The Social Justice Institute will host a discussion and screening on the documentary Between Fear and Hatred: Surviving Migration Detention in Assam today at 7 p.m. in Tinkham Veale University Center Senior Classroom.
John Flores, Ananya Dasgupta and Arjit Sen will discuss the history, detention and deportation of people in Assam.
The event is free and open to the community. Light refreshments will be served.
About the event topic
In the United States, we typically discuss immigration as an “American dilemma,” focusing on Latin Americans entering the United States. But hundreds of thousands of migrants currently circle the globe, and they are forced to cope with deadly borders, family separation and incarceration. Since 2004, more than 20,000 migrants have died trying to enter the European Union alone, while states within the Global North and Global South—from France to Australia and Mexico to India—create increasingly exclusionary policies for migrants.
In Assam, India, at least 1.9 million people have been left off of the final list of the Government of India’s National Register of Citizens (NRC). These people face potential statelessness as Foreigners Tribunals determine their fate. Many Indians, especially those belonging to poor and marginalized communities, do not have certified copies of identity documents or are unable to produce them on time to prove their citizenship status. This is particularly true in the case of Assam, a state that includes many displaced persons who have fled outbreaks of violence and natural disasters. Those who have been deemed foreigners have been sent to detention centers. Some have languished in detention centers for years; they have almost no access to parole, they have been separated from their families, and they have limited contact with the outside world.