Migrants in a state of uncertainty Panel proposal for VSR congress – January 2020
Chair: prof. Ellen Desmet, Migration Law Research Group, Ghent University
Migrants and refugees depend for their residence rights on the laws of their country of destination.
Their daily lives are also governed by another legal system than the one of their home country. This often creates a lot of uncertainty, caused by a lack of familiarity with the content of the rules and/or anxiousness about the outcome of their residence application. This panel analyses the interaction between migrants and state law at various stages of the migration trajectory (in ‘transit’; in the country of destination), from different points of view (theoretical and empirical), and from different disciplinary perspectives (socio-legal studies, (socio)linguistics).
Legal consciousness of migrants: mapping out different conceptualizations
Ayse Güdük, Migration Law Research Group, Faculty of Law and Criminology, Ghent University
In law and society research, legal consciousness has become a popular subject. An individual’s legal consciousness is shaped by the cultural environment in which she or he lives as well as influenced by her or his experiences. This paper analyses the literature on ‘legal consciousness’, with particular attention for studies on the legal consciousness of migrants. These studies are quite limited in number and mainly focused on undocumented migrants (Abrego 2011; Schwenken 2013).
First, the paper provides a mapping of different conceptualizations of and approaches toward legal consciousness, for instance, as including or not actions ‘using’ the law (often referred to as ‘legal mobilization’), individual legal consciousness versus collective legal consciousness, and critical approach versus secular approach. Second, the paper specifically focuses on the legal consciousness of persons who are more ‘remote’ from society, a category which may include migrants. Even though these people are often ignorant about or have no willingness or capacity to think about law in their daily life, they still have a level of legal consciousness.
The co-construction of "credibility" during lawyer-client consultations in the field of Belgian asylum law
Marie Jacobs, Department of Translation, Interpreting and Communication, Faculty of Arts and Philosophy, Ghent University
This study focuses on the role of language in a legal setting. More specifically, I will examine the narrative management of asylum accounts in the field of Belgium asylum law. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork involving observations as well as audio-recordings of lawyer-client consultations, I will demonstrate how lawyers and asylum seekers co-construct a refugee narrative that aims to satisfy the vague criteria of the law. The Aliens’ act expects people applying for international protection to give a satisfying explanation, that is plausible and coherent during this interview at the CGRS (Office of the Commissioner General for Refugees and Stateless Persons). The law also stipulates that the testimony should display the general credibility of the applicant. The legal documents do not offer any guidance on how to interpret concepts like “satisfying”, “plausible” and
“credible” and this uncertainty influences the everyday practice of asylum lawyers. In order to show
this, I will start from a case study of a consultation between an Afghan asylum seeker, his guardian and his lawyer. The purpose of the meeting is to prepare the asylum seeker for testifying at the asylum hearing, in which the lawyer is not allowed to speak for his client. The data show how lawyers interpret the ambiguous, government-imposed criteria and how they facilitate the asylum seeker in performing credibility. This process is characterised by tensions between narrative and factual modes of performance and clearly highlights the crucial role of the lawyer in the construction of an institutionally valid refugee identity.
Seeking protection and legal consciousness: Refugees in Morocco, a qualitative analysis Ruben Wissing, Migration Law Research Group, Faculty of Law and Criminology, Ghent University Seeking asylum is about seeking protection abroad, physically, but also under the law. This combination of protection seeking, the transnational element, and the need for access to the law has very specific consequences. National, bilateral and European migration policies generally promise to improve international protection by formally implementing international refugee law into national legislation. However, that in itself does not suffice for refugees to obtain the legal protection they are entitled to easily, or even at all.
Besides the implementation in practice and enforceability of procedural and substantial rights, legal consciousness in its broadest sense also plays a crucial role for refugees in accessing and exercising their rights in a new country. Availability and provision of information, personal and cultural conceptions about the law, previous experiences with national and foreign authorities representing the law, procedural costs, cultural differences, etc. all impact on how a protection seeker perceives and relates to the law.
The presentation will present a first analysis of data obtained through qualitative field work in Morocco in November 2019, on the meaning of international protection and the role of the law in searching and obtaining it.
