"All Are Deserving": Racialized Conditions of Immigrant Deservingness in a Catholic Worker Movement-Inspired Non-Governmental Organization. (November 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Jimenez, Anthony M.
• Other Names: Ebert Kim guest-editor.; Liao Wenjie guest-editor.; Sun-Hee Park Lisa guest-editor.
• Is Part Of: American behavioral scientist. Volume 66:Number 13(2022)
• Page Start: 1758
• Page End: 1776
• Publication Date: 2022-11
• Subjects: deservingness -- racialization -- interest-convergence -- catholic worker movement -- ethnography; Social sciences -- Periodicals; Political science -- Periodicals; United States -- Social conditions -- Periodicals; United States -- Politics and government -- Periodicals; 300
• DOI: 10.1177/00027642221083521
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0002-7642

Abstract

Although deservingness considerations are commonly antithetical to the aims of pro-immigrant spaces like Justicia y Paz (JyP), a volunteer-run, Catholic Worker Movement-inspired non-governmental organization in Houston, Texas, they nevertheless materialize. This study explores how and why this happens. Drawing on an inductive analysis of 11 months of ethnographic observation and 36 in-depth interviews with volunteers and migrants at JyP, I argue that in "all are deserving" contexts, pro-immigrant advocates can engage in racialization and perpetuate white supremacy. I find that not all are treated as deserving—that deservingness is conditional on migrants submitting to two racially subordinate positions: (1) workers whose labor benefits the material interests of the white suburban elite and (2) indigent subjects whose impoverishment serves as the basis of spiritual salvation for a predominately white base of volunteers aiming to "serve the poor." This research underscores the limitations of the Catholic Worker Movement-inspired "all are deserving" framework and affords similar pro-immigrant organizations practical insight toward ways to manifest immigrant justice.