Paper short abstract:

This paper explores how a micro-level analysis of social interaction in asylum appeals hearings in France might be linked to a macro-level analysis of the political economy of migration, and also considers the general issues which the need to establish such a linkage raises for anthropological theory.

Paper long abstract:

This paper explores issues relating to social interaction, shifting scales of analysis and anthropological theory through an examination of refugee status determination procedures in France. The first section provides an analysis of examples of social interaction between different participants (asylum applicants, legal representatives, judges, rapporteurs and interpreters) in asylum appeals hearings, focusing on questions of cultural and linguistic interpretation and translation. The second section considers how this kind of micro-level analysis of social interaction might be linked to a macro-analysis of the political economy of migration. Finally, the paper explores some of the implications of the preceding discussion for more general issues of anthropological theory.