Citizenship Culture and Organizational Ecology: Ethnic Organizations and Urban Belonging in the United States and Europe

• In Event: 549 - Section on International Migration Refereed Roundtable Session and Business Meeting
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 11. Citizenship and Belonging

Abstract

This papers discusses how immigrant and ethnic organizations differ across locations, and how they relate to immigrants' integration and sense of belonging. Depending on the context, immigrant associations mediate the integration of immigrants into their new societies through the provision of services, advocacy, member-driven initiatives, or top-down approaches. Data comes from ethnographic observation, secondary sources, migrant interviews and illustrated with information from surveys conducted in Paris, Barcelona, New York City, and El Paso, Texas. Findings indicate that most immigrants in all these locations are not members of immigrant or ethnic organizations. The legitimacy of these organizations is linked to the tolerance and institutional accommodation of immigrants' cultures by receiving cities and this corresponds to the immigrants' subjective feeling of urban belonging. It is not necessarily that immigrant associations produce the integration of most immigrants, who are not members; rather that the social environment that fosters active associational life are ones that are more open to immigrants and their culture. Immigrant and minority associations are the consequence, not the cause, of an inclusive society. Immigrants surveyed want to be treated as equals in the streets and in the labour market but also value the ability to publicly display their most cherished traditions, religious and cultural practices and minority organizations provide an institutional space to do so and a cultural context that normalizes that.

Author

• Ernesto Castaneda, American University