderate forms of protest (see below) could constitute a favorable ground for such a political alliance. To sum up, the hard core of personifying protests is characterized by a wide alliance and the diversity of the protesters’ political backgrounds and opinions.

In contrast to personifying protests, the hard core of exemplifying protests is composed of citizens who bring along a sensitivity for migration issues. They are in line with a political orientation that aims to challenge what they describe as harmful externalities of a restrictive migration policy.

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