Is filing for asylum in the US right for you?
You will need to determine whether US asylum laws will protect you from the types of harm you fear and the reasons you could be harmed. Asylum protects those who are unwilling or unable to return to their home country because they have been persecuted (or fear they will be persecuted) due to their race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion.
Persecution is a difficult term to define. A threat to life or freedom is usually considered persecution but discrimination and harassment are usually not. Examples of persecution include confinement, torture, rape, sexual assault, forced abortion, female genital mutilation, beatings, kidnapping, inability to earn an income, and being forbidden to practice your religion.
The reason for persecution must be on account of one of the protected grounds mentioned earlier. You will not qualify for asylum if you fear to return to your home country because of generalized crime and violence. You might qualify, though, if a central reason you are harmed is because of something distinctive about you, like your ethnicity, social group, politics, religion, sexuality, or gender.