Asylum interviews as interrogations to unmask bogus refugees: The case of Belgian asylum agencies
Issue: Vol 8 No. 1 (2011)
Journal: Journal of Applied Linguistics and Professional Practice
Subject Areas: Writing and Composition Linguistics
DOI: 10.1558/japl.v8i1.23
Abstract:
This paper examines the interaction between officers and asylum applicants in admissibility interviews by analyzing twelve interviews recorded during my fieldwork in the Belgian Immigration Department (ID) between 2004 and 2007, their corresponding records, and the ID’s decisions. This paper focuses on some officers’ practices during the interview, suggesting that they categorize the applicants as bogus refugees from the very beginning of the interview. In those cases, their main objective becomes one of unmasking them as bogus refugees and eliciting elements that may be used by the asylum agencies in order to arrive at a negative decision. To this end, the officials employ interrogation techniques that may well cause the applicant to become confused and thus jeopardize the construction of the climate of confidence needed in an asylum interview.
Author: Isabel Gomez Diez
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