Political Asylum Deceptions

Millions of refugees desperately need humanitarian protection, yet today asylum seekers are increasingly labeled liars, criminals, and even terrorists. How did we get to the point where society's most vulnerable are enveloped by a cloud of hostile suspicion? In this rigorous and highly readable book Bohmer and Shuman resume their highly productive collaboration to highlight the relentless governmental focus on pseudo-science, evidence, truth, credibility, and proof, and examine real malfeasance stories. Illicit activities and complex webs of transnational mobility ultimately contribute to claims of fraud, corruption, and deceit, trapping countless numbers and further eroding compassion and understanding.'

-Benjamin N. Lawrance, Editor-in-Chief, African Studies Review

'In grappling with the issue of 'deception' in the asylum process, Bohmer and Shuman tackle some of the most important and difficult questions facing both advocates and decision makers. What counts as evidence? Is it enough to 'tell your story'? When is it okay to lie? And do the deceptions that are an inevitable consequence of the complex and messy situations from which people flee invalidate their claims for protection? Sharply observed and carefully written, this is a 'must read' for anyone who believes that 'truth' is almost always more complex than it seems.'

• Heaven Crawley, Chair in International Migration at the Centre for Trust, Peace and Social Relations, Coventry University, UK

'From stories through 'facts', evidence and 'having a case', to being a subject in a world of restrictions and deception: this is the journey described in this book, and it is the journey of large numbers of asylum seekers in the 21st century. Richly documented and carefully argued, Bohmer and Shuman's book must be placed among the handful of studies that take our understanding of the contemporary asylum system genuinely forward.'

-Jan Blommaert,Professor and Director of Babylon, Center for the Study of Multicultural Societies, Tilburg University, Netherlands

Auteur

Carol Bohmer is a Visiting Scholar in the Government Department at Dartmouth College, and a Teaching Fellow at King's College, London. She has worked in the area of law and society, examining the way legal and social institutions interact. Her most recent book is Rejecting Refugees: Political Asylum in the 21st Century, (2007) with Amy Shuman.

Amy Shuman is Professor at the Ohio State University where she is the recipient of the Distinguished Scholar and Distinguished Teaching awards. She is a Guggenheim Fellow. Her publications include Storytelling Rights: The Uses of Oral and Written Texts Among Urban Adolescents, Other People's Stories: Entitlement Claims and the Critique of Empathy, and, with Carol Bohmer, Rejecting Refugees: Political Asylum in the 21st Century.

Résumé

This book explores the legitimacy of political asylum applications in the US and UK through an examination of the varieties of evidence, narratives, and documentation with which they are assessed. Credibility is the central issue in determining the legitimacy of political asylum seekers, but the line between truth and lies is often elusive, partly because desperate people often have to use deception to escape persecution. The vetting process has become infused with a climate of suspicion that not only assesses the credibility of an applicant's story and differentiates between the economic migrant and the person fleeing persecution, but also attempts to determine whether an applicant represents a future threat to the receiving country. This innovative text approaches the problem of deception from several angles, including increased demand for evidence, uses of new technologies to examine applicants' narratives, assessments of forged documents, attempts to differentiate betweenvictims and persecutors, and ways that cultural misunderstandings can compromise the process. Essential reading for researchers and students of Political Science, International Studies, Refugee and Migration Studies, Human Rights, Anthropology, Sociology, Law, Public Policy, and Narrative Studies.

Contenu
Introduction.- SECTION ONE: Asylum Fraud.- Chapter 1: Asylum Fraud.- SECTION TWO: Evidence: What Counts as Evidence?.- Chapter 2: Narratives.- Chapter 3: Documentary Evidence.- Chapter 4: Science and Technology as Determinants of Credibility.- SECTION THREE: Misunderstandings and Suspicion.- Chapter 5: Your Bribery is My Networking: Understanding the Meaning of Exchange in Asylum Claims.- Chapter 6: New forms of Evidence: Membership in a Particular Social Group.- SECTION FOUR: Victim or Perpetrator.- Chapter 7: A Case Study: from Perpetrator to Victim to Perpetrator.- Chapter 8: Victim or Perpetrator?.- Conclusion.