Asylum decision-making and discretion: Types of room for maneuver in refugee status determination

Titolo Rivista SOCIOLOGIA DEL DIRITTO
Autori/Curatori Jonathan Miaz
Anno di pubblicazione 2021 Fascicolo 2021/3
Lingua Inglese Numero pagine 26 P. 114-139 Dimensione file 223 KB
DOI 10.3280/SD2021-003006
Il DOI è il codice a barre della proprietà intellettuale: per saperne di più clicca qui

Qui sotto puoi vedere in anteprima la prima pagina di questo articolo.

Se questo articolo ti interessa, lo puoi acquistare (e scaricare in formato pdf) seguendo le facili indicazioni per acquistare il download credit. Acquista Download Credits per scaricare questo Articolo in formato PDF

Anteprima articolo

FrancoAngeli è membro della Publishers International Linking Association, Inc (PILA)associazione indipendente e non profit per facilitare (attraverso i servizi tecnologici implementati da CrossRef.org) l’accesso degli studiosi ai contenuti digitali nelle pubblicazioni professionali e scientifiche

By mobilizing ethnographic methods to study the Swiss asylum administration, this article analyzes the discretionary powers of Swiss asylum caseworkers in a context characterized by an important sophistication of law. Starting from the observation that the daily work of asylum caseworkers is strongly oriented and controlled by their superiors and colleagues, by institu-tional rules and guidelines, as well as by their socialization, the author identifies different types of discretionary powers, on which caseworkers’ discretion rests. Consequently, he discusses how caseworkers perceive and use it differently, depending on the situation in which they find themselves. Thus, the article argues that asylum caseworkers have different types of room for maneuver according to their tasks, to the situations they are faced with, to the conditions in which they operate, and to their own characteristics (capitals, attitudes, experience). Eventually, the present contribution shows the relational and collective dimensions of bureaucratic dis-cretion.

Keywords:Discretion - Bureaucratic Decision-making - Street-level bureaucracy - Asylum policy - Refugee status determination

  1. Affolter, Laura, 2021. Asylum Matters: On the Front Line of Administrative Decision-Making. Cham: Springer International Publishing.
  2. Akoka, Karen, 2020. L’asile et l’exil. Une histoire de la distinction réfugiés/migrants. Paris: La Découverte.
  3. Bohmer, Carol, & Amy Shuman, 2008. Rejecting Refugees. Political Asylum in the 21st Century. London and New York: Routledge.
  4. —, 1990a. Droit et passe-droit. Le champ des pouvoirs territoriaux et la mise en œuvre des règlements. Actes de la Recherche en Sciences Sociales, 81, 1: 86-96.
  5. —, 1990b. The Logic of Practice. Cambridge: Polity Press.
  6. Brodkin, Evelyn Z., 2011. Policy Work: Street-Level Organizations under New Managerialism. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 21, Supplement 2: 253-277.
  7. —, 2020. Discretion in the Welfare State. In Tony Evans and Peter Hupe (eds.), Discretion and the Quest for Controlled Freedom. Cham: Springer.
  8. Miaz, Jonathan, 2017. From the Law to the Decision: The Social and Legal Conditions of Asylum Adjudication in Switzerland. European Policy Analysis, 3 (2): 372-396.
  9. Buffat, Aurélien, 2015. When and Why Discretion Is Weak or Strong: The Case of Taxing Officers in a Public Unemployment Fund. In Peter Hupe, Michael Hill & Aurélien Buffat (eds.), Understanding Street-Level Bureaucracy. Bristol: Policy Press.
  10. Campbell, Elaine, 1999. Towards a Sociological Theory of Discretion. International Journal of the Sociology of Law, 27, 1: 79-101.
  11. Dahlvik, Julia, 2018. Inside Asylum Bureaucracy: Organizing Refugee Status Determination in Austria. New York: Springer.
  12. Davis, Kenneth Culp, 1969. Discretionary Justice: A Preliminary Inquiry. Westport: Greenwood Press.
  13. Dubois, Vincent, 2009. Towards a Critical Policy Ethnography. The ‘Undeserving Poor’ and the New Welfare State. Critical Policy Studies, 3, 2: 219-237.
  14. —, 2012. The Fields of Public Policy. In Mathieu Hilgers, Eric Mangez (eds.), Social Field Theory: Concept and Applications. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  15. Dworkin, Ronald M., 1978. Taking Rights Seriously. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
  16. Evans, Tony, & John Harris, 2004. Street-Level Bureaucracy, Social Work and the (Exaggerated) Death of Discretion. British Journal of Social Work, 34: 871-895.
  17. —, & Peter Hupe, 2020. Discretion and the Quest for Controlled Freedom. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan.
  18. Feldman, Martha S., 1992. Social Limits to Discretion: An Organizational Perspective. In Keith Hawkins (ed.), The Uses of Discretion. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
  19. Galligan, Denis J., 1990. Discretionary Powers: A Legal Study of Official Discretion. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  20. Gill, Nick, & Anthony Good, 2019. Asylum Determination in Europe. London: Palgrave Mac Millan.
  21. —, Rebecca Rotter, Andrew Burridge & Jennifer Allsopp, 2018. The Limits of Procedural Discretion: Unequal Treatment and Vulnerability in Britain’s Asylum Appeals. Social & Legal Studies, 27, 1: 49-78.
  22. Hawkins, Keith, 1986. On Legal Decision-Making. Washington & Lee Law Review, 43, 4: 1161-1242.
  23. —, 1992. The Use of Legal Discretion: Perspectives from Law and Social Science. In Keith Hawkins (ed.), The Uses of Discretion. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
  24. Hupe, Peter, 2013. Dimensions of Discretion: Specifying the Object of Street-Level Bureaucracy Research. Der Moderne Staat - Zeitschrift für Public Policy, Recht und Management, 6, 2: 425-440.
  25. Jubany, Olga, 2017. Screening Asylum in a Culture of Disbelief. Cham: Springer International Publishing.
  26. Kawar, Leïla, & Jonathan Miaz, 2021. Enacting Immigration Politics in a Juridical Register. In Talesh Shauhin, Heinz Klug, & Elizabeth Mertz (eds.), Research Handbook on Modern Legal Realism. Northampton: Edward Elgar Publishing.
  27. Lascoumes, Pierre, 1990. Normes juridiques et mise En œuvre des politiques publiques. Année sociologique, 40, 3 : 43-71.
  28. —, & Jean-Pierre Le Bourhis, 1996. Des passe-droits aux passes du droit. La mise en œuvre socio-juridique de l’action publique. Droit et Société, 32: 51-73.
  29. Liodden, Tone Maia, 2020. Who Is a Refugee? Uncertainty and Discretion in Asylum Decisions. International Journal of Refugee Law, 32, 4: 645-667.
  30. Lipsky, Michael, 2010. Street-Level Bureaucracy: Dilemmas of the Individual in Public Service. 30th anniversary Edition. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
  31. Mascini, Peter, 2020. Discretion from a Legal Perspective. In Tony Evans & Peter Hupe (eds.), Discretion and the Quest for Controlled Freedom. Cham: Springer.
  32. —, 2019. Entre examen individuel et gestion collective: ce que les injonctions à la productivité font à l’instruction des demandes d’asile. Lien social et Politiques, 83: 144-166.
  33. —, & Christin Achermann, 2021. Bureaucracies under Judicial Control? Relational Discretion in the Implementation of Immigration Detention in Swiss Cantons. Administration & Society, 1-31. DOI: 10.1177/00953997211038000
  34. Poertner, Ephraim, 2017. Governing Asylum through Configurations of Productivity and Deterrence: Effects on the Spatiotemporal Trajectories of Cases in Switzerland. Geoforum, 78: 12-21.
  35. Portillo, Shannon, & Danielle S. Rudes, 2014. Construction of Justice at the Street Level. Annual Review of Law and Social Science, 10, 1: 321-334.
  36. Spire, Alexis, 2020. Discretionary Power as a Political Weapon against Foreigners. Etikk i Praksis - Nordic Journal of Applied Ethics, 2: 89-106.
  37. Tata, Cyrus, 2020. Sentencing: A Social Process: Re-thinking Research and Policy. Cham: Springer.
  38. Thomann, Eva, Nadine van Engen, & Lars Tummers, 2018. The Necessity of Discretion: A Behavioral Evaluation of Bottom-Up Implementation Theory. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 28, 4: 583-601.
  39. Tomkinson, Sule, 2018. Who Are You Afraid of and Why? Inside the Black Box of Refugee Tribunals. Canadian Public Administration, 62, 2: 184-204.

  • Potere criminale e pratiche di assoggettamento violenze, coercizione e resistenza nel fenomeno della tratta delle donne nigeriane Federica Cabras, in SOCIOLOGIA DEL DIRITTO 3/2023 pp.132
    DOI: 10.3280/SD2022-003007
  • Asylum Adjudication and Street-Level Discretion: Negotiating Practice Rules Jonathan Miaz, in Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis: Research and Practice /2024 pp.25
    DOI: 10.1080/13876988.2024.2304832

Jonathan Miaz, Asylum decision-making and discretion: Types of room for maneuver in refugee status determination in "SOCIOLOGIA DEL DIRITTO " 3/2021, pp 114-139, DOI: 10.3280/SD2021-003006