Increasingly, social movement organisations (SMOs) within the immigrant rights movement mobilise online. Although this seems an unlikely tactic for a movement whose constituents are often on the wrong side of the digital divide, the increasingly frequent use of various communications technologies works to enable communication with other activists and raise awareness among the general public. Utilising a cultural sociological perspective, this article examines the ways in which the immigrant rights movement uses various symbols to perform national identity online. The goal is to put meaning and the process of meaning making squarely at the centre of analytical attention. Building on the multiple traditions perspective on American national identity, the article explores how several national-level SMOs engage symbols to perform immigrants’ belonging to the USA. © 2015 Taylor & Francis.

Social Movement Organisations Cultural Sociology Migration Migrants Social movements civic engagement Migrant rights national identity

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