All Are Deserving

Racialized Conditions of Immigrant Deservingness in a Catholic Worker Movement-Inspired Non-Governmental Organization

Datos Bibliográficos

ID4885702
AutoresAnthony Michael Jimenez (0000-0003-3550-3145, Rochester Institute of Technology, autor de correspondencia)
Año2022
Volumen66
Número13
Páginas1758-1776
Fecha de publicación2022-11-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaAmerican Behavioral Scientist (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0002-7642 • E-ISSN: 1552-3381
EditorialSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/00027642221083521
OpenAlexW4226117388
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas4
Referencias citadas51

Although deservingness considerations are commonly antithetical to the aims of pro-immigrant spaces like Justicia y Paz (JyP), a volunteer-run, Catholic Worker Movement-inspired non-governmental organization in Houston, Texas, they nevertheless materialize. This study explores how and why this happens. Drawing on an inductive analysis of 11 months of ethnographic observation and 36 in-depth interviews with volunteers and migrants at JyP, I argue that in "all are deserving" contexts, pro-immigrant advocates can engage in racialization and perpetuate white supremacy. I find that not all are treated as deserving-that deservingness is conditional on migrants submitting to two racially subordinate positions: (1) workers whose labor benefits the material interests of the white suburban elite and (2) indigent subjects whose impoverishment serves as the basis of spiritual salvation for a predominately white base of volunteers aiming to "serve the poor." This research underscores the limitations of the Catholic Worker Movement-inspired "all are deserving" framework and affords similar pro-immigrant organizations practical insight toward ways to manifest immigrant justice

Aesthetics · Criminology · Economic Justice · Elite · Ethnography · Immigration · Movement (music) · Political science · Politics · Race (biology) · Racialization · Sociology · White (mutation) · Anthropology · Gender Studies · Law · Migration and Labor Dynamics · Migration, Refugees, and Integration · Religion, Society, and Development