Chicago and other cities like it have historically been destinations for migrants, asylum seekers, and refugees. Seeking safety during this contemporary period of mass migration, newcomers encounter a new policy environment. Chicago’s Welcoming City ordinance establishes a policy framework to receive newcomers into the urban social fabric while attempting to avoid municipal discrimination. Welcoming Cities have also become targets, shouldering the broader responsibilities and challenges of offering refuge in the United States as a national concern. In this symposium, scholars traced the outlines and nuances generating one of the largest historic migrations ever seen in the Western Hemisphere, and followed these journeys in search of safety through transit countries and into the United States. They addressed urban experiences in Chicago and elsewhere for newcomers and residents, and sought to better understand how they could imagine refuge and how this concept is enacted, debated, and negotiated in daily life.

This event was in-person only. Free and open to the University of Chicago community. Campus ID was required for entry.

Organized by the Imagining a Sanctuary City research project at the Neubauer Collegium.

SCHEDULE

10:00 – 11:00 am
Virtual Keynote by Bill Ong Hing

11:00 am – 12:50 pm
Immigration Through Latin American Contexts
Panelists: Veronica Zubillaga, Matthew David Bird, Nicole Hallett, Matt Wilde

1:00 – 2:00 pm
Lunch

2:00 – 3:50 pm
Refuge in the United States
Panelists: Lindsay Gifford, Ania Aizman, Chiara Galli, Domenic Vitiello