ENGAGING WITH THE IMMIGRANT HUMAN RIGHTS MOVEMENT IN A BESIEGED BORDER REGION: WHAT DO APPLIED SOCIAL SCIENTISTS BRING TO THE POLICY PROCESS?

Abstract

Engagement with immigration goes beyond work directly with immigrants to include involvement in the immigration policy process. The chapter describes work on immigration and human rights policy grounded in issues facing the U.S.–Mexico border region. A policy coalition with regional and national presence, the Border and Immigration Task Force, combines an organized social movement with bases in immigrant communities with a diverse policy coalition whose members have varied skills, constituencies, and political connections. As applied social scientists in this coalition, we bring a number of skills, including effective writing, synthesis of secondary sources, teaching skills applied to public interaction and communication, and application of the sociological and anthropological imagination to understand the implications, on the ground, of detailed policy recommendations. Our work has not involved community‐based primary research, but this form of practice is also mentioned for its relevance to policy formation and advocacy. The literature on public anthropology and public sociology needs to include discussions of engagement in practical policy processes.