Negotiating Power: Social Movement Theory and Migrant Groups in Ireland

Abstract

This chapter discusses how migrant groups in Ireland can he viewed as a social movement, developing ideas raised hy the recently published ‘Migrant Activism and Integration from Below in Ireland’. This approach allows us to address questions of power and contention which theories ofmulticulturalism largely bypass. By viewing migrant groups in terms of their ‘cognitive praxis’, we can investigate how they negotiate with power, in particular state power. The chapter focuses on migrant group responses to the Immigration, Residence and Protection Bill to examine their contention within the ambient migrant field, and also how these groups’ praxis has been channelled and constrained within this field.KeywordsSocial MovementMigrant ActivismMigrant GroupHistorical ActorIrish StateThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.