LINKAGES AND STRATEGIES IN FILIPINO DIASPORA MOBILIZATION FOR REGIME CHANGE*
Over the last century, the activities of migrants and refugees have been crucial in homeland democratization. How does the relationship between the homeland and hostland shape their strategies? Comparing the activism of Filipinos in the U.S. and in the Netherlands from 1972–1982 against the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos, this study shows that linkage influences the demands, arenas, and tactics of movement actors. Analysis of archival and interview data shows that activists in the U.S. pursued foreign policy lobbying due to strong linkage between the U.S. and the Philippines, which provided activists an accessible institutional target, channel, and resources for their claims making. In contrast, through transnational advocacy networks, Filipinos in the Netherlands engaged in naming and shaming in nongovernment tribunal due to weak Dutch-Philippine state relations. The article considers the relationship between two polities and societies as a shifting transnational field of relations that shapes the agency of actors in cross-border activism.
Contributor Notes
* Sharon Madriaga Quinsaat is an assistant professor in the Department of Sociology at Grinnell College.
† This article is based on work supported by the National Science Foundation (Directorate for Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences) [grant number SES-1434119] and the University of Pittsburgh Andrew Mellon Predoctoral Fellowship. The author is hugely indebted to her research participants who shared their stories and personal archives with her; to the University of Amsterdam's Department of Political Science and the Institute for Migration and Ethnic Studies for the institutional support during her data collection in the Netherlands; and to Dana Moss, Suzanne Staggenborg, John Markoff, Vince Boudreau, Dan Slater, and to the anonymous reviewers for their thoughtful comments. Previous versions and parts of this article received the Martin O. Heisler Award for Best Graduate Student Paper from the Ethnicity, Nationalism and Migration Section of the International Studies Association (ISA) and an Honorable Mention for Best Graduate Student Paper from the Section on Human Rights of the American Sociological Association (ASA), both in 2016. They were also presented at the annual meetings of the ASA in Philadelphia, PA (2018); the Southeast Asia Research Group in Austin, TX (2017); the ISA in Atlanta, GA (2016); and the Association for Asian Studies in Seattle, WA (2016).