Date of Award

Spring 2013

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Major

Human Rights Studies

First Advisor

Professor Janet Bauer

Second Advisor

Professor Dario Euraque

Abstract

Many low-income Latino immigrants in Hartford lack access to the human rights to education, economic security, and mental health. The U.S. government’s attitude is that immigrants should be responsible for their own resettlement. Catholic Social Teaching establishes needs related to resettlement as basic human rights. How do Jubilee House and Our Lady of Sorrows, both Catholic faith-based organizations in Hartford, Connecticut, fill in the gaps between state-provided services and the norms of human rights? What are the implications of immigrant accommodation via faith-based social justice for the human rights discourse on citizenship and cultural relevance? A formal, exploratory case study of each of these FBOs, over a 3-month period, provide us with some answers to these questions. My project’s found that that the FBOs contribute to the human rights to education, economic security, and mental health by: a) directly providing services, and b) facilitating and utilizing family and friendship networks to connect individuals to resources. They accomplish a) and b) by using cultural resources as the basis for a holistic sense of citizenship and access to rights. In the Conclusion, I note how faith- based social justice in the Hartford Latino community is a culturally relevant form of human rights advocacy.

Comments

This Senior Honors Thesis in Human Rights Studies was awarded the Levy Senior Research Prize for Urban Studies in May 2013 by the Center for Urban and Global Studies at Trinity College.

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