Law and Speed: Asylum Appeals and the Techniques and Consequences of Legal Quickening

Hambly, Jessica; Gill, Nick

doi:10.1111/jols.12220

Cited by 30 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…Not only are there efforts to speed up privileged forms of mobility through biometrics and chipped passports (Mezzadra and Neilson 2013) but speed can also act as a form of obfuscation in the context of less privileged forms of migration. Asylum seekers, claims are commonly rushed, streamlined and fast-track, which obscures poor quality legal processes (Hambly and Gill 2020). Contemporary border regimes should thus be seen as premised upon a combination of speeds through which border crossings are governed (Mezzadra and Neilson 2013;McNevin and Missbach 2018).…”

Section: Governing Over and Through Timementioning

confidence: 99%

Waiting as probation: selecting self-disciplining asylum seekers

Vianelli

Gill

Hoellerer

2021

Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies

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This article diagnoses and critiques a type of governmentality associated with waiting during protracted asylum appeal procedures by drawing upon data from a multi-methodological study of asylum adjudication in Europe. Focusing on Austria, Germany and Italy, we explore the use of integration-related considerations in asylum appeal processes by looking at the ways in which these considerations permeate judges' decision-making, particularly, but not exclusively, on the granting of national, non-EU harmonised protection statuses. Building on insights from the literature on conditional integration we question the implicit sociopolitical biases and moral assumptions that underpin this permeation. We show that the use of integration-related considerations in asylum appeals transforms migrant waiting into a period of probation during which rejected asylum seekers' conducts are governed and tested in relation to the use of time. More than simply waiting patiently, rejected asylum seekers are expected to wait productively, whereby productivity is assessed through the neoliberal imperatives of entrepreneurship, autonomy and selfimprovement. We thus contribute to scholarship on migrant waiting by showing how time is capitalised by state authorities even whenand actually becauseit offers opportunities for migrants.

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Section: Governing Over and Through Timementioning

confidence: 99%

Waiting as probation: selecting self-disciplining asylum seekers

Vianelli

Gill

Hoellerer

2021

Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies

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“…52 Asylum procedures may also be accelerated in the interest of national security or public order. 53 Notwithstanding, a procedure that is purely based on the principle 'the sooner the better' would clearly lead to unjust results (Hambly and Gill, 2020). Therefore, the Procedures Directive and case law also stress that time limits may not undermine the fairness of the asylum procedure.…”

Section: European Migration Law and Temporal Governancementioning

confidence: 99%

What are they waiting for? The use of acceleration and deceleration in asylum procedures by the Dutch Government

Reneman

Stronks

2021

Time & Society

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In the period 2014–2019, the Dutch authorities governed the duration of asylum procedures in order to control the influx of asylum seekers. They prioritised and accelerated cases with poor chances of success, while they deprioritised cases with good chances of success. This resulted in long asylum procedures for asylum seekers with a likelihood of success and short asylum procedures for those with a poor chance of success. This article contends that this Dutch policy is an illustration of ‘temporal governance’: a governmental strategy to control and discipline migrants by means of time. This form of governance is based on a detailed knowledge of processes of asylum procedures, which enables qualification, categorisation and differentiation between different groups of asylum seekers. The focus of this research is on how such temporal governance functions and how it relates to law. A traditional understanding of law and sovereign power entails that law legitimates and restricts power. Strikingly, temporal governance regulating the asylum procedure seems to have a different relationship to law. This article demonstrates that legal standards, in this case the standards of European Union legislation, provide Member States a large amount of room (temporal discretion) to apply temporal governance. Moreover, only a few limited legal remedies remain available, if the duration of the asylum procedure appears unlawful. Instead of limiting temporal governance, law provides ample opportunity for the acceleration and deceleration of asylum cases in order to delay due process of asylum seekers and deter others from arriving. We cannot prove that the Dutch government aimed at deprioritising and decelerating complex asylum cases and cases with good chances of success – which would have been unlawful. However, this was the net result of their chosen policy. We illustrate that instead of a legitimation and restriction of sovereign power to govern the asylum influx by means of time, law can function as a set of tactics to pursue policy aims by employing ‘temporal governance’.

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“…Some countries, like Greece, use in-person hearings infrequently, usually deciding cases via paper applications, in appellants' absence. Some countries, like France, have a paper option for certain types of supposedly straightforward cases (Hambly & Gill, 2020). The procedural rules around when to use in-person hearings therefore conditions the presence of appellants at the legal reconsideration of their cases, and also shaped our sample.…”

Section: Asylum Appeals In Europe and The Ethnography Of Absencementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Traditionally, for example, administrative tribunals have been conceived as speedy and cheap forms of redress and resolution in high‐volume dispute areas such as asylum and immigration (Thomas, 2011). Nonetheless, such perceived benefits often come at the cost of fairness, when procedural rights guarantees are undermined by efforts to achieve quick and efficient processing of claims (Hambly & Gill, 2020). Here, we refer to “courts” because there is no consistent nomenclature for the venues that hear asylum appeals in Europe (sometimes they are called “tribunals,” sometimes “boards,” sometimes “courts”).…”

Section: Asylum Appeals In Europe and The Ethnography Of Absencementioning

confidence: 99%

What’s missing from legal geography and materialist studies of law? Absence and the assembling of asylum appeal hearings in Europe

Gill

Allsopp

Burridge

et al. 2020

Trans Inst British Geog

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There is an absence of absence in legal geography and materialist studies of the law. Drawing on a multi-sited ethnography of European asylum appeal hearings, this paper illustrates the importance of absences for a fully-fledged materiality of legal events. We show how absent materials impact hearings, that non-attending participants profoundly influence them, and that even when participants are physically present, they are often simultaneously absent in other, psychological registers. In so doing we demonstrate the importance and productivity of thinking not only about law's omnipresence but also the absences that shape the way law is experienced and practised. We show that attending to the distribution of absence and presence at legal hearings is a way to critically engage with legal performance.

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Law and Speed: Asylum Appeals and the Techniques and Consequences of Legal Quickening

Cited by 30 publications

References 11 publications

Waiting as probation: selecting self-disciplining asylum seekers

Waiting as probation: selecting self-disciplining asylum seekers

What are they waiting for? The use of acceleration and deceleration in asylum procedures by the Dutch Government

What’s missing from legal geography and materialist studies of law? Absence and the assembling of asylum appeal hearings in Europe

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