‘Victims not wrongdoers’: the legal consciousness of rejected asylum seekers in Norway

Abstract

Drawing on in-depth interviews, observation, and legal sources, this article examines how rejected asylum seekers experience their status and the legal regulations related to it, and how they react as a result. Their legal consciousness must be understood in the light of their illegal status, which makes them keenly aware that legal regulations and power structures decisively affect their everyday lives. They are ‘outside the law’ yet struggling to become insiders. While they all use legal services in their individual struggles, their engagement in collective counter-hegemonic struggles is greatly affected by social relations, networks, and culture. Honneth's theory of recognition is used to expand the narrative of ‘dissenting collectivism’ within legal consciousness scholarship and capture the collective resistance of the marginalized. Unlike studies portraying these migrants as fearful of any involvement with the authorities, this article demonstrates that individual experiences of injustice and violated expectations of recognition can lead to collective resistance and mobilization.