Advanced Research Collaborative

Sarah C. Bishop

A young woman flees violence in Mexico and seeks protection in the United States—only to be trafficked as a domestic worker in the Bronx. A decorated immigration judge leaves his post when the policies he proudly upheld capsize in the wake of political turmoil. A Gambian translator who was granted asylum herself talks with other African women about how immigration officers expect victims of torture to behave. A border patrol officer begins to question the training that instructs him to treat the children he finds in the Arizona desert like criminals.

Through these and other powerful firsthand accounts, A Story to Save Your Life offers new insight into the harrowing realities of seeking protection in the United States. Sarah C. Bishop argues that cultural differences in communication shape every stage of the asylum process, playing a major but unexamined role. Migrants fleeing persecution must reconstruct the details of their lives so governmental authorities can determine whether their experiences justify protection. However, Bishop shows, many factors influence whether an applicant is perceived as credible, from the effects of trauma on the ability to recount an experience chronologically to culturally rooted nonverbal behaviors and displays of emotion. For asylum seekers, harnessing the power of autobiographical storytelling can mean the difference between life and death. A Story to Save Your Life emphasizes how memory, communication, and culture intertwine in migrants’ search for safety.

Co-authors: Virginia Barber-Rioja, Sarah Vendzules

Every day, large numbers of immigrants undertake dangerous migration journeys only to face deportation or “removal” proceedings once they arrive in the U.S. Others who have been in the country for many years may face these proceedings as well, and either group may seek to gain lawful status by means of an application to USCIS, the benefits arm of the immigration system. Mental Health Evaluations in Immigration Court examines the growing role of mental health professionals in the immigration system as they conduct forensic mental health assessments that are used as psychological evidence for applications for deportation relief, write affidavits for the court about the course of treatment they have provided to immigrants, help prepare people emotionally to be deported, and provide support for immigrants in detention centers.

Many immigrants appear in immigration court—often without an attorney if they cannot afford one—as part of deportation proceedings. Mental health professionals can be deeply involved in these proceedings, from helping to buttress an immigrant’s plea for asylum to helping an immigration judge make decisions about hardship, competency or risks for violence. There are a whole host of psycho-legal and forensic issues that arise in immigration court and in other immigration applications that have not yet been fully addressed in the field. This book provides an overview of relevant issues likely to be addressed by mental health and legal professionals. Mental Health Evaluations in Immigration Court corrects a serious deficiency in the study of immigration law and mental health, offering suggestions for future scholarship and acting as a vital resource for mental health professionals, immigration lawyers, and judges.

Despite its image as an epicenter of progressive social policy, New York City continues to have one of the nation's most segregated school systems. Tracing the quest for integration in education from the mid-1950s to the present, The Battle Nearer to Home follows the tireless efforts by educational activists to dismantle the deep racial and socioeconomic inequalities that segregation reinforces. The fight for integration has shifted significantly over time, not least in terms of the way "integration" is conceived, from transfers of students and redrawing school attendance zones, to more recent demands of community control of segregated schools. In all cases, the Board eventually pulled the plug in the face of resistance from more powerful stakeholders, and, starting in the 1970s, integration receded as a possible solution to educational inequality. In excavating the history of New York City school integration politics, in the halls of power and on the ground, Christopher Bonastia unearths the enduring white resistance to integration and the severe costs paid by Black and Latino students. This last decade has seen activists renew the fight for integration, but the war is still far from won.