Taking the ‘Just' Decision: Caseworkers and Their Communities of Interpretation in the Swiss Asylum Office

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Ressource 1Download: Affolter-Miaz-Poertner_2019.pdf (29130.83 [Ko])
State: Public
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License: CC BY 4.0
Serval ID
serval:BIB_B43DCF230A0E
Type
A part of a book
Collection
Publications
Institution
Title
Taking the ‘Just' Decision: Caseworkers and Their Communities of Interpretation in the Swiss Asylum Office
Title of the book
Asylum Determination in Europe
Author(s)
Affolter Laura, Miaz Jonathan, Poertner Ephraim
Publisher
Springer International Publishing
Address of publication
Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
ISBN
978-3-319-94749-5
978-3-319-94748-8
Publication state
Published
Issued date
2019
Peer-reviewed
Oui
Editor
Gill Nick, Good Anthony
Series
Palgrave Socio-Legal Studies
Chapter
13
Pages
263-284
Language
english
Abstract
Decision-making in street-level bureaucracies has often been portrayed as being riddled with a practical dilemma: that of having to juggle between compassion and rigid rule-following. However, drawing on three ethnographic studies of Swiss asylum administration, we argue that often what are from the “outside” perceived as conflicting rationales of decision-making, are not experienced as such by the caseworkers themselves. Rather these different rationales are made to fit. We argue that decision-makers’ “volitional allegiance” with the office plays a crucial role thereby.
For the caseworkers we encountered, decision-making is about taking “just decisions”, i.e. decisions that they consider “correct” and “fair”. We suggest that these notions of correctness and fairness are crucially influenced by their affiliations and allegiances with different “communities of interpretation” within the office.
Keywords
Asylum decision-making, street-level bureaucracy, law in action, Asylum policy
Open Access
Yes
Funding(s)
European Research Council (ERC)
Create date
07/02/2017 17:44
Last modification date
21/11/2022 8:29
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