"Performing Secular Relatability: Muslim Asylum Seekers and the Securitised U.S. Humanitarian Immigration Apparatus"

This presentation explores how Muslim heritage is securitised through the United States immigration process, particularly for asylum seekers, and what performances this securitisation gives rise to. Focusing on the ‘terrorist bar to asylum’ and the ambiguous classification of Tier III terrorist organizations, I examine how this legal fiction disproportionately impacts asylum seekers from Muslim-majority countries. Drawing on ongoing ethnographic fieldwork with attorneys, legal advocates, and asylum seekers, I trace how the potential of legal ambiguity enabling exclusion incentivises secular performance – how asylum seekers and their advocates perform compliance with U.S. cultural and political norms to navigate the securitised terrain of asylum adjudication. I argue that through these performances, Muslim asylum seekers are compelled to downplay religious or cultural identity to present themselves as ‘non-threatening,’ conforming to secular liberal narratives, a move I term ‘secular relatability’. This presentation reflects on the broader implications of this securitised approach and how immigration legal regimes shape the lived experiences and possibilities of belonging for Muslim asylum seekers in the United States.