Applying for Asylum The U.S. System and Policies

Foreign nationals seeking asylum must demonstrate a well-founded fear that if returned home, they will be persecuted based upon one of five characteristics: race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group or political opinion. This book explores the asylum policy in the United States wherein some assert that asylum has become an alternative pathway for immigration rather than humanitarian protection. Others argue that given the religious, ethnic and political violence in various countries around the world, it has become difficult to differentiate the persecuted from the persecutors and that U.S. sympathies for asylum seekers could inadvertently facilitate the entry of terrorists.