A common humanity : ritual, religion, and immigrant advocacy in Tucson, Arizona / Lane Van Ham.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Van Ham, Lane Vernon, 1969-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Emigration and immigration--Government policy.

Emigration and immigration.

Foreign workers--Arizona.

Foreign workers.

Latin Americans--Employment--Arizona.

Latin Americans.

Latin America--Social life and customs--Arizona.

Latin America.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (231 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Tucson : University of Arizona Press, c2011.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

As debate about immigration policy rages from small towns to state capitals, from coffee shops to Congress, would-be immigrants are dying in the desert along the US-Mexico border. Beginning in the 1990s, the US government effectively sealed off the most common border crossing routes. This had the unintended effect of forcing desperate people to seek new paths across open desert. At least 4,000 of them died between 1995 and 2009. While some Americans thought the dead had gotten what they deserved, other Americans organized humanitarian aid groups. "A Common Humanity "examines some of the most active aid organizations in Tucson, Arizona, which has become a hotbed of advocacy on behalf of undocumented immigrants. This is the first book to examine immigrant aid groups from the inside. Author Lane Van Ham spent more than three years observing the groups and many hours in discussions and interviews. He is particularly interested in how immigrant advocates both uphold the legitimacy of the United States and maintain a broader view of its social responsibilities. By advocating for immigrants regardless of their documentation status, he suggests, advocates navigate the conflicting pulls of their own nation-state citizenship and broader obligations to their neighbors in a globalizing world. And although the advocacy organizations are not overtly religious, Van Ham finds that they do employ religious symbolism as part of their public rhetoric, arguing that immigrants are entitled to humane treatment based on universal human values. Beautifully written and immensely engaging, "A Common Humanity" adds a valuable human dimension to the immigration debate.

Contents:

Migrant deaths and immigrant advocacy in southern Arizona

Interstice: Annie, during a Samaritan patrol, 2005

Political imagination in the United States

Interstice: an undated memo during fieldwork

US-Mexico border enforcement and the emergence of immigrant advocacy in Tucson

Interstice : field notes from the NMD Maricopa station, 2006

Immigrant advocacy in Tucson responds to the gatekeeper complex

Interstice : notes from a Derechos Humanos meeting, 2005

Individual worldviews : humanity, nationality, and ultimacy

Collective expression: dramatizing the crisis

The El Tiradito vigil

Memorial marches

Interstice : memo on a Samaritans trip, 2004

Ritual transformation and cosmopolitics in Tucson immigrant advocacy.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (p. 203-212) and index.

ISBN:

1-299-19173-8

0-8165-0121-1

OCLC:

802047652