Oded Oron

Oded is a second year student pursuing a PhD in International Studies in the Jackson School; his advisor described him as among the top 1% of all graduate students she has ever taught at the University of Washington. His dissertation offers a comparative analysis of the mobilization strategies of African migrants in Israel and those of Central American migrants in the United States. As he explains, irregular migrants to both countries face multiple inequalities arising from their racial and class status; yet despite the risk of deportation, they mobilize, in some cases successfully, to claim rights. Theorists of mobilization predict that access to NGOs can provide migrants key opportunities in this process. Oded hopes to push this work forward by examining the interplay between migrants’ lived experiences and interpretation of their situation and the structural opportunities that enable or constrain their advocacy. By interviewing leaders in the movement for immigrant rights in these two national contexts, he hopes to illuminate underlying factors shaping migrant mobilization.