Research:

For my dissertation project, Liminality of Forced Displacement: Syrian Refugee and Immigrant Lives in the US, I examine how individual histories, migration trajectories, and immigration policies converge to shape the lived world people experience, particularly their current lives in the US, and how this lived world is shaped by precarity and liminality. Syrians often find themselves living in limbo for months or years waiting on pending applications, have their asylum claims rejected, or find themselves in a temporary or uncertain legal status that places them in the "in-between" reality—not deported but unable to claim the rights of citizenship. Liminal legality is a legal status characterized by its ambiguity: it is neither undocumented nor documented, yet may exhibit characteristics of both. The concept is typically used to describe the situation of immigrants in the US with Temporary Protected Status (TPS), but it also applies to those with pending asylum cases, given the temporal and uncertain nature of both statuses. My dissertation research offers directions for adopting a critical framework and theoretical lens for social work practice and research with displaced individuals, families, and communities who experience the "in-between" reality. I am currently developing my dissertation into a book proposal on Syrian forced displacement and social and economic inequality, a topic of significant policy discussion in social work practice and research.