Interstate Social Mobilization for In-State Tuition

• In Event: Internal Migration Politics

Abstract

How do state actors affect immigration legislation in states without direct democracy mechanisms like initiatives or referenda? In 2014, both Wisconsin and Minnesota immigrant groups worked to enact in-state tuition opportunities for students who attended in-state secondary schools. Minnesota and Wisconsin passed instate tuition legislation, but the law was changed in Wisconsin the following legislative session. I investigated how state actors, specifically immigrant rights, social justice, and youth groups in Minnesota and Wisconsin worked to legislate in-state tuition opportunities in public universities. How did these actors work to pursue their policy interests in legislatively contexts that are relatively constrained. I show how these permissive immigration groups used protests, moral pressure, and a sustained presence in the office of legislators to pass instate tuition policies using a cross-case and in case comparisons of Minnesota and Wisconsin state actors. In relatively contracted political opportunity structures, the agency of state actors influenced the passage or failure of in-state tuition bills. In states without direct democracy mechanisms, I find that interest groups follow more traditional social movement behaviors to pass state immigration legislation compared to groups in states with direct democracy mechanisms.

Author

• Andrea Silva, University of North Texas