Rethinking commonality in refugee status determination in Europe: legal geographies of asylum appeals

Gill, N., Hoellerer, N., Allsop, J., Burridge, A., Fisher, D., Griffiths, M., Hambly, J., Paszkiewicz, N., Rotter, R. and Vianelli, L. (2022) Rethinking commonality in refugee status determination in Europe: legal geographies of asylum appeals. Political Geography, 98, 102686. (doi: 10.1016/j.polgeo.2022.102686)

Abstract

The Common European Asylum System aims to establish common standards for refugee status determination among EU Member States. Combining insights from legal and political geography we bring the depth and scale of this challenge into sharp relief. Drawing on interviews and a detailed ethnography of asylum adjudication involving over 850 in-person asylum appeal observations, we point towards practical differences in the spatio-temporality, materiality and logistics of asylum appeal processes as they are operationalised in seven European countries. Our analysis achieves three things. Firstly, we identify a key zone of differences at the level of concrete, everyday implementation that has largely escaped academic attention, which allows us to critically assess the notion of harmonisation of asylum policies in new ways. Secondly, drawing on legal- and political-geographical concepts, we offer a way to conceptualise this zone by paying attention to the spatio-temporality, materiality and logistics it involves. Thirdly, we offer critical legal logistics as a new direction for scholarship in legal geography and beyond that promises to prise open the previously obscured mechanics of contemporary legal systems.

• Item Type: Articles
• Additional Information: This work was supported by the European Research Council [grant number StG-2015_677917, acronym ASYFAIR] and the Economic and Social Research Council [grant number ES/J023426/1].
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Fisher, Dr Dan
• Authors: Gill, N., Hoellerer, N., Allsop, J., Burridge, A., Fisher, D., Griffiths, M., Hambly, J., Paszkiewicz, N., Rotter, R., and Vianelli, L.
• Subjects: G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > G Geography (General); G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > GN Anthropology; J Political Science > JV Colonies and colonization. Emigration and immigration. International migration; K Law > K Law (General)
• College/School: College of Social Sciences > School of Education
• Journal Name: Political Geography
• Publisher: Elsevier
• ISSN: 0962-6298
• ISSN (Online): 1873-5096
• Published Online: 31 July 2022
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2022 The Authors
• First Published: First published in Political Geography 98:102686
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a Creative Commons License