Immigrant‐Based Collective Action

Abstract

The “immigrant spring” of 2006 dramatically placed social movements by excluded social groups on the national stage in the United States. The protest campaign against House Bill 4437 resisted the increasing criminalization of immigrants with mass marches, resulting in some of the largest demonstrations in US history. In addition, the 2006 campaign reached many smaller cities and towns with scant history of collective action. Such large‐scale mobilizations and contemporary immigrant struggles offer social movement scholarship occasions to enhance current theories and concepts.