Agency and vulnerability in the field of immigration law: a linguistic-ethnographic perspective on lawyer–client interaction

Abstract

Migrants are often perceived as a group of vulnerable victims, especially within a legal context such as the one in this study: lawyer–client consultations in the field of immigration law. The literature describes how institutional limitations often translate into asymmetric lawyer–client dynamics. The linguistic-ethnographic data gathered for this study shows, however, that the reality is more complex. In operationalizing the concept of agency, this study focuses on the dynamic-relational nature of power differences, which implies a move away from the binary conceptualization of structure and agency. The ethnographic lens helps to unpack agency and reveals a picture of strategic behaviour that is contextually embedded and multi-layered. In this light, the performance of agency and vulnerability is shown to be (1) interactionally achieved, (2) indicative of an awareness of macro-level processes, and (3) reflective of the philosophy behind the authorities’ migration management.