Political Engagements of Latin Americans in the UK. Issues, Strategies and the Public Debate

This article examines the political engagement of Latin Americans in the UK in the context of a mounting neo-assimilationist and anti-multicultural offen- sive in the public debate on integration. Assuming that migrants should have a say about their own integration in society, the article explores the extent to which the public debate is sensitive to migrants’ own collective concerns. It is from this em- pirically informed perspective that the article criticizes assimilationist and multi- culturalist attitudes for their disregard of the exploitation and lack of social and cultural recognition that afflicts newly arrived migrants. The article helps to rebal- ance the prevailing trend in policy and academic circles to treat migrants as ob- jects of policies and ignore their political agency and active collective engagement in the improvement of their conditions. It also offers a corrective to emerging al- ternative approaches that tend to reduce migrants’ politics to their role in sustain- ing long-distance diasporic communities.