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Migrants have become an important social and political constituency throughout the world. In addition to sending remittances to their home countries, many migrants maintain political ties with their nations of origin through the expansion of dual citizenship and voting rights. Some even return home to participate in local and national-level politics. But to what extent do migrants influence their home communities and governments? Mexican migrants fought for and won the right to dual nationality in 1997 and the right to vote from abroad in presidential elections in 2005. As the country with the world's second largest emigrant population, many expected that the enfranchisement of the Mexican d...
International norms widely recognize the Indigenous right to self-determination by which Indigenous peoples define and purse their collective aspirations. Nevertheless, as progressive as legal frameworks might appear, in reality, few Indigenous communities enjoy this right and most remain vulnerable and disempowered. Activists blame Latin America's extractivist economies, while governments argue that extractive revenues are necessary to improve Indigenous life. Far from presenting a unified position, rural Indigenous peoples are most often divided over extractive industries. To assess how Indigenous self-determination has progressed, and the role that extractivism plays in this, this Element examines six Indigenous communities in Mexico, Bolivia, and Peru with contrasting experiences of extractive projects. It finds that the Indigenous ability to use favorable legislation in conjunction with available economic resources shapes different self-determination outcomes. Finally, it assesses Indigenous possibilities for self-determination in the light of environmental activism and discourses on Buen Vivir.
Drawing on an original survey of more than 5,000 respondents, this book argues that, contrary to claims by the 1994 Zapatista insurgency, indigenous and non-indigenous respondents in southern Mexico have been united by socioeconomic conditions and land tenure institutions as well as by ethnic identity. It concludes that - contrary to many analyses of Chiapas's 1994 indigenous rebellion - external influences can trump ideology in framing social movements. Rural Chiapas's prevalent communitarian attitudes resulted partly from external land tenure institutions, rather than from indigenous identities alone. The book further points to recent indigenous rights movements in neighboring Oaxaca, Mexico, as examples of bottom-up multicultural institutions that might be emulated in Mexico and elsewhere in Latin America.
In developing democracies, where vote-buying and charismatic politicians are the norm, niche parties have been the greatest hope for advancing the interests of marginalized communities. In Candidate Matters: A Study of Ethnic Parties, Campaigns, and Elections in Latin America, Karleen Jones West uses in-depth fieldwork on political campaigns and statistical analyses of elections and public opinion to show how individual candidates undermine the policy goals of parties that were initially created to advance niche policy interests, like those of indigenous communities.
This volume describes and analyzes the proliferation of new mechanisms for participation in Latin American democracies and considers the relationship between direct participation and the consolidation of representative institutions based on more traditional electoral conceptions of democracy.
In fear of becoming havens for illegal immigrants, numerous local communities adopted and implemented their own immigration laws during the 2000s. Suburban Crossroads chronicles the debates and policy responses that emerged over laws like the Illegal Immigration Relief Act, an...
Bringing together the expertise of dozens of Latin American scholars, Latin America's Multicultural Movements examines multicultural rights recognition in theory and in practice. Yucatán).
Oaxaca Resurgent examines how Indigenous people in one of Mexico's most rebellious states shaped local and national politics during the twentieth century. Drawing on declassified surveillance documents and original ethnographic research, A. S. Dillingham traces the contested history of indigenous development and the trajectory of the Mexican government's Instituto Nacional Indigenista, the most ambitious agency of its kind in the Americas. This book shows how generations of Indigenous actors, operating from within the Mexican government while also challenging its authority, proved instrumental in democratizing the local teachers' trade union and implementing bilingual education. Focusing on ...
In 2009, Ecuador became the first nation ever to enshrine rights for nature in its constitution. Nature was accorded inalienable rights, and every citizen was granted standing to defend those rights. At the same time, the government advanced a policy of "extractive populism," buying public support for mineral mining by promising that funds from the mining would be used to increase public services. This book, based on a nationwide survey and interviews about environmental attitudes among citizens as well as indigenous, environmental, government, academic, and civil society leaders in Ecuador, offers a theory about when and why individuals will speak for nature, particularly when economic inte...
Climate—Change is Inevitable is the theme of the twenty-first edition of the Georgetown Journal of International Affairs. This issue confronts one of humanity’s most consequential challenges head-on in pursuit of a better world. With insights from practitioners, experts, and academics from around the globe, this edition provides a full and robust picture of the intersecting impacts of climate change—from business to security to culture and beyond. The Georgetown Journal of International Affairs (GJIA) is the flagship, peer-reviewed academic journal of the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. GJIA goes beyond the headlines in identifying and discussing tre...