Bwog Staffers Talia Benson and Eira Prakash attended the event on Wednesday and breakdown Barnard professors’ perspectives on migration and its relation to human rights. 

On Wednesday, January 29, as a part of their “Year of Elections Around the World” series, the Barnard Center for Engaged Pedagogy (CEP) hosted “Global Migration & Local Action: Perspectives on Citizenship, Race, and Sanctuary.” The event was dedicated to deconstructing terminology and perspectives surrounding ideas of citizenship, belonging, and sanctuary cities. Professor J.C. Salyer, head of the Barnard Human Rights Department, was joined by Professors Thea Abu El-Haj, Abosede George, Nara Milanich, and Randa Serhan. 

Melissa Wright, Executive Director of the Barnard CEP, opened the panel with a discussion of the CEP’s “talking table,” which was hosted mid-day Tuesday in Milstein. Students discussed questions about what “home” means, especially during a period of mass deportation in the United States. Drawing from this, Wright acknowledged the uncertainty and confusion about immigration that has emerged just a week after the inauguration, and thanked the audience for still being willing to engage with the “current political landscape.” The event was structured with each speaker choosing two keywords to deconstruct, as a method of discussing the different language and ideas surrounding “Global Migration.”

The first speaker, Professor Thea Abu El-Haj, an anthropologist, focused on the word “citizenship.” She broke it down into two parts: juridical status and the rights of a citizen based on international accords. She acknowledged that a part of citizenship is juridical—simply whether or not you are legally a citizen in a country. However, she argued that the idea of citizenship goes much farther, citing that many use migration to obtain the rights of a citizen. This manifests differently from their juridical status, and is concerned more with their ability to feel belonging as well as maintain their basic human rights. 

Next, Professor Abosede George, who focuses on African and women’s history, deconstructed the word “race,” specifically in how it relates to immigration. She played a video from UndocuBlack, an organization that works to fight specifically for Black undocumented immigrants, which called out the United States immigration system for not upholding the values it claims to have. She connected the idea of a “Black immigrant” to 20th century civil rights advancements, citing the influence of the Civil Rights movement on immigration and citizenship laws. She concluded by saying that the struggle between civil rights and immigration “reflects a long standing war between two ideas of America,” a white America and a racially diverse America, and that the immigration system is where this battle plays out. 

Professor Nara Milanich continued the conversation by dissecting her keyword “migrant,” which has recently become more commonplace than the word “immigrant.” Milanich conveyed her point that conversations about immigration are a “matter of narratives more than anything else” and the shift to the word “migrant” is significant because it connotes transience, which is particularly alarming in the face of new executive orders regarding undocumented immigrants. Emphasizing her idea of narratives, Milanich points out that the word “migrant” excludes people from positive narratives: nobody refers to America as a “country of migrants.” While the shift in language may seem unimportant in comparison to deportation orders and ICE’s increased presence, Milanich argues that the subtleness of the shift in language makes it all the more dangerous, since it can go unnoticed even while subconsciously changing people’s perceptions.

The final speaker, Professor Randa Serhan, brought the conversation home by discussing the phrase “sanctuary city” in reference to New York City. She described the city as in a “moment of not just crisis, but chaos.” Recalling the moral panic post 9/11 and the resulting breakdown of community ties, Serhan expressed fears that the past is beginning to repeat itself. Amid the current era of mass deportations and ICE urging community members to report one another, fear erodes community ties that took many years to rebuild in the past. To end on a positive note, Serhan emphasized that New Yorkers have been in this situation before and know how to come together to resist.

Students and other listeners were encouraged to participate in a Q&A to conclude the event. Questions were raised regarding the motivations behind anti-immigration rhetoric and student deportations. One Barnard student wanted to know some action items we could take away considering our privileged position as members of a higher education institution. Professor Milanich referred the audience to a list of organizations we can contact, put together by the organizers of the event, and communicated that it is an all-hands-on-deck situation. She stated that the news cycles will focus on something else soon enough, but the old problems will still be ongoing. Milanich encouraged everyone in the audience to find an issue they are passionate about and commit themselves to it in order to truly make a difference.

Image via Bwarchives