Meeting Date: Thursday, November 16, 2023

Meeting Time: 7:00 PM-Coffee and Cookies

7:30 PM-Presentation Begins

Location: Skidaway Community Church, 50 Diamond Causeway

Speaker: Dr. Susan Terrio, Professor Emeritus, Department of Anthropology, Georgetown University

Title: International Migration: The Challenges of Seeking Asylum in the United States

Program Topic: Asylum Challenges

Abstract: An alarming milestone was reached in 2022 with the news that 100 million individuals were displaced globally. Here in the United States, in 2021, approximately 17,700 people received asylum based on a well-founded fear of persecution in their home countries. That was the lowest number of asylum petitions granted since 1994. Yet, unprecedented numbers of people are seeking humanitarian protection and have put enormous strain on the entire U.S. immigration system. More than 1.3 million asylum applications were awaiting processing as of May 2023. In addition, a large number of the recent arrivals at the U.S-Mexico border intend to pursue asylum in a system burdened by staff shortages, inadequate resources, massive backlogs, due process lapses, shifting policy mandates, and wildly different outcomes. Drawing on research in immigration courts and detention centers as well as interviews with asylum seekers, judges, attorneys, and NGOs, Dr. Terrio considers the short- and long-term challenges in gaining asylum protection. 

Bio: Dr. Terrio is the author of five books and three dozen articles. Since her retirement in 2018, Dr. Terrio has written two books which focus on undocumented migrants from Central America and Mexico who flee violence at home. Her most recent book will appear in January 2024, Forced Out. Migrant Mothers in Search of Refuge and Hope. It follows a co-edited volume published in 2019, Illegal Encounters. The Effect of Detention and Deportation on Young People. Dr. Terrio’s research has been supported by grants from the National Endowment of the Humanities, the National Science Foundation, the Social Science Research Council, and the American Council of Learned Societies. She was awarded residential fellowships by the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University and the Woodrow Wilson International center for Scholars in Washington, DC. In 2021, Dr. Terrio was appointed as a Visiting Scholar in the School of Social Policy, Social Work and Social Justice at the University College of Dublin, Ireland.

Sponsor: Critz Auto Group