Border as Method, or, the Multiplication of Labor. By Sandro Mezzadra and Brett Neilson. xiv and 379 pp.; bibliog., index. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 2013. $24.62 (paper), isbn 0822355035...

Border as Method, or, the Multiplication of Labor

Abstract The article argues that the intertextuality of country of origin information (COI) plays a significant part in constructing asylum decisions and therefore the lives and futures of those affected by forced migration. COI in asylum decisions is based on COI reports, which in turn are based on other COI reports, interviews, or media materials. This makes them intertextual, that is, referring to and transforming other texts. That is, COI reports typically include dozens or even hundreds of pages of information, which are abbreviated in order to be used in a few paragraphs of asylum decisions. This is done through recontextualisation, that is, by selecting certain parts of the text and reformulating them to the new context. The article analyses COI in 67 negative first-instance asylum decisions and in 38 COI reports and similar sources through the concept of intertextuality. It argues that COI has two functions in the asylum decisions, personal and general. Personal COI is used to assess the truthfulness of the asylum applicant’s persecution narrative, whereas general COI is used to evaluate the overall security and human rights situation in the country of origin. The article shows that even though the decisions tend to present COI as objective information, it can easily be biased, irrelevant, and illogical, therefore creating an illusion of objectivity. 

/pdf/illusions-of-objectivity-the-two-functions-of-country-of-1tir7ase.pdf

Illusions of objectivity: The two functions of country of origin information in asylum assessment

This paper proposes a novel approach for analyzing the experiences of everyday bordering among people who have arrived in Finland as asylum seekers or refugees. Drawing on critical border studies, the study of laughter and the methodology of drifting, we conceptualize laughter as indicative of, and contributing to, the practices of bordering and de-bordering in the domain of everyday encounters. We ask, what different types of laughter reveal about the borders and bordering practices within Finnish society and in which ways laughter functions in the processes of (de-)bordering. We identify five types of laughter that make visible and challenge the borders that prevail in the lives of asylum seekers and refugees. These are softening, distancing, puzzling, criticizing and connecting laughter. We argue that placing focus on the non-verbal cues of laughter helps to identify new perspectives on bordering practices and suggest novel ways in which to research and analyze these. 

(De-)Bordering by Laughter. What Can Different Kinds of Laughter Reveal About the Experiences of Everyday Bordering Among Asylum Seekers and Refugees?

/pdf/editorial-introduction-the-role-of-language-and-1la0jhe1.pdf

Editorial Introduction: the Role of Language and Communication in Asylum Procedures

Refugees become asylum-seekers not only because the receiving country gives them the bureaucratic-legal status but also because they start to identify with the status. This article examines how refugees learn to be asylum-seekers even when they question asylum decisions. It uses Foucault's idea of governmentality to assess how governmental policies become translated into asylum-seekers’ collective and personal conducts as asylum-seekers, sometimes in ways that undermine the official policy. This article introduces the idea of papered governmentality, in which the production of papers is a governmental technology to manage not only populations but also personal identities and conducts. It investigates how asylum-seekers’ own role in papered governmentality as receivers, producers, and users of various papers in the asylum process transforms their conducts and identities in ways that reshape how they are governed. The empirical research site was an asylum-seekers’ protest in Finland where the first author conducted participant observation about how papers included in the asylum process were collected, read, discussed, circulated, and co-produced. The article finds that when migration control utilizes laws, bureaucratic documents, and other liberal governmental technologies designed to modify autonomous individuals’ own decisions to migrate, it produces not only control but also identification with the host country and some freedom to choose how to act with governmental decisions.

Papers of the Paperless: Governmentality, Technologies of Freedom, and the Production of Asylum-Seeker Identities

This article argues that authorisation and moral evaluation are the dominant legitimation strategies used in asylum decisions by the Finnish Immigration Service (Migri). After the migration events of 2015, the percentage of accepted asylum claims dropped dramatically in Finland, causing concern about the legal rights of asylum seekers. Drawing on theoretical literature concerning asylum decisions, borders and language, this article is based on a systematic analysis of 77 asylum decisions. It aims to answer the following questions: What strategies of legitimation does Migri use to support their negative asylum decisions? How are these strategies used? The study reports that the reasons behind negative asylum decisions are often not openly provided. Instead, the decisions largely rely on authorisation and implicit moral evaluation; the decision is so ‘because Migri says so’. This lack of transparency has adverse consequences for the due process of asylum seekers, and these consequences can be life changing.

/pdf/because-migri-says-so-legitimation-in-negative-asylum-2i74ssomw4.pdf

‘Because Migri Says So’:: Legitimation in Negative Asylum Decisions in Finland

Because Migri Says So

The article examines the intertextuality of asylum documents by analysing the links between the documents in various stages of the process. The paper argues that the asylum process materialises in ...

The extraordinary. Asylum process as an intertextual chain

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‘Because Migri Says So’:: Legitimation in Negative Asylum Decisions in Finland

Because Migri Says So

The extraordinary. Asylum process as an intertextual chain