Constructing truths in a culture of disbelief: Understanding asylum screening from within

Abstract

While a multitude of immigration officers enforce the numerous laws and policies regulating the arrival of asylum seekers, their work is often hidden from the public eye and ignored by academic debate, leaving fundamental questions unanswered: Is the migration debate blinded by bureaucracy or oblivious to the complexity of the asylum screening process? This article originates from an ethnographic study, which included over 80 interviews, six months of participant observation and four years of familiarization with the main actors, framed by a triangulation scheme that allowed in-depth exploration of the field from within. The study's conclusions expose how identifying immigration officers' subculture is key to understanding asylum controls and to reach beyond the legal shield and the rhetorical concepts of political debate. Based on this empirical research, this article exposes how officers' criteria for screening individuals are not derived from regulations or laws but their own categorizations, rules and values derived from ambiguous stereotypes nurtured by officers' experiences and social prejudices. © The Author(s) 2011.