From the Los Angeles Asylum Office in Anaheim, California you can see the Disneyland parking lot and even some of the rides. But Disneyland’s iconic childhood vacations are out of reach for the minors visiting the office, as sociologist Chiara Galli knows well.

Credit: Victor Interiano/University of California Press

For six years while doing an ethnographic study, Galli, a Klarman Fellow in sociology in the College of Arts and Sciences, helped unaccompanied minors from Central America navigate the United States’ labyrinthine asylum process. The book she wrote during her Klarman fellowship, "Precarious Protections: Unaccompanied Minors Seeking Asylum in the U.S.” will be published in spring 2023 by University of California Press. In the fall, she’ll begin a faculty position at the University of Chicago.

In an interview, Galli gave insight into what she learned during the course of her research about the asylum process, particularly as experienced by child migrants.

Read the full interview on the College of Arts and Sciences website.