Learning liminal legality: Everyday experiences of asylum seekers in search for refuge

• In Event: 20862 - Section on International Migration Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 3: Migration and Legal Status

Abstract

This paper seeks to analyze how asylum seekers navigate existing in a state of liminal legality and how such experience affects their everyday life. In order to analyze this, this paper relies on the conceptual work of Cecilia Menjivar’s liminal legality and Nina Robin’s framework of spectrum of precarity. The paper argues that the liminal legality begins early in the asylum process as opposed to once asylum is granted. Because of this asylum seekers must navigate their legal limbo as they attempt to seek refuge in the US while living their everyday live. Data for this paper comes from a broader research project analyzing the use of family emergency shelters by migrants and non-migrants. This paper will focus on the migrant experiences to investigate how their behavior, decision and lifestyle is transformed as they navigate the asylum process.

Author

• Xochitl Y de Anda Arellanes, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities