In the broad field of Refugee Studies, and in the activism of Civil Society and NGOs, there is a general commitment to enabling the stories of people who have been forcibly displaced to be told and heard. Working from multiple national, institutional and disciplinary perspectives, this Research Topic will significantly deepen understanding of The Function of Stories in Hostile Asylum Regimes. It will articulate what is at stake when stories are silenced and the political imperative of enabling such stories to be heard.The proposal arises from a British Academy funded project titled ‘Hostile Environments: Policies, Stories, Responses’. The project brings together academics and activists from four national contexts in which a hostile asylum regime is in operation: the UK, Italy, Canada, and the USA. The purpose of the project has been to compare and contrast policies that underpinned hostile environment regimes in the different contexts and also activist and civil society responses t