Refugee status determination; Asylum appeals; Common European Asylum System; Legal geographies; Commonality
Abstract :
[en] The Common European Asylum System aims to establish common standards for refugee status determination among EU Member States. Combining insights from legal and political geography we bring the depth and scale of this challenge into sharp relief. Drawing on interviews and a detailed ethnography of asylum adjudication involving over 850 in-person asylum appeal observations, we point towards practical differences in the spatio-temporality, materiality and logistics of asylum appeal processes as they are operationalised in seven European countries. Our analysis achieves three things. Firstly, we identify a key zone of differences at the level of concrete, everyday implementation that has largely escaped academic attention, which allows us to critically assess the notion of harmonisation of asylum policies in new ways. Secondly, drawing on legal- and political-geographical concepts, we offer a way to conceptualise this zone by paying attention to the spatio-temporality, materiality and logistics it involves. Thirdly, we offer critical legal logistics as a new direction for scholarship in legal geography and beyond that promises to prise open the previously obscured mechanics of contemporary legal systems.
Disciplines :
Political science, public administration & international relations Human geography & demography
Author, co-author :
Gill, Nick
Hoellerer, Nicole
Allsopp, Jennifer
Burridge, Andrew
Fisher, Dan
Griffiths, Melanie
Hambly, Jessica
Paszkiewicz, Natalia
Rotter, Rebecca
VIANELLI, Lorenzo ; University of Luxembourg > Faculty of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences (FHSE) > Department of Geography and Spatial Planning (DGEO)
External co-authors :
yes
Language :
English
Title :
Rethinking commonality in refugee status determination in Europe: Legal geographies of asylum appeals
Publication date :
October 2022
Journal title :
Political Geography
ISSN :
0962-6298
eISSN :
1873-5096
Publisher :
Elsevier, United Kingdom
Special issue title :
The grey area of government: Ambiguity, inconsistency and opacity in the management of forced migration and borders
Volume :
98
Peer reviewed :
Peer Reviewed verified by ORBi
Focus Area :
Migration and Inclusive Societies Law / European Law
H2020 - 677917 - ASYFAIR - Fair and Consistent Border Controls? A Critical, Multi-methodological and Interdisciplinary Study of Asylum Adjudication in Europe
Funders :
European Research Council - grant number StG-2015_677917 Economic and Social Research Council - grant number ES/J023426/1 CE - Commission Européenne
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