https://doi.org/10.1177/0020715217739447 International Journal of Comparative Sociology 2018, Vol. 59(1) 3–24 © The Author(s) 2017 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/0020715217739447 journals.sagepub.com/home/cos IJ CS Migration politics: Mobilizing against economic insecurity in the United States and South Africa Marcel Paret University of Utah, USA; University of Johannesburg, South Africa Abstract From the mid-2000s, the United States and South Africa, respectively, experienced significant pro-migrant and anti-migrant mobilizations. Economically insecure groups played leading roles. Why did these groups emphasize politics of migration, and to what extent did the very different mobilizations reflect parallel underlying mechanisms? Drawing on 41 months of ethnographic fieldwork and 119 interviews with activists and residents, I argue that the mobilizations deployed two common strategies: symbolic group formation rooted in demands for recognition, and targeting the state as a key source of livelihood. These twin strategies encouraged economically insecure groups to emphasize national identities and, in turn, migration. Yet, they manifested in different types of mobilization due to the varying characteristics of the groups involved, and the different national imaginaries and organizing legacies they had to draw upon. The analysis demonstrates the capacity of economically insecure groups to make collective claims. It also shows that within the context of anti-migrant nationalism, economic insecurity amplifies the significance of national belonging, citizenship, and migration as important terrains of collective struggle. Keywords Ethnic boundary making, immigrant, nationalism, precarity, protest, social movement, symbolic leverage, working class, xenophobia Introduction In the second half of the 2000s, the United States and South Africa both experienced major events involving foreign-born residents. In spring 2006, massive protests for migrant rights traversed the United States. Between February and May, three to five million protestors – primarily Latino migrants – protested HR4437, legislation that would have made it a criminal offense to be in the country without legal documentation (Bloemraad et al., 2011). Two years later, in May 2008, xeno- phobic violence spread through the impoverished urban townships and informal shack settlements of South Africa. Black South Africans physically attacked foreign-born Black Africans, chased them from their homes, looted their property, and demanded they return to their countries of birth. Corresponding author: Marcel Paret, Department of Sociology, University of Utah, 380 S 1530 E, Rm 301, Salt Lake City, UT 84112-9057, USA. Email: marcelparet@gmail.com 739447COS 0 0 10.1177/0020715217739447International Journal of Comparative SociologyParet research-article 2017 Article