In Divided by the Wall, Emine Fidan Elcioglu examines both progressive and conservative immigration politics in the US–Mexico borderlands. Through ethnographic fieldwork with activist organizations and interviews with participants, Elcioglu seeks to understand why people who, seemingly, have nothing to gain from immigration policy decided to devote their time and energy to pro- and anti-immigration activism. Elcioglu discovers that activists engaged in immigration politics to make sense of conflicting identities, leading to actions that felt personally transformative. Pro-immigrant activists contended with their position as progressive but privileged, while anti-immigrant activists contended with being white but working-class and downwardly mobile. These conflicting identities informed activists’ conceptions of state power, influenced their choice of organizations, and ultimately, shaped their understanding of their place in society. Elcioglu's interlocutors engaged in their activism in an ambiguous borderland, a frontier for self-actualizing and deep political activism (p. 39).
Pro-immigrant activists viewed the state as...