Sanctuary-Polis: Imaginaries of the City Beyond the Nation-State

Abstract As in 2016, the election of Donald Trump has revived interest in Sanctuary Cities that instruct staff to refuse cooperation with federal deportations of undocumented people. Social scientific and humanities literature treats sanctuary policies, ranging from municipal non-cooperation to civil-society asylum networks, as evidence that the city offers a democratic alternative to the nation-state. This article argues that such accounts rely on an underexamined imaginary. The Sanctuary-polis describes a recurring theoretical move that projects democratic promise onto the city-unit through references to the ancient polis, medieval refuge, and theological forms of asylum. This article cautions that the Sanctuary-polis harbors a city-centrism that migrates into democratic theory and risks displacing insurgent practices of resistance necessary in the current anti-democratic moment.