I began doing asylum evaluations as a volunteer approximately eight years ago. Participating in this way, by contributing to the freedom of another person, seemed related somehow to my experience as a child, growing up in New York City after World War II, where I heard numerous stories of escape from the Holocaust. The actual work with asylum seekers, however, has turned out to be extremely valuable to me in ways I could never have predicted.
I have written in more detail about my experiences as an evaluator, in this article for The American Psychological Association.