Paper short abstract:

This paper compares sanctuary city organising by humanitarian actors in San Francisco, Toronto and Sheffield arguing that care and 'holding space' are crucial for transformative politics by and for residents with precarious migration status in the city.

Paper long abstract:

Worldwide, anti-migrant movements are growing. National governments in North America and Europe have adopted policy goals of creating hostile environments for non-citizens creating a politics of fear and 'internal borders' (Yuval Davis 2018, Back 2019). Alongside, an outpouring of volunteerism and alternative practices and discourses have emerged, particularly in cities. Balancing a national 'hostile environment' and localised 'sanctuary movement', city actors create new imaginaries and practices of urban belonging. This paper specifically addresses the scale of the 'city' in humanitarian organising for undocumented residents. By comparing sanctuary city organising by humanitarian actors in San Francisco, Toronto and Sheffield this paper argues that care and 'holding space' are crucial for transformative politics by and for residents with precarious migration status in the city.

This presentation analyses the political and moral economy of 'sanctuary' practices comparing urban policy making, immigrant rights advocacy and faith-based organising. A defining feature of sanctuary is the narrative of belonging that is mobilised based on an ethics of care enacted within everyday life. Care is crucial to forms of 'commoning' that create insurgent urban citizens. The paper presents the notion of care as a form of prefigurative politics by promoting social relationships of mutuality and responsibility that strive to reflect a future society that activists hope to create. Care reinforces the importance of the collective, of social relatedness that is inextricably linked to bodies in place and drawing on the past, present and potential futures.