Global Migration & Local Action: Perspectives on Citizenship, Race, and Sanctuary

In 2025, borders and the politics of belonging have become powerful tools for both uniting and polarizing communities and shaping political discourse worldwide. On the heels of the U.S. presidential inauguration, this event in Barnard’s Year of Elections around the World series will offer analytical tools for examining and confronting the politics of immigration and migration on both global and local scales.

This event, moderated by J.C. Salyer (Anthropology & Human Rights), features Barnard faculty from various disciplines discussing the issues that inform debates about migration. Each speaker will offer a foundational concept to frame the discussion:

• Thea Abu-El Haj (Education) will explore citizenship, with a focus on the space between juridical citizenship and transnational citizenship.
• Abosede George (History & Africana Studies) will examine the racial discourse of immigration in the United States, particularly its impact on Black immigrants.
• Nara Milanich (History) will reflect on the shift in language from immigrant to migrant in recent years, analyzing what this terminological shift reveals about contemporary and historical immigration patterns in the United States.
• Randa Serhan (Sociology) will examine the concept of sanctuary cities, exploring the relational and translational dynamics of sanctuary policies at local, national, and global scales. This will include reflections on New York City’s sanctuary practices and their broader implications.

Following these presentations, J.C. Salyer will lead participants in a Q&A with the audience to unpack these terms in a cross-disciplinary conversation.