Professor Jennifer Koh, Framing Race and Religion in an Era of Hardened Borders -- Rutgers Journal of Law and Religion

Professor Jennifer Lee Koh's article, Framing Race and Religion in an Era of Hardened Borders, is published in the Rutgers Journal of Law and Religion. The publication is a commentary essay in response to a symposium on race, religion and migration in the United States and European Union. The symposium brought together scholars from a range of disciplines, and was hosted by Lund University (Sweden) and Rutgers University (United States).

Introduction to Framing Race and Religion in an Era of Hardened Borders

2026 reflects a critical juncture when it comes to the intersections of race, religion, law, and migration in the European Union and United States. Borders have hardened across both continents due to political sentiment, and reinforced by the power of law. The U.S. government pursues an unrelenting mass deportation agenda that has acutely harmed communities of color, and both the U.S. and various E.U. states have responded to the challenge of global migration by ending access to asylum. In some quarters, religious freedom is flourishing, especially for conservatively-oriented Christians. Both race and religion have served as markers of national identity, so that certain religious communities experience the brunt of racial discrimination on top of skepticism around their religious freedom claims. From the perspective of those advocating for the humanity and rights of migrants on the ground, the terrain is filled with urgency and regression.

This symposium’s focus on race, religion and the law of migration in the European and United States, approached through a range of disciplines, thus takes on a formidable task. Race, religion, and migration are increasingly political and polarizing. Backlash, resistance, frustration and discomfort can arise in conversations about race, as well as around religious freedom. Additionally, identifying clear solutions based on comparative and interdisciplinary approaches can present challenges. After all, each context—the US, the EU, and individual EU member states—brings its own history and series of political moments. While similarities can be drawn across countries and regions, the temptation to overgeneralize and overlook important nuances from each context remains. The symposium’s interdisciplinary nature, which draws from a range of fields including theology, law, sociology, creates a space in which to reimagine possibilities and rethink interventions. However, interdisciplinary work can also lead to gaps in knowledge and communication.

Despite the challenges, this symposium sheds light on key questions facing scholars of migration, race and religion, and offers a fresh series of insights. In this Comment, I draw attention to two central issues that emerge from the symposium, and do so from the perspective of a legal scholar whose primary focus is U.S. immigration law. The first issue involves race. How should law and discourse approach race and racism, and how might frameworks governing race affect practical interventions around migration? The second issue centers on religion. What does religion do to enhance our understanding of how race and racism operate against the backdrop of migration? The symposium addresses important dimensions of these questions, and the rise of authoritarianism in the West means that they will continue to generate a host of additional issues for future exploration.

The complete article may be found at Rutgers Journal of Law and Religion