UnDACAmented & Unafraid: How United We Dream Uses Twitter in Reaction to #DACA

• In Event: Political Appeals, (Mis)Information, and Racial Politics

Abstract

How do undocumented immigrants participate politically? Within political science and race/ethnicity politics literature there exists a gap in studies which treat undocumented immigrants as political agents and study their political behavior. Much of this is due to the fact that traditional notions of political and civic engagement are based on citizenship as a prerequisite for participating in democratic political institutions. I argue that undocumented immigrants—specifically undocumented youth—are not passive actors, but political agents who are using both traditional and alternative means to engage in the politics that affect their communities. One of these alternative strategies is their use of social media. In this study, I examine how United We Dream (UWD) uses Twitter in response to the creation and termination of DACA (2012-2017). Using a grounded theory approach to code the tweets of “United We Dream” that use #DACA, I find that Twitter has provided UWD with the space to behave politically: from educating the public and discussing policy, to inspiring political resistance and action, to empowering undocumented youth to share their stories. These findings suggest that undocumented youth can use social media to act as political agents and inspire political action on their behalf, challenging and redefining conventional notions of political participation.

Author

• Jessica Taghvaiee, University of California, Irvine