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Subject:                                     [WUNRN]  Immigrant Rights - Intersectionality of Issues: Gender+, Breakthrough USA Rights & Racial Justice Program

 

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Direct Link to Full 69-Page Report: http://us.breakthrough.tv/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Restoring-Fairness-_-4-16.pdf

 

Breakthrough took an intersectional approach, framing the abuse of immigrants’ rights in a broader context of human rights abuses based on gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion, and class. By leveraging popular culture and digital media to reach and mobilize young people in particular, Breakthrough sought to reframe the debate on immigration in both public opinion and media coverage while encouraging activism around immigrant rights.

 

IMMIGRANT RIGHTS – INTERSECTIONALITY OF ISSUES: GENDER +, BREAKTHROUGH USA RIGHTS & RACIAL JUSTICE PROGRAM

 

 

Shortly after Breakthrough was established in the U.S., the September 11 attacks occurred. Latent and not so latent anti-immigrant sentiment bubbled up and spread, leading to physical attacks on individuals and triggering a series of legal measures and enforcement actions that are still a live issue today. In response to the precarious position of immigrants in the aftermath of 9/11, Breakthrough developed a program on immigrant rights and racial justice, focusing primarily on the denial of due process rights created by the increasingly aggressive detention and deportation actions by federal, state, and local authorities. Breakthrough took an intersectional approach, framing the abuse of immigrants’ rights in a broader context of human rights abuses based on gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion, and class. By leveraging popular culture and digital media to reach and mobilize young people in particular, Breakthrough sought to reframe the debate on immigration in both public opinion and media coverage while encouraging activism and immigrant rights.

Framing Breakthrough’s Model of Change. In its Immigrant Rights and Racial Justice Program, Breakthrough committed itself to “creating public support for fair immigration policy in the United States,” by “lessening the fear and hostility toward immigrants and building bridges across religious and ethnic communities” and “raising awareness about the importance of civic engagement…and fair immigration policies that protect human rights.” Breakthrough’s theory of change can be summarized as follows:

 

                        Fair immigration policies can only be achieved with a broad-based, culture-wide shift in support of the full range of immigrants’ rights.

                        That shift can only happen by reaching new audiences and getting them to recognize that the denial of the rights of immigrants is a denial of all our rights.

                        To achieve that recognition, we must break down issue silos in a way that shows how different forms and systems of oppression intersect, so that a wide range of organizations and individuals understand that the struggle for immigrant rights is part of a larger shared struggle for rights, one that includes their own struggle.

                        Arts and culture provide a powerful way to break down those silos by engaging new audiences intellectually and emotionally, fostering public dialogue, and creating immersive experiences that cultivate a human rights culture.

 

Two frameworks inform this evaluation. First, the James S. and John L. Knight Foundation (2011) provides a framework for assessing public information projects along the dimensions of news, awareness, capacity, voice, and action to determine their influence on news coverage, the broader information ecosystem, and activism.

Second is the concept of “networked nonprofits,” organizations that capitalize on the digital media revolution to amplify voice, build a diversity of strategic relationships, and constantly innovate.1 Breakthrough’s commitment to using cutting-edge communication technologies and popular culture to bring about transformational change allowed it to have an outsized influence given its small size and program budget in the U.S. (averaging just over $530,000/year between 2001-2011).

1 From Beth Kanter and Katie Paine, The Networked Nonprofit, Jossey Bass, 2013.xv

 

NEWS:

Tremendous success at getting coverage for its issues and getting its message broadly disseminated; skilled exploitation of openings in a dynamic media environment.

AWARENESS:

Breakthrough itself and with its partners raised broad awareness about rights abuses related to enforcement, illustrating the intersectionality of rights abuses by using emblematic cases of immigrants of different races, genders, classes, religions, and circumstances.

CAPACITY:

Shared its expertise about human rights communication and the use of digital media through trainings, conferences, and guides; “loaned” its expertise to allies through production of digital media for their use.

VOICE:

Through its videos and video games, raised the voice and shared the perspectives of immigrants and their supporters; provided an outlet for immigrant-rights activists through Restore Fairness; used its own voice through public speaking and editorials; supported partners in their advocacy efforts.

ACTION:

Offered individuals multiple opportunities to act; supported the mobilizations of partners and allies.

KEY LEARNINGS INCLUDED

Taking an intersectional human rights approach enhances immigrant rights advocacy by break­ing down issue silos.

Arts and popular culture play a key positive role in conveying information, creating human con­nections, and building bridges between diverse individuals and activist organizations.

Digital media is a versatile tool for engaging au­diences and building community, and it offers enormous power to scale up even a relatively young and small organization’s influence.

Individual stories and video documentation are powerful tools for building support and under­standing regarding the range of challenges and injustices immigrants confront.

Working with others and investing in relation­ships has a huge multiplier effect, especially when organizations have their strong comple­mentarities in distinctive competencies.

Taking a long-term perspective, engaging youth, and making sustained investments to bring about a cultural shift is more effective than tying advocacy to specific pieces of legisla­tion.

Messaging must be carefully tailored based on research into public attitudes and opinions.

There are alternatives to celebrity endorsement for occupying pop-cultural space and raising a controversial issue’s profile; only when an issue gets “safe” enough will celebrities engage.

Strategy must drive technology adoption, rather than the other way around—yet taking risks and experimenting is at the core of being an innovative organization, building resilience, and delivering unexpected big wins.

 

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