Poster #31 - Voices from the Frontlines: Designing a Qualitative Case Study of Immigrant Advocacy in the U.S. Southeast

• In Event: Saturday Poster Luncheon

Abstract

Introduction/Background: Restrictive immigration policies and enhanced immigrant policing have exacerbated social and health disparities among Latine immigrant workers in the United States. While existing literature documents the harms from policy-driven exclusion, there is a critical gap in understanding the grassroots initiatives that rise to challenge them. While advocates and immigrant-serving organizations engage in counteracting harmful social forces that continue to negatively impact the well-being of different immigrant communities, little is known about how grassroots advocacy with and on behalf of immigrant workers unfolds and operates in the U.S. Southeast- a region characterized by rapidly growing immigrant populations yet historically hostile policy environments.
Purpose/Research Question: This paper outlines the research design of a doctoral dissertation project to demonstrate how qualitative inquiry can effectively capture the voices of frontline immigration advocates in politically restrictive contexts. Rather than focusing on substantive findings, this methods paper addresses the following question: What methodological strategies and community-engaged practices are required to rigorously study grassroots resistance within the restrictive and complex environments of the U.S. Southeast? The purpose is to illustrate a framework for building trust, ensuring rigor, and navigating the logistical challenges of researching immigrant advocacy and resistance in "new" immigrant destinations.
Data: This paper reports on the methodology employed in a qualitative multiple case study involving two immigrant-serving organizations (N=2) in the state of Alabama. Data sources in the original study included in-depth, semi-structured interviews (N=24) with organizational leaders and frontline advocates, triangulated with participant observation, analysis of internal archival records, and newspaper data.
Research Design and Methods: Grounded in constructivism as its philosophical orientation and the Political Determinants of Health and the Ecological Systems Model as the conceptual frameworks, the original study emphasizes the role of community-engaged advocacy with and on behalf of Latine immigrant workers. Because a case study design warrants multiple data collection techniques for data source triangulation, this methodological paper focuses on the challenges and opportunities for building a qualitative dataset with distinct yet complementary sources that speak to the role of immigrant advocacy in the U.S. Southeast - a region often overlooked by the American literature on labor migration. The selected methodology also prioritizes trust-building through rapid ethnography techniques to immerse the researcher in the daily realities of advocacy work. Furthermore, the design incorporates specific strategies for rigor and community relevance, including peer-debriefing and the creation of curated reports for participating organizations as a primary dissemination strategy.
Conclusion/Implications: A multiple case study design was selected to examine how organizational structures influence advocacy efforts, uncovering cross-site similarities and differences in navigating challenges and opportunities for advocacy with and for Latine immigrant workers in the U.S. Southeast. This paper contributes to the field by offering a replicable methodological blueprint for conducting research with vulnerable populations in high-stakes policy environments. By detailing the methodological choices and integration of community-engaged principles with rigorous research protocols, this work offers guidance for scholars seeking to study the mechanisms of community resilience as a response to increasingly hostile immigration policies in the U.S.

Author

• Erick da Luz Scherf, University of Alabama
  Presenting Author