Asylum Matters : : On the Front Line of Administrative Decision-Making.

• Superior document: Palgrave Socio-Legal Studies
• Author: Affolter, Laura.
• Place / Publishing House: Cham : : Springer International Publishing AG,, 2020.; ©2021.
• Year of Publication: 2020
• Edition: 1st ed.
• Language: English
• Series: Palgrave Socio-Legal Studies
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (213 pages)

Table of Contents

Intro -- Acknowledgements -- Praise for Asylum Matters -- Contents -- Abbreviations -- List of Figures -- 1 Shaping Administrative Practice: The Institutional Habitus -- The Shaping of Discretion -- Assessing Credibility in Asylum Procedures: A Subjective Matter? -- The Institutional Habitus: A Brief Conceptual Introduction -- Outline of the Book -- References -- 2 Studying Everyday Practice(s) in the SEM -- Getting into the "Black Box" -- "Getting In"… Literally -- Doing Fieldwork -- Following People Around -- Method Triangulation -- The Researcher as a Learner -- My Interaction Partners in the SEM -- Thinking Through and with Practice Theory: Methodological Limits and Challenges -- References -- 3 Asylum Decision-Making in Switzerland -- Asylum Politics in Switzerland and Beyond -- Changing Law and the Proliferation of Legal Categories -- The SEM: A Specialised Asylum Administration Emerges -- The Decision-Making Procedure -- The Swiss Asylum Act -- References -- 4 Knowledge as Practice: Producing Decisional Certainty -- Ben's Case -- "Country Knowledge" -- Determining Applicants' "Country of Origin" -- Assessing Reasonable Likelihood -- Assessing Demeanour -- Producing Decisional Certainty: The Role of Professional-Practical Knowledge -- Producing On-File Facts: The Asylum Interview -- Writing Asylum Decisions: The Final Creation of Legal Facts -- Managing Uncertainty: The Importance of Credibility Determination -- Concluding Remarks -- References -- 5 Getting in Line with the Office -- Becoming a Member of the Office -- Who Are the Decision-Makers? -- Recruiting New Decision-Makers -- Communities of Interpretation -- Learning the Ropes of Asylum Decision-Making -- Learning What Questions to Ask -- Learning to Test Credibility -- Accountability -- Peer Pressure -- Accountability Towards Superiors and Beyond.

A Brief Summary: Acquiring an Institutional Habitus -- References -- 6 The Good Decision-Maker or Protecting the System -- Negotiating "the Right" Decision: A Field Anecdote -- Ethics of the Office: Decision-Makers as Protectors of the System -- Ethos of the Office: Professional Norms and Values -- The Efficient, Fast and Economical Decision-Maker -- The Neutral, Apolitical Decision-Maker -- The Objective, Sufficiently Distanced and Emotionally Detached Decision-Maker -- The Sufficiently but Not Overly Suspicious Decision-Maker -- Ethos Is Ethics: The Fair Decision-Maker -- Conclusion -- References -- 7 The Normalisation of Disbelief -- References -- Index.