Respect and Asylum


 
 
 Every year the Norwegian Directorate of Immigration (UDI) conducts approximately 10,000 interpreter-mediated asylum interviews in Norway. Each asylum interview ends with the interpreter providing a sight translation of the draft interview report (an oral translation of the text) to the asylum seeker. The UDI wished to find out why some interpreters took so much more time than others for sight translation. In response, Oslo and Akershus University College of Applied Sciences initiated a pilot project. The project’s working hypothesis was that slow sight translation was due mainly to a combination of three factors: interpreters’ poor reading skills; interpreters’ poor interpreting techniques; and/or interpreters’ unfamiliarity with the appropriate genre/style. A more complex picture emerged, however, from an analysis of 13 asylum interviews; group work involving 108 UDI interpreters; and discussions with UDI specialists. An asylum report is the joint product of all the participants in an asylum interview, who are typically the asylum seeker, the interviewer and the interpreter. The pilot study showed that each participant could contribute in various ways to slowing the speed of sight translation. Contributing factors identified that were unrelated to the interpreter included the interviewer’s competence in interview techniques; the interviewer’s competence in creating a written record of speech; the asylum seeker’s narrative ability; and the asylum seeker’s ability to correct mistakes in the draft report. All these factors may have just as much impact on the speed of sight translation as the interpreter’s competence. In addition, the physical strain caused by the length of asylum interviews (six hours plus) and the emotional stress potentially caused by such institutional interviews may affect the communicative abilities of all participants. As sight translation in the public sector is an under-researched area, the article starts with a discussion of terminology and an explanation of the UDI context. It then presents a possible explanation for slowness of sight translation and concludes that there is a need for more research into the various factors relevant to sight translation in the public sector and that there is a need to provide systematic training for both interpreters and interpreter users.
 
 

The United States requires asylum applicants to provide their own interpreters for their interviews at the Asylum Office, barring exceptional circumstances. Applicants can face significant hurdles in finding suitable interpreters, who play a critical role in giving them a voice in the asylum process. Inaccurate interpretation can have serious ramifications such as denial of an applicant’s asylum claim. Despite the critical need for meaningful language access in the asylum process, interpretation at the Asylum Office remains understudied. This article represents a first attempt at bringing the scholarly and practitioner communities together to rethink interpretation at the Asylum Office, with the goal of identifying feasible steps that the Asylum Office can take to enhance language access. This article proposes the below five holistic policy recommendations to improve interpretation at the Asylum Office, based on data from 28 interviews with attorneys who practiced before either the Arlington or Houston Asylum Offices, as well as the authors’ own prior professional experiences advocating on behalf of asylum seekers. 1. Government provision of telephonic interpreters. 2. Advance notice when a bilingual asylum officer can conduct an asylum interview in a language other than English. 3. Additional institutional support for asylum officers including lunch breaks. 4. Improved data collection regarding interpretation. 5. Additional research including analysis of how the COVID-19 pandemic affected interpretation at the Asylum Office. These recommendations are a starting point to improving language access at the Asylum Office. With this article, the authors hope to spark future research and conversations to ensure that individuals with limited English proficiency have meaningful access to asylum interviews.

Memory difficulties following traumatic experiences have been found to result in testimonial inconsistencies, which can affect credibility judgements in asylum decisions. No investigations have looked into how/whether the behavioural sequelae of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) affect decisions. This study aimed to investigate this by looking at whether observable symptoms of PTSD can be confused with perceived cues to deception. An actor performed four versions of a fictional ‘asylum interview’ that contained differing levels of pre-defined ‘deception’ and ‘trauma’ behaviours. Four groups of students (total n = 118) each watched a different interview. They gave subjective ratings of credibility, plus quantitative and qualitative information about the factors that influenced their judgements. Despite the content of the interviews remaining the same, significant differences in credibility ratings were found between interviews; with the interview containing both ‘trauma’ and ‘deception’ behaviours being rated as significantly less credible than the interview containing only the PTSD behaviours. ‘Emotional congruence’ was conceptualised as an important factor in influencing credibility. Results are discussed in terms of possible heuristics involved in judgements of an asylum-seeker population, as well as implications for vulnerable asylum seekers whose symptoms do not conform to stereotypes. Limitations and avenues for future research are highlighted.

The increasing number of asylum seekers arriving at the end of the 1980s has placed many western countries with the difficult task of distinguishing between people who genuinely fear persecution and people who merely want to improve their life conditions. Since there is often little documentary evidence about individual circumstances, immigration officers carefully scrutinze the oral testimony of asylum applicants. This empirical study focuses on the communication between asylum claimants and interviewing officers. How do immigration officers ascertain credibility in encounters with asylum applicants?

