Making Sanctuary Cities

Rachel Humphris is Senior Lecturer in Sociology and Politics at Queen Mary University of London.

"A rich, contextualized analysis, exploring highly contested questions of who belongs and who gets to decide, through the experiences of sanctuary actors in contrasting cities and jurisdictions. Historically grounded, Humphris' ethnographically informed and highly accessible account reveals evolving tensions, contradictions and narratives, bringing to the fore the moral values which drive diverse actors and the governance frameworks which constrain them." -Sarah Spencer, University of Oxford "Not all sanctuary cities are the same, and Rachel Humphris offers an insightful comparative ethnography of what it means to be a sanctuary city from the perspectives of government officials and activists in San Francisco, Sheffield, and Toronto.She convincingly shows that sanctuary is not fixed, with local actors continuously working and reworking sanctuary meanings, narratives, policies, and governance. Highly recommended." -Els de Graauw, Baruch College and the CUNY Graduate Center, author of Making Immigrant Rights Real: Nonprofits and the Politics of Integration in San Francisco "Rachel Humphris' comparative policy ethnography of three sanctuary cities - San Francisco, Toronto, and Sheffield - explores how municipalities grapple with fundamental questions about what it means to be a community. Making Sanctuary Cities details the many ways that context matters in how sanctuary policies are constructed, such as the differing legal frameworks within which cities in the United Kingdom, the United States, and Canada operate. This vivid account provides insight into the conversations and perspectives that undergird sanctuary in these three cities, the ways that moral values take shape within bureaucracies, and how sanctuary is shaped over time through dynamic relationships between activism and governance." -Susan Bibler Coutin, University of California, Irvine