Doctoral Dissertation Research: Religion, Migration, and the Boundaries of Political Belonging

Sanctuary plays an increasingly central role in immigration as asylum cases are adjudicated by various actors and entities. This doctoral dissertation research examines how religious sanctuary for asylum-seekers intersects with governmental asylum decisions to understand whether and how the boundaries between state and non-secular entities are affected by transnational politics. In addition to training a U.S.-based graduate student in scientific data collection, the research sheds light on protections afforded to individuals seeking asylum and disseminates results broadly. This project also broadens the participation of historically underrepresented groups in science. This doctoral dissertation project investigates how governments and religious institutions differentially interpret and negotiate asylum. The doctoral student integrates participant observation, semi-structured interviews, and archival research methods to empirically examine: 1) the criteria by which governments evaluate evidence of hardship in asylum applications, 2) the criteria by which religious institutions determine if a rejected asylum-seeker is eligible for sanctuary protections; 3) how rejected asylum-seekers from different religious, national, and ethnic backgrounds navigate sanctuary differently and; 4) how governments and religious institutions come to understand and redefine each other’s authority during sanctuary negotiations. The project contributes to social scientific studies of migration by shifting attention toward intersections between the state and non-state entities as cooperating to define political belonging. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.