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Counter-hegemonic Human Rights Discourses and Migrant Rights Activism in the US and Canada

University of Windsor, Canada, basok{at}uwindsor.ca

Scholarship on the dissemination of human rights norms and principles has focused predominantly on the socialization of nation-states into the values which have been widely endorsed. I argue in this article that the socialization mechanisms, discussed by such scholars as Meyer et al. (1997) and Risse and Sikkink (1999), do not capture the complex processes of the negotiation of more controversial rights. Distinguishing between hegemonic and counter-hegemonic human rights principles, I suggest that we need to explore the ways in which human rights activists advance, interpret, and negotiate counter-hegemonic human rights. Focusing on migrants' rights advocacy in the US and Canada, I argue that pro-migrant activists draw on other human rights principles that do enjoy a greater degree of recognition and/or on instrumental reasons to pressure nation-states to grant more rights to migrants.

Key Words: activism • advocacy • citizenship • human rights • migration

International Journal of Comparative Sociology, Vol. 50, No. 2, 183-205 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/0020715208100970


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