Outsiders/Insiders: How Local Immigrant Organisations Contest the Exclusion of Undocumented Immigrants in the US

Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) serving immigrants in US citiesNon-governmental organisations (NGOs) serving immigrants in US cities face a complex policy domain that poses significant obstacles to their goals of helping immigrants to settle, to forge new lives and to become part of the community fabric. One major hurdle is the negative image of unauthorised immigrants that dominates US policy and politics, casting them as threats to Americans’ safety, security and quality of life. NGOs respond that unauthorised immigrants are embedded in local community life through work and family, and frequently through longstanding residence. They are very much interconnected with other community members, although they frequently encounter punitive and exclusionary laws and policies, which treat them as outsiders. A second feature of the immigration policy domain is its fragmentation across government levels. While the national level of government dominates policy-making and implementation, state and local policies importantly shape immigrants’ day-to-day experiences. NGOs therefore target different levels of government for resources or policy changes, depending on their particular mission. This chapter examines how local immigrant-serving NGOs navigate this challenging landscape, creating discursive frames that counter the negative image of unauthorised immigrants as they pursue, at various levels of government, their goals of enabling immigrants to build lives in US cities.