Welcome to a migration seminar titled Racism and Refuge: Understanding Sanctuary Policies in the United States and Beyond.

Speaker

Benjamin Gonzalez O’Brien, Associate Professor of Political Science, Editor-in-Chief, The Journal of Race, Ethnicity, and Politics, San Diego State University.

Abstract

In this talk, Dr. Gonzalez O’Brien weaves the narratives of his two books together, revealing how the racialized narrative of “migrant crime”, born out of the eugenics movement of the 1920s, has shaped modern immigration policymaking and rhetoric, including sanctuary policies. Undocumented immigrants, he argues, are at once part of the political and social spheres in America, but also perpetual outsiders as a result of their legal status. This marginalization has negative impacts, both for the communities themselves and the spaces in which they move, reducing trust in local institutions and law enforcement. Cities, counties, and states have responded by drawing on the nation’s tradition of immigration federalism through the passage of sanctuary policies, which remove local officials and law enforcement from the equation by prohibiting cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). These policies have served as models for localities in other countries looking to signal a more welcoming environment for irregular migrants based on the community’s interest in their incorporation. This has prompted a counterreaction, pitting national government against those localities that pass these policies and is representative of a larger international debate on how undocumented or irregular migrants should be treated, as well as the competing interests in their incorporation or exclusion.

Attendance

This is a hybrid seminar, you are welcome to connect via Zoom or join us at MIM seminar room, floor 9, Niagara, Nordenskiöldsgatan 1. To attend on campus, please gather by the reception area at 13.05.
If you have any questions, send an email to mim@mau.se.

Zoom

Link will be available closer to the seminar date.

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