Immigrants and Refugees through the Prism of the Social Life of Rights
This article is based on an ongoing study of the memory of rights in Quebec community organizations over a fifty-year period (1960-2010), which involves accounts by movement actor-witnesses in five sectors of action, namely women, migration, disability, mental health, and LGBT. The article sets out a preliminary analysis of this material by focusing on 16 of the actor-witnesses that were met with in the sector of migration, and more specifically the main struggles in which they have been involved. Special attention is given to the wording of a legal dispute and on interactions between civil society and the state, especially regarding instances of immigration and labour issues. The wording of the dispute, which is the result of a contention between the actor-witnesses, the groups they represent, and state power and the dominant society, brings to light how legal and human-rights ideas are expressed, transformed, and applied in this specific realm. The concept of the social life of rights is highlighted in connection with collective memory, testimony, and the issue of culture.