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When a person applies for asylum in the Netherlands, doubts may arise regarding the nationality, regional origin or ethnic background of the applicant