Paper short abstract:

This paper explores the emerging tensions between church and state in the context of asylum claims based on conversion to Christianity and fear of religious persecution, which point to a much wider struggle over citizenship (Vetters 2022) and the role of religion in society.

Paper long abstract:

Among recent migrations to Europe, a significant number have based their applications on fear of religious persecution following a conversion from Islam to Christianity. The assessment of these asylum applications is based on (1) the credibility of the applicants’ conversions and on (2) whether the religious conversion will lead to persecution of the asylum-seeker if deported back to their country of origin. The outcomes of these deliberations thus determine the fate of the asylum-seeker in question. Yet, they raise the following critical questions: how can one correctly assess the genuineness of a conversion to Christianity? Can, or should, this be the role of the secular state and its legal decision-makers? If so, how does the state decide which forms and practices of Christianity are ‘acceptable,’ and to whom? In this complex set of questions, the role of pastors as supporters of the new converts and “activists” for different asylum outcomes is particularly telling. Drawing on case law, ethnographic observations at asylum appeal hearings based on conversion at German courts as well as church workshops and interviews with all actors involved, this paper explores the ensuing struggle over authority in assessing what makes a ‘true’ convert worthy of protection. Given that in such hearings, pastors, lawyers, claimants, and judges evaluate the claimants’ belonging to Germany’s dominant religion, Christianity, the emerging tensions between church and state point to a much wider struggle over citizenship (Vetters 2022) and the role of religion in society.