From the Los Angeles Asylum Office in Anaheim, California you can see the Disneyland parking lot and even some of the rides. But Disneyland’s iconic childhood vacations are out of reach for the minors visiting the office, as sociologist knows well.
The cover of Chiara Galli’s forthcoming book will feature this painting by Victor Interiano, a Salvadoran artist based in Los Angeles.
For six years while doing an ethnographic study, Galli, a , helped unaccompanied minors from Central America navigate the United States’ labyrinthine asylum process. The book she wrote during her Klarman fellowship, “Precarious Protections: Unaccompanied Minors Seeking Asylum in the U.S.” will be published in spring 2023 by University of California Press. In the fall, she’ll begin a faculty position at the University of Chicago.
In an interview, Galli gave insight into what she learned during the course of , particularly as experienced by child migrants.
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