Refugee Rights: How the Anti-immigrant and Anti-Muslim Movements Target Refugees (And What We Can Do)
Session Type(s): Panel
Starts: Thursday, Jul. 14 11:30 AM (Eastern)
Ends: Thursday, Jul. 14 12:45 PM (Eastern)
This year has seen a nearly unprecedented rise in the political targeting of refugees—from bigoted rhetoric to xenophobic legislation on the state and federal levels. Fear-mongering from Trump and other politicians has opened up space for anti-refugee sentiment to move into the mainstream, but the groundwork for this explosion of bigotry was laid by the increasing collaboration of the organized anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim movements. This panel will expose the drivers of anti-refugee policy and rhetoric and discuss how our communities can—and must—fight back.
Moderator
Lindsay Schubiner
Lindsay Schubiner is the Senior Program Manager at the Center for New Community, a national research and advocacy organization based in Chicago. At CNC, Lindsay works to expose and counter organized nativism in the U.S., and supports state and local groups in doing the same. Lindsay previously served as a Congressional staffer handling housing, health, and immigration policy, and managed advocacy for sexual health and rights at American Jewish World Service. Lindsay has advocated with directly impacted community members to fight for driver’s licenses for all DC residents, regardless of immigration status, and to stop deportations of local residents. Lindsay holds a Master of Science degree from the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health.
Other sessions: Oppositional Messaging: How to Marginalize your Opponents While Uplifting Your Values
Panelists
Asha Noor
Asha Noor serves as the Advocacy and Engagement Specialist for the Campaign to TAKE ON HATE, led by the National Network for Arab American Communities (NNAAC). Noor has worked both domestically and abroad in conflict zones with marginalized communities, including women, afro-indigenous groups, refugees, religious minorities and trauma victims.
Before coming to NNAAC, Noor worked with Islamic Relief USA, where she gained an understanding of humanitarian issues. During her graduate studies at the School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution at GMU, she focused her research on Somalia and conflicts facing the Somali Diaspora.
Noor completed the bulk of her field work in Somaliland with the Academy for Peace and Development, a think tank developing and sustaining peace in the area. With the program’s help and support, Noor worked with the Systemic Violence and Systems Transformation Working group and completed a field study in North East Brazil on poverty.
Stephen Piggott
Stephen Piggott is a Senior Research Analyst with the Southern Poverty Law Center. He is an expert on expert on various forms of right-wing extremism, including the organized anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim movements, as well as white nationalism. Before joining the SPLC, Piggott worked as an analyst for the Anti-Defamation League in New York, and as a research analyst for the Center for New Community, a national civil rights organization based in Chicago. He received his BA in political science with minors in Islamic and Irish studies from DePaul University in Chicago.