When Is It Time to Flee? Highlight

Very few transgender people he spoke to over the course of his research, Jayesh Rathod told me, were making asylum claims, in large part because of the perception that the U.S. is a rights-abiding democracy and upholds the rule of law. Any country recognizing such asylum claims right now would be questioning human rights and international law norms that have held since the mid-twentieth century—despite this country providing fewer and fewer reasons to believe it is the beacon of freedom. So most people he spoke to were pursuing other pathways, whether emigrating for a job, obtaining a passive-income visa (as Portugal offers) or student visa or living with a spouse who is a dual national. “The informational networks that exist within the trans community around this are superb,” Rathod said, with “extremely well-developed” resources. “Folks that I talk to are pretty well educated about what will work and what won’t work for them.”