2023/10/16 by Peeck-Ho, Catharina
paper · doi:10.58002/nh31-yy52
Abstract: Since the mid-1980s, San Francisco has been among the so-called ‘sanctuary cities’ in the United States and allows undocumented migrants to make use of public services without any fear of deportation. The policy is an outcome of discourses concerning how to deal with social diversity, especially in regard to citizenship status in the context of the movements of refugees from Central America in the 1970s and 1980s. Due to the current political climate in the U.S. and some measures taken by its federal government, sanctuary cities are under pressure. Against this backdrop, the San Francisco Arts Commission launched a campaign with the aim to reflect the status of San Francisco as a sanctuary city; the campaign includes a variety of events and exhibitions, among them a poster series by artist Rodney Ewing. This article analyses San Francisco as an example for how cities represent themselves in the field of culture. It addresses questions of belonging, the dialectics of homogenization and heterogenization and the role of social inequalities in discourses on sanctuary cities.