All by Amy Grant

Passion, bureaucratic violence, and the language of asylum

The illumination of sanctuary campaigns highlights the practices of subjectivity and unaccountability which work against those under threat of deportation, serving as a reminder of the ongoing importance of seeing through veils of democratic humanitarianism and facades of justice which so easily disguise the mistreatment of society’s most vulnerable. Sanctuary campaigns teach us the power of public pressure when it achieves the moral high ground – the barometer for which we all play a role in setting. Yet simultaneously they highlight how exceptionally sustained and supported campaigns must be from those in all levels of society – vicars, students, politicians and elderly parishioners alike – in order to prevail.