Voluntary Associations and the Welfare State: Deservingness in the Case of Contemporary Immigration Politics

• In Event: International Migration Section Refereed Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): 05. Transnational politics / immigrant political participation

Abstract

This paper examines the inequalities embodied in voluntary action by situating it in relation to the state and the market. Specifically, it focuses on the role of the voluntary sector vis-à-vis the historical development of the welfare state. Drawing on discourse and comparative-historical methods, I demonstrate how contemporary voluntary associations are constrained by their position within the political economy. Using the case of recent immigration politics in the UK, I argue that voluntary associations’ political advocacy reflects the welfare state’s concerns with citizenship participation and deservingness. The resulting project is thus imagined to the extent of ameliorating the effects of inequality, at the same time reinforcing a normative meaning of citizenship. By complicating migration-focused voluntary action beyond improving the human condition of those on the move, this paper extends calls to reconsider the virtues of contemporary civil society against the reality of the current economic system.

Author

• Danning He, University of California-San Diego