She applied the "Page 99 Test" to her new book, Precarious Protections: Unaccompanied Minors Seeking Asylum in the United States, and reported the following:
I wasn’t familiar with the Page 99 Test, and I can’t claim to have done this on purpose, but I was pleasantly surprised that page 99 of my book is just about the most succinct summary of the book’s overall argument that I’ve written!Visit Chiara Galli's website.
Page 99 is the conclusion that wraps up a chapter about how Central American unaccompanied youth experience their interactions with the US border patrol and detention facilities, and what they learn about the law, their rights, and the US immigration system in the process. This page prepares the reader for what is to come, which is the key story of the book: how unaccompanied migrant kids who have escaped from violence in Central America and non-profit legal advocates work together to navigate the challenges posed by a US asylum system that, while ostensibly protective, actually does more to undermine their potential to be recognized as refugees than to protect them.
But really, I put it better on page 99, which reads as follows:As unaccompanied minors interact with legal brokers, their legal socialization continues in important ways. Youths learn how to navigate another series of bureaucracies: immigration court, the asylum office […] As we will see, some youths are better positioned than others to learn about and understand how complex US immigration laws apply to their individual circumstances. For youths to be formally recognized as refugees in the US asylum process, they must not only have experienced the right types and amount of suffering in their home countries, but they must also learn to describe their experiences in the language of the law.What you really can’t get, however, from reading page 99 is a sense of the book’s style, which is filled with quotes and examples centering the perspectives of my two groups of key respondents: Central American unaccompanied minors (such as Hector and Danny, mentioned briefly on page 99) and their immigration attorneys. For that, you will need to keep reading!
While the asylum process is rife with indeterminacy, as the tragic example of the disparate treatment of Danny and Hector shows, legal brokers adopt a variety of strategies to mitigate risk and maneuver in the system to obtain favorable outcomes for their young clients. Thanks to this support, some unaccompanied minors are indeed able to obtain protection and legal status. Protection from deportation back to insecurity and danger in the home country is invaluable. Yet, as we will see, the price to obtain it can be high, particularly when youths are made to compete for the scarce good of free legal representation and for compassion in shrinking supply.
Their stories and points of view are uniquely revealing of what is wrong with the US asylum system, as well as how we could do a better job of protecting vulnerable youth fleeing violence today.
--Marshal Zeringue
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