Everyday Activism Meets Lifelong Social Engagement: Insights from 10+ Years of Research with Everyday (Migrant) Activists

This paper brings together the findings of several research projects. It takes as a point of departure research on quiet ‘everyday’ activism that happens outside of the framework of NGOs, foundations, and protest movements (Goldstein 2017). Individuals engaged in such activism often decide to act single-handedly, work in informal groups, or enact their activism during one-off ad-hoc initiatives. Drawing on findings from Serbia & Poland, the project aims to understand how these individuals situate their ‘acts of citizenship’ (Isin 2008) performed beyond, against, or in parallel to their other social engagements.

This focus is combined with findings of a long-term ongoing visual ethnography of (everyday) activism of migrants and ethnic minorities (Goldstein & Lorenz 2019, 2022; Goldstein 2021a, 2021b). The activism of my research partners is often invisible because they engage in causes beyond those important to their own community. What is more, their activism happens outside any minority or migrant community structures, and, at times, it takes forms that, compared to the activism of those who can afford more grand forms of activism, seem insignificant.

Finally, I draw on those two perspectives in my current research on transborder commuters and recent migrants in the Polish-German border zone. Tracing their life stories and histories of their often “everyday” activism allows us to notice and better understand the broad spectrum and discreet forms of their social engagement on both sides of the border. It also sheds new light on their relationships not only with their compatriots and the host community but also with Ukrainian refugees, who are still an often overlooked but important actor in the Polish-German border region.