Voting With Their Feet

Abstract

In 2006 immigrants and their supporters participated in a series of marches in cities throughout the United States. The enormous size and scale of the demonstrations were surprising to some observers, who saw the marches as a spontaneous outburst of frustration. This article argues the unprecedented turnout at the demonstrations should be seen not as a spontaneous outburst but in large part the result of long-standing cooperative efforts and networks of immigrant-serving nonprofit organizations. Immigrant-serving organizations were at the forefront of organizing public education campaigns, advocacy activities, and community mobilization efforts leading up to the demonstrations. Using Chicago and New York City as case studies, the article analyzes data from a survey of 498 nonprofit organizations conducted in 2005, just prior to the demonstrations. The authors show how a history of collaborations, organizational network ties, and the existing relations between organizations in key coalitions became the foundation for the mobilizations.