# Surviving the Sanctuary City: Asylum-Seeking Work in Nepali New York - Hardcover

by **Tina Shrestha** (Author)

Over the past several decades, the vibrant, multiethnic borough of Queens has seen growth in the community of Nepali migrants, many of whom are navigating the challenging bureaucratic process of asylum legalization. _Surviving the Sanctuary City_ follows them through the institutional spaces of asylum offices, law firms, and human rights agencies to document the labor of seeking asylum. As an interpreter and a volunteer at a grassroots community center, anthropologist Tina Shrestha has witnessed how migrants must perform a particular kind of suffering that is legible to immigration judges and asylum officers. She demonstrates the lived contradictions asylum seekers face while producing their "suffering testimonials" and traces their attempts to overcome these contradictions through the Nepali notions of _kaagaz banaune_ (making paper) and _dukkha_ (suffering).

_Surviving the Sanctuary City_ asks what everyday survival among migrants and asylum seekers can tell us about the cultural logic of suffering within the confines of US borders. Through rich ethnographic detail and careful nuanced narratives, it puts the lives and perspectives of the Nepali migrant community at the center of the story. In so doing, Shrestha offers a fundamental rethinking of asylum seeking as a form of precarious labor and immigration enforcement in a rapidly changing US society.

### Author Biography

Tina Shrestha is assistant professor at the Waseda Institute for Advanced Study, Waseda University.

**Number of Pages:** 242

**Dimensions:** 0.69 x 9 x 6 IN

**Publication Date:** May 09, 2023

## Details

- **Price:** 198.0 USD
- **Vendor:** Books by splitShops
- **Type:** Books
- **Tags:** Books by splitShops, Shopify Collective

## Variants

| Variant | Price | Available |
|---------|-------|-----------|
| Default Title | 198.00 USD | In stock |

## Images

- Surviving the Sanctuary City: Asylum-Seeking Work in Nepali New York - Hardcover

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