The Global Trust Inventory (GTI), conceptually assessing trust in others ranging from close interpersonal relationships to relationships with government and financial institutions as a whole, was administered to representative online samples in 11 democratic states ( N = 11,917 from Europe, the Americas, and New Zealand). A seven-factor solution had configural, metric, and reasonable scalar invariance in multi-group confirmatory factor analysis. Using latent profile analysis, individual-level measures of trust were derived that complement existing measures of social capital in their impact and implications. Western societies had proportionately more people with high propensity to trust, Catholic/European intermediate, and Latin American societies the least. A High Trust Profile had virtues associated with social capital: greater participation in political discussion, greater elaboration of political thinking, more community engagement, less prejudice, and greater participation in elections. A Low Trust Profile exhibited opposite tendencies. Demographically, high trust was associated with higher self-reported social status, home ownership, older age, and political conservatism. A more complex set of relationships differentiated two intermediate profiles, dubbed Moderate and Low Institutional Trust. Conceptually, the GTI operationalizes a holistic view of trust as a “synthetic force” that holds various aspects of society together, ranging from interpersonal to institutionalized relationships.

PurposeMany refugees and asylum seekers in Germany experience a high disease burden and low health literacy. The current study aims to focus on assessing these issues among African refugees and asylum seekers in Bavaria, Germany. The authors evaluated their self-perceived health status and health literacy, and identified barriers and gaps in health care utilization, intending to improve health care services for this group.Design/methodology/approachThe authors conducted a cross-sectional, questionnaire-based study involving 69 refugees and asylum seekers from Ethiopia, Eritrea and Nigeria. The authors performed descriptive and exploratory statistical analyses.FindingsThe authors found a substantial disease burden in the early stages of resettlement in Germany, particularly mental health symptoms (53.6%) and musculoskeletal problems (47.8%). Challenges in health literacy were observed, such as difficulties in understanding health information and managing emergency situations. Access to interpreters was limited, and understanding treatment certificates was more challenging than using electronic health cards, with 18.2% of participants reporting denial of medical treatment.Practical implicationsThese findings highlight the need for early and tailored health support for refugees, with a particular focus on mental health. Efforts should be made to reduce language barriers and improve navigational skills within the health-care system, particularly in emergency situations. Addressing the restricted access to health care and bureaucratic obstacles is crucial for improved health outcomes among refugees.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors’ knowledge, this research is the first to specifically explore the self-reported health status and health literacy of African refugees and asylum seekers in Bavaria, Germany, providing valuable insights into the unique healthcare challenges of this often underrepresented and overlooked population.

Asylum seekers typically have a different cultural background from the immigration officials interviewing and assessing their statements. Yet the role of culture in eliciting and evaluating asylum seekers’ statements has remained largely unexplored. This article addresses the intersection of memory and culture in the context of the asylum determination process. To that end, we draw on the literature on eyewitness memory, which has so far largely been studied separately from credibility assessments in asylum procedures. We integrate the academic literature on the two subjects by discussing memory aspects prone to cultural variations through the lens of credibility assessments in the asylum determination procedure. We highlight the need for further research, given that most studies on memory have involved participants from Western, Educated, Industrialised, Rich and Democratic (WEIRD) societies, ignoring 88 per cent of the world population. More insight into cultural differences within memory and reporting will allow for the creation of culturally nuanced credibility assessment tools that better accommodate the majority of the world population.

A body of work has emerged in political philosophy which can be termed ‘the ethics of migration’. Within that literature, there has been an increased focus on issues of displacement and protection which reflects practical concerns in the wider world. However, that focus has been predominantly upon refugees and asylum seekers and the ethical questions and challenges raised by their needs for protection. In this paper I argue that this leaves out many other issues, such as disaster-related and development-related displacements. However, addressing this absence cannot be an act of ‘gap-filling’. Rather, political philosophers who wish to address this wider understanding of displacement in their work need to draw upon and learn from other fields, disciplines and perspectives in ways that may radically disrupt and reform how the ethics of protection should be approached. In this paper I take some preliminary steps in exploring what an ethical framework for displacement might look like, by providing some of the elements of a groundwork for this project.

Background The Italian law provides for international protection and universal health-care coverage for asylum seekers (AS). Indeed, they are entitled to be regularly registered at the National Healthcare Service. Before submitting the application for refugee status, medical assistance to migrants is up to local administration. Our aim was to describe and compare policies and protocols regulating AS healthcare from their arrival to their application for refugee status, at national and regional level. Moreover, we investigated the daily healthcare practice addressing potential gaps between policies and practice. Methods The research team is a subgroup of the Inequality working group of the Italian hygiene society and it is composed of public health residents. The research involved also local health workers and other professionals belonging to regional groups of Italian migrant medicine society (SIMM). We collected national, regional and local policies and protocols and we compared them using a specific framework. Furthermore, we achieved a mapping of daily practice implementation at local health organization (LHO) level using a checklist. Results The most relevant findings were that regional policies themselves vary notably from each other and, as regard practices, LHO implement differently the same regional legislation. Furthermore, we found some critical issues: the delayed inclusion in primary care assistance and lack of continuity of care and of a computerized system of recording information. Conclusions The lack of uniformity concerning policies and practices of AS healthcare might also result in unawareness and uncertainty about how to access to healthcare services by migrants. An enhanced cooperation between groups dealing with migrants’ issues may lead to avoid variability at the implementation. Finally, a computerized system for data collection might facilitate the continuity of care and the assessment of the real health needs of the AS population. Key messages It is a priority challenge for health systems to strengthen the interventions aimed at overcoming the linguistic, economic, cultural and administrative barriers to the health services access. It is crucial to improve the recording information system to detect the real health needs of AS, their change and the inequalities in access and to improve collaboration between groups and university.

The advent of democracy in the country has not only seen the liberation of the oppressed South African society, but it has also turned South Africa into a safe haven for displaced people of the world to seek asylum or refugee status. South Africa currently faces signifi cant migration-related challenges which need to be addressed as a matter of urgency. One such challenge is around asylum seekers and refugees. As a contribution towards finding sustainable solutions, this article will seek to profi le asylum seekers in South Africa. The article will attempt to identify trends in e.g. country of origin, and challenges faced by asylum seekers and refugees in the host country, South Africa. The overwhelming majority of asylum seekers and refugees in South Africa come from the rest of Africa hence this article will attempt to examine the issue of asylum seekers and refugees in its rightful context.

Although the concept of the refugee – one fleeing from a homeland to another country for safety – has been around for centuries, only since the end of World War II has there been a definition generally accepted by the international community, enshrined in the 1951 Geneva Convention Related to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol. This chapter will provide a brief historical overview of refugee flight from World War II to the present, definitions of refugees and asylum seekers, and an examination of several resettlement countries’ practices concerning education for refugees and asylum seekers. The author will conclude by considering elements of social justice and citizenship education as they relate to refugees and asylum seekers.

In the past, most refugees who permanently resettled in the traditional recipient countries of North America, Europe, and Australasia were screened prior to arrival in a host country. In the last decade, increasing numbers of unauthorized refugees or asylum seekers, those who formally lodge application for refugee status in the country in which they are residing, have applied for protection after crossing the borders of these countries. Concerns about uncontrolled migration have encouraged host countries to adopt policies of deterrence in which increasingly restrictive measures are being imposed on persons seeking asylum. These measures include, variously, confinement in detention centers, enforced dispersal within the community, the implementation of more stringent refugee determination procedures, and temporary forms of asylum. In several countries, asylum seekers living in the community face restricted access to work, education, housing, welfare, and, in some situations, to basic health care services. Allegations of abuse, untreated medical and psychiatric illnesses, suicidal behavior, hunger strikes, and outbreaks of violence among asylum seekers in detention centers have been reported. Although systematic research into the mental health of asylum seekers is in its infancy, and methods are limited by sampling difficulties, there is growing evidence that salient postmigration stress facing asylum seekers adds to the effect of previous trauma in creating risk of ongoing posttraumatic stress disorder and other psychiatric symptoms. The medical profession has a role in educating governments and the public about the potential risks of imposing excessively harsh policies of deterrence on the mental health of asylum seekers. JAMA. 2000;284:604-611

A mixed-method study of expert psychological evidence submitted for a cohort of asylum seekers undergoing refugee status determination in Australia

Refugee health nursing.

This conceptual article scrutinises the challenges faced by women seeking asylum in the UK, focusing on the impact of the Home Office’s streamlined asylum process. Despite mention of gender-based issues in official guidelines, the system exhibits hostility and inadequacy in addressing the unique obstacles women encounter. Through a posthuman, practice-based theoretical framework, the article examines recent gender-based concerns raised about the Home Office’s use of questionnaires, machine translation, and informal linguistic assistance in lieu of interpreted asylum interviews for selected nationalities. It also highlights the implications of technologisation and bureaucratisation on linguistic access, arguing that the revised asylum-seeking process not only reinforces women’s marginalised position but also diminishes crucial resources like interpreting, in turn contributing to gendered power asymmetries between asylum seekers and the justice system. The article contends that this approach transfers the burden of language understanding to women, contributing to a climate of sociomaterial exclusion that curtails the rights of female asylum seekers to be adequately heard.