It’s Not a Migrant Crisis—It’s a Political Crisis

The creation of a global category of the unfree

Amidst acknowledging the immediate suffering of migrants and asylum seekers, this critique challenges the narrative surrounding the so-called "migrant crisis." It argues that diverting attention from systemic issues perpetuates dehumanization and supports policies hindering migrants' rights. Emphasizing the need for equitable immigration policies, it advocates for building diverse, inclusive societies....

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It’s Not a Migrant Crisis—It’s a Political Crisis

Testing the Waters in Gotham

A look at how residents throughout the city’s history have chosen what to drink

The three forms of water distribution form a fluid archive of community formation, civic pride, and the many different possible ways New Yorkers can choose the water they drink....

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Testing the Waters in Gotham

The Little Prince Haunts New York

Following Antoine de Saint-Exupéry from the Ritz to the East River

When I moved to New York, I set out to discover how my new adopted home had influenced that sense of tristesse in The Little Prince, which Saint-Exupéry wrote during his 1941–1943 stay in the city....

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The Little Prince Haunts New York

Our Next Guantánamo

Immigrants might become the next target for state-sponsored terrors

We create Guantánamos in those fevered moments when imagined needs enflame ancient hatreds and modern fears, telling ourselves they will keep us safe and forgetting that they never have before. ...

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Our Next Guantánamo

The Violence of American Border Policies Continues

Both political parties say they care about families—so why would the Biden administration return to a family separation regime?

And yet, in the absence of new legislation that makes it easier to cross the border legally for work, the Biden administration has defaulted to a hard line on immigration that continues to separate families and promote border security. ...

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The Violence of American Border Policies Continues

Why the U.S. Needs Migrants

Migrant workers have an important role in the economy

Contrary to what the Republicans would have us believe, foreign-born workers, nearly half of whom are Spanish speaking, participate in the workforce at a higher rate than their native-born counterparts: 65 percent compared to 61 percent of the native-born. ...

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Why the U.S. Needs Migrants

The Dilemma of a Fragmented Self

Mass migrations, language, and the future of identity

How can language create such a convoluted way of experiencing the everyday world? We can explore this phenomenon with two linked concepts: the speech act and the discourse community. ...

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The Dilemma of a Fragmented Self

Documenting the City of Refugees

An interview with Susan Hartman on her new book about Utica’s transformation by refugees

I wanted to put in perspective what these refugees had gone through, what the countries they left had gone through, what the refugee camp experience was like. So, there is this part where I talk about when they were each on the run: it is very traumatic material and this ...
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Documenting the City of Refugees

A City on Fire

Arson and neglect in 1970s Utica, New York

Some residents still remember the bumper sticker: “Last one out of Utica, please turn out the lights.” Absentee landlords bought houses at auction—then hired people to burn them so they could collect the insurance money. And some owners torched their own homes. “Arson rates just skyrocketed,” Chief Ingersoll said. In ...
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A City on Fire

Migrants Need Safety, Not Stunts

There are two big stories behind DeSantis chartering planes to move migrants from state to state

DeSantis apparently dispatched the migrants with a videographer to take images of them arriving, entirely unexpectedly, on the upscale island, presumably in an attempt to present the image that Democratic areas can’t handle immigrants (in fact, more than 12% of the island’s 17,000 full-time residents were born in foreign countries, ...
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Migrants Need Safety, Not Stunts

The Rise of Humanitarian Corridors

How a lay Catholic community mobilized a transnational response to wartime refugee crises

The type of global public religion that the Sant’ Egidio community offers no silver bullet for those who are internally displaced or pushed across borders. And yet, secularism and secularists cannot combat these crises alone. Although a magical solution is not at hand, a certain form of help is. The ...
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The Rise of Humanitarian Corridors