Suchergebnisse

Drawing on the experiences of 25 Salvadoran activists in the metro District of Columbia (DC) area, I examine how seasoned activists, or individuals with long-standing organizing experience, maintain critical stances toward their homeland government's practices while using hostland resources to organize and lessen the impact it has on their compatriots. Building on Vertovec's notion of the "transnational consciousness," I show seasoned activists use this mind-set to analyze two components of the Salvadoran experience—they see individual remittances creating unnecessary burdens and no political clout for expatriates in El Salvador and are concerned with temporary protected status putting holders in legal limbo in the metro DC area. Understanding this mind-set uncovers the experience of being both "here" and "there" but ultimately leads seasoned activists to become better activists in their evolving organizing work.