Table Of ContentUC San Diego
UC San Diego Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Title
Suffering and the struggle for recognition : lived experiences of the U.S. political asylum
process
Permalink
https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7pd0w87k
Author
Haas, Bridget Marie
Publication Date
2012
Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation
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University of California
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO
Suffering and the Struggle for Recognition: Lived Experiences of the U.S. Political
Asylum Process
A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of
Philosophy
in
Anthropology
by
Bridget Marie Haas
Committee in charge:
Professor Janis H. Jenkins, Chair
Professor Thomas J. Csordas
Professor Fonna Forman
Professor Steven M. Parish
Professor Jonathan Sadowsky
Professor Christena Turner
2012
Copyright
Bridget Marie Haas, 2012
All rights reserved
The Dissertation of Bridget Marie Haas is approved, and it is acceptable in quality and
form for publication on microfilm and electronically:
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Chair
University of California, San Diego
2012
iii
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Signature Page……………………………………………………………… iii
Table of Contents…………………………………………………………… iv
List of Abbreviations ………………………………………………………. viii
List of Figures and Tables…………………………………………………. ix
Acknowledgements………………………………………………………… x
Vita…………………………………………………………………………. xii
Abstract of the Dissertation……………………………………………….... xiii
Chapter 1 Introduction: Overview, Context, and Literature Review …….. 1
Setting the Stage: Asylum in the United States …………………… 3
Theoretical Orientations …………………………………………… 11
Outline of the Dissertation ………………………………………… 34
Chapter 2 Setting, Methods, and Background …………………………… 39
Research Setting …………………………… ……………………… 39
Recruitment Process ……………………………………………….. 42
Sample ……………………………………………………………… 54
Methods of Data Collection………………………………………… 65
Asylum Process …………………………………………………….. 76
Conclusion …………………………………………………………. 83
Chapter 3 The Ethos of Asylum and the Paradox of Visibility …………… 84
Introduction ………………………………………………………… 85
Asylum Seekers: ‘Pure’ Refugee or ‘Polluted’ Migrant? …………... 88
Political Ethos of Asylum and the Paradox of Visibility ……………. 94
iv
Confusion, Anxiety, and Anger within the Asylum Process ……...… 108
Criminalizing Tactics: ISAP and Being a “Prisoner in America”…… 137
Conclusion…………………………………………………………… 155
Chapter 4 “It’s a Matter of Life and Death”: Uncertainty, Temporality,
and Suffering ………………………………………………………………... 157
Ruth ………………………………………………………………….. 157
Introduction…………………………………………………………….. 172
Theoretical Approaches to Temporality, Power, and Subjectivity ……. 174
Existential Limbo: Time and Power in the Context of Asylum Seeking 184
Temporal Blurring ……………………………………………………. 207
Enactments of Temporal Blurring ……………………………………. 212
Forging Hope and Exercising Agency ………………………………… 223
Conclusion …………………………………………………………….. 235
Chapter 5 Structural Vulnerability and the Reshaping of Self and
Social Relations ……………………………………………………………….. 237
Introduction …………………………………………………………… 237
Employment Authorization Documents and the Institutional Logic
of Deservingness ……………………………………………………… 241
“How Can I Survive?”: Economic Marginalization as Existential
Threat …………………………………………………………………. 245
“I’m Not a Lazy Man!”: Economic Marginalization and ‘Productive
Personhood’ …………………………………………………………… 249
“I’m Still Their Mother”: Structural Vulnerability and the
Reshaping of Family Relations ………………………………………. 253
“At the Mercy of Someone Else”: Relying on Others and Its Personal
and Social Consequences …………………………………………… 271
v
Struggling to Make Ends Meet: Work, Wages, and Documentation .. 281
Health Care, Suffering, and Structural Vulnerability ……………….. 291
Embodying (Un)deservingness, Vulnerability, and Uncertainty …… 293
Conclusion …………………………………………………………. 300
Chapter 6 The ‘Psychologization’ of Suffering: Therapeutic Interventions
and the Struggle Over Meaning ….................................................................... 302
Introduction…………………………………………………………… 302
THP Approaches and Philosophies ………………………………….. 306
“There’s No Pill for That”: Rejection of Therapeutic Interventions … 313
The Ambivalent Embrace of Therapeutic Interventions …………….. 320
Ambivalence Beyond Medication : Perceived Limitations of
Therapeutic Interventions ……………………………………………… 331
Therapeutic Interventions as Recognition, Connection, and Structure .. 335
Paradox of Empowerment ……………………………………………... 346
“Asylum in the Most Powerful Medicine”: Legal Status as ‘Real’
Healing ………………………………………………………………… 349
Conclusion ……………………………………………………………... 353
Chapter 7 Performing and Assessing Fear, Persecution, and Truthfulness ….. 357
Introduction………………………………………………………………. 357
Asylum as ‘Benefit’: Rewarding the Deserving, Deterring
the Fraudulent ……………………………………………………………. 360
Credibility as Key: Did this Really Happen? …………………………… 364
Trauma, Credibility, and Eligibility ……………………………………. 377
Translation of Histories and the Making of a “Good Witness” ………… 393
vi
Disjunctures in Logic and Conceptions of Deservingness ……………… 407
Asylum Adjudication as (Inter)subjective Milieu ………………………. 420
Conclusion ……………………………………………………………... 424
Chapter 8 Conclusion ………………………………………………………….. 427
References ………………………………………………………………………. 443
vii
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
ATDs: Alternatives to Detention
BI Inc. Behavioral Interventions Incorporated
CHR: Center for Human Rights
CPDM: Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement
DHS: Department of Homeland Security
DO: Deportation Officer
DOJ: Department of Justice
DRO: Detention and Removal Operations
EAD: Employment Authorization Document
EOIR: Executive Office for Immigration Review
ERO: Enforcement and Removal Operations
ICE: Immigration and Customs Enforcement
ISAP: Intensive Supervision and Appearance Program
IJ: Immigration Judge
SCNC: Southern Cameroons National Council
SDF: Social Democratic Front
THP: The Healing Place
USCIS: United States Citizenship and Immigration Services
viii
LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES
Figure 2.1: Asylum Process Flow Chart ……………………………………… 81
Table 2.1: Study Participants’ Location in the Asylum Process ………………… 82
ix
