David S. Meyer
I'm a professor of sociology and political science at the University of California, Irvine. I've been thinking, and writing about, protest politics for almost ever. This site offers comments on contemporary events, informed (I hope) by knowing something about history and about the academic study of social movements.
Tag Archives: immigration
Immigration divides the Tea Party
Or not? Conventional wisdom among Republican regulars was that the Party’s harsh “self-deportation” posture was costly in the last election. Party establishment figures pushed for quick action on immigration reform to put the issue behind them so that they might … Continue reading
May Day 2013
Wednesday’s May Day events remind us about how the people who participate in an event define it for their own purposes. Initially a celebration of Spring, organized around May poles (and May flies?), for more than 100 years, May 1 … Continue reading
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Tagged austerity, Greece, Haymarket, immigration, labor, Los Angeles, May Day, Occupy Wall Street, unions
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Immigration politics inside and outside the Capitol
The immigration rights activists returned to demonstrate outside the Capitol yesterday, as reports of a Senate compromise on an immigration reform continue to seep into media reports. Most reports put the turnout in the tens of thousands–and noted sympathy rallies … Continue reading
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Tagged Benjamin Jealous, Capitol, countermovements, demonstration, immigration, labor, legislation, Marco Rubio, NAACP, Senate
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Cesar Chavez birthday, Cesar Chavez holiday
Today, March 31, is Cesar Chavez’s birthday; the holiday was celebrated Friday. In commemoration, I’m reposting some thoughts on the holiday, originally posted 2011. On my campus, we commemorated Cesar Chavez Day early, yesterday, rather than March 31 (his birthday), … Continue reading
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Tagged Cesar Chavez, civil rights, Dolores Huerta, farmworkers, holidays, immigration, labor, Latinos
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Resurrecting immigration reform and recalling the DREAMers
Only a small part of any comprehensive immigration reform proposal that the Senate considers will address the Dreamers, young people brought without papers to the United States as children, but the revival of immigration reform is directly attributable to their … Continue reading
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Tagged anti-immigrant, Charles Schumer, coming out, Dream, immigration, influence, Marco Rubio, outcomes, protest
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DREAMers inside and outside the Democratic convention
Benita Veliz, who apparently overstayed a tourist visa when she was eight years old, had a few minutes to address the Democratic convention from the podium. Veliz quickly acknowledges that she has been living in the United States without legal … Continue reading
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Tagged Benita Veliz, celebrities, Democratic Party, Dream act, FAIR, Freedom Rides, immigration, Rosario Dawson
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You Can’t Count on the Courts to ________ Social Change
“Scarcely any political question arises in the United States that is not resolved, sooner or later, into a judicial question.” This is a tag from Alexis de Tocqueville’s monumental Democracy in America, published well over 150 years ago. This is … Continue reading
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Tagged Arizona, Brown v. Board of Education, courts, immigration, Roe v. Wade, Wisconsin
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