http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1159-9835
![Sample our Social Sciences journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/110822/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Social-Sciences.jpg"})
ABSTRACT
Alliances are a political opportunity that reinforce the claims made by different players in the political sphere. However, the literature on the political participation of immigrants pays little attention to the formation of alliances and their effects on the interaction between immigrants and institutional actors, especially under circumstances of politicization. This article aims to explain the emergence of alliances between political parties and immigrant organizations when immigration is politicized locally. I argue that the need to legitimize the political parties’ position on the politicization guide their alliances with immigrants. Using qualitative methods, I analyse the emergence of alliances in the anti-Romanian-Roma campaign in Badalona and the burka ban in Lleida, both in Catalonia, Spain. The findings portray these relationships as the outcome of strategic interactions that respond to the balance of power between institutional and non-institutional actors.
Acknowledgements
I am grateful to Avi Astor, Andrea Bianculli, Karen Bird, Flora Burchianti, Tiziana Caponio, Teresa Cappiali, Blanca Garcés-Mascareñas, Marco Martiniello, Ixchel Pérez-Durán, Ricard Zapata-Barrero and the anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments on previous versions of this manuscript.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
ORCID
Juan Carlos Triviño-Salazar http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1159-9835
Notes
1 Suchman defines legitimacy as the ‘generalized perception or assumption that the actions of an entity are desirable, proper, or appropriate within a social system’ (Citation1995, 574).
2 I selected local Roma organizations because (1) most of them defended the Romanian-Roma community as co-ethnics; (2) Roma people, as Muslims, were constructed as outsiders in the two cases and (3) these organizations had members from diverse backgrounds (local-Roma; Romanian-Roma; community leaders and immigrants). I based this choice on the theoretical distinction between beneficiaries and conscience constituents/adherents developed by McCarthy and Zald (Citation1973). Those groups that directly benefit from the outcome of their mobilization are considered beneficiaries while those that do not are considered conscience constituents/adherents.