How is church asylum granted? This exploratory, empirical study addresses this question—which has not been examined in academic research so far—and thus breaks new ground. Lea Gelardi takes a sociological look at the role of those who grant church asylum and reconstructs their actions as a complex admission procedure. The analysis, based on Grounded Theory, shows how decisions regarding admission to church asylum are made, what conditions for admission exist on the part of those involved, and to what extent their civic engagement can also be understood as 'political'. Overall, it can be demonstrated that granting asylum is ambivalent, as it provides access on the one hand, but also (re-)produces exclusions on the other.
