CSII event recap: If Walls Could Talk
On September 26th, 2019 – students, faculty and community members gathered in the Rosen Family Screening Room within the USC Tutor Campus Center for a timely discussion about refugees at the U.S.-Mexico border.
The event, co-sponsored by the USC Center for the Study of Immigration (CSII) and the USC Gould Immigrants and Global Migration Initiative (IGMI), “If Walls Could Talk: Reflections and Responses to Refugees at the Border” uplifted relevant immigration topics, focused particularly on new migration flows, the methods of control in which the U.S., Mexico, and Central America are collaborating to prevent refugees from seeking asylum in the U.S., our humanitarian obligations, and the importance of integrating new immigrants into our communities.
The panelists included David FitzGerald, a Theodore E. Gildred Chair in U.S.-Mexican Relations, Professor of Sociology, and Co-Director of the Center for Comparative Immigration Studies at the University of California San Diego; Stephanie Canizales, Assistant Professor of Sociology, University of California – Merced; and Javier Hernandez, the Director of the Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice (IC4IJ). Jody Agius Vallejo, Associate Professor of Sociology and American Studies and Ethnicity, moderated the discussion.
Panel Discussion
The panel conversation began with David FitzGerald providing an overview of international asylum protection laws and illegal tactics utilized by affluent countries to barricade migration. In his latest book, Refugees Beyond Reach, David notes that the foundation for international asylum protection laws is non-refoulment: those who are refugees will not be returned to their persecutors. However, in order to ask for refuge, asylum seekers must first enter into the desired territory. He explains that, systematically, it has become more difficult for refugees to enter safe territories as exemplified by the circumstances at the U.S.- Mexico border.
The Trump administration’s goal to drastically limit, and eventually cease all together, the admittance of refugees, is one of many ways the U.S. government violates international law. The Remain in Mexico policy, implemented in January 2019, mandates asylum seekers wait in Mexico until their admittance interview. Currently, an approximate twenty-five thousand people are forced to remain in Mexico, leaving those already vulnerable open to more potential harm. As a result, buffer countries, like Mexico, are implementing their own harsher immigration laws. For instance, Mexico has restricted 40 nationalities from applying for a visa.
Stephanie Canizales referred to her current research that not only is the U.S. turning away from those seeking asylum from violence in their country, but the U.S. was, and in some cases continues to be, the catalyst for the unlivable conditions. Hidden civil wars backed by the U.S. government, U.S. backed neoliberal extraction of resources, the U.S. wars on drugs, and the U.S. government funding militarization of the region are real examples of U.S. intervention that created the social and economic conditions that are driving people North. From these reasons and more, there has been a dramatic rise of unaccompanied minor migration as well as families seeking asylum.
Canizales’ research centers on the integration and well-being of unaccompanied asylum-seeking minors in the U.S. Her book project, Sin Padres, Ni Papeles, highlights that place and social-ties are integral to the success of integration such as access to health care and school support. Under the Trump administration, federal level funding to support unaccompanied minors has now turned to internal? enforcement, making the path toward stability for unaccompanied minors more difficult and the lasting effect more detrimental.
Javier Hernandez gave insight to the real traumatic implications of the Trump administration’s discriminatory refugee policies. Hernandez’s organization, IC4IJ, organized a rapid response network when refugees were dropped off at bus stations in the Inland Valley with no resources. They collaborated with key community institutions to create temporary medical and housing facilities for refugee families.
Javier noted that asylum seekers are not entitled to social services; thus, making access to essential services, such as medical clinics, and overall integration difficult. Javier continued to talk about the need to change a system that is not made for refugees into one that respects the rights of immigrants and his organization’s work towards changing that narrative. An example he gave was the community of Adelanto, a city that is home to a large immigrant detention center. The IC4IJ worked with the community of Adelanto to mobilize a few hundred people to hold a vigil in protest of Adelanto detention center.
Audience Q&A
The panel discussion concluded with questions from the audience on how we can help those who need immediate help, how we can integrate new immigrants, and how we can help contribute to a lasting narrative change.
After all, refugees and asylum seekers contributions have a lasting positive impact on society. Multiple research articles point out that refugees round out gaps in the labor force for various industries, including healthcare and manufacturing. It is important to note that refugee contributions to society are not solely based on economic contributions – this would perpetuate a problematic value system that equates worth to monetary output. Due to the fact that existing data on refugees is limited, especially with recent dwindling of refugee numbers in the United States, more robust research is needed to understand the greater contexts and contributions of refugees and asylum seekers.
In addition to expanding the research scope on refugees and asylum seekers, some of the panelists’ recommendations included, but are not limited to: organizing for local resources that directly assist refugees; tracing the source of violence and corruption in countries where people are seeking asylum; and not losing sight of the fact that the protection of human life should prevail above all else.
About the author
Emma Yudelevitch is a recent Occidental College graduate who majored in Urban and Environmental Policy. Her senior comprehensive thesis explored green gentrification in Los Angeles, specifically the relationship between the revitalization of green space and the impact it had on the surrounding community. While at Occidental, she was an events programmer on the Reusable Energy and Sustainability Fund, coordinating environmental justice events on campus. Before joining PERE/CSII, Emma interned with the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy (LAANE) and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) 2015. She grew up in the San Fernando Valley and enjoys spending time with family and friends, reading and travelling.