“No such thing as sanctuary”: How Fear and Uncertainty are Transforming Immigrant Lives

• In Event: 1107 - Deportation Threats and Realities in the United States

Abstract

Immigration law as a form of structural violence has become a focus of sociologists who examine how policies cause harm, sustain poor health, and control the conduct of immigrant populations. Under the current federal administration, revisiting these dynamics in the context of so-called sanctuary cities offer insights into the structural violence endured by immigrants in a changing political climate. This paper centers on the question of how changes in immigration policy, enforcement practices, and discourse at the federal level, shape daily life for immigrants at the local level, specifically, for immigrant families already contending with histories of violence and trauma, now settled in places of relative safety. In-depth interviews with 27 Central American immigrants and ethnographic observations in their homes and communities were conducted from 2016-2018 in the San Francisco Bay Area. This study reveals how, despite the promises of protection, fear and uncertainty is structured into immigrants’ daily lives in sanctuary cities.

Author

• Florencia Rojo, Colorado College