Envisioning a world without prisons: group concept mapping as a collective strategy for justice and dignity

ABSTRACTPeople with lived experiences of violence have minimal opportunities to address policies that affect them, which poses challenges to producing relevant results beyond academia. In this paper, we ask: in what ways can groups formulate a collective plan to address policy decisions that harm them? We used a framework called group concept mapping (GCM) with Central American and Mexican asylum seekers (named Migrantes Unidos), who are committed to ending the use of ankle monitors and other forms of detention in immigration enforcement. They identified distinct actions and group values, providing mutual support to each other, developing leadership skills, and receiving strength and knowledge to navigate the immigration system as top priorities. Our field work also showed how GCM participation led to actual subsequent political activism. Our results uncover new attitudes and ideas that add more depth to immigrant political behavior and advocacy. While our results demonstrate that GCM is a useful method to center voices of impacted community members’ ideas for change, we also argued that academics and their partners must value reciprocity regardless of the method or framework chosen to answer empirical questions.KEYWORDS: Asylum seekersparticipatory researchgroup concept mappingLatino political behaviorcivic engagement Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.Notes1 A person must prove that they have (1) a well-founded fear of persecution, (2) based on past persecution or risk of future persecution, (3) because of their membership in a particular social group, and (4) by a persecutor who the government is unwilling or unable to control.2 The support team consists of a second-generation Filipino American male, Mexican woman, Afro-Caribbean male, and two white women. They are immigrants or children of immigrants with no personal experience of digital surveillance or detention, but who are passionate about immigrant justice and developing best practices in centering impacted communities in advocacy.3 Group Wisdom can be used to collect data electronically. Users are invited to create personal accounts and can perform the sorting, rating, and answer other survey questions at their own pace. After a considerable number of MU members expressed hesitation to do the sorting activity online, we elected to use a paper-and-pencil approach to collect sorting data. MU members also wanted the support team to be available for questions during the in-person activity.4 One member who was present did not feel comfortable reading or writing. The member’s partner (non-MU member) worked with them to describe the statements to facilitate the sorting and naming of piles.5 The only exceptions were “sustaining a better future” and “immigrant ally work,” which the researcher and service provider created after reviewing the statements.Additional informationFundingThis work was supported by University of Missouri System Tier 3 Strategic Investment (#S2021023147) and Detention Watch grant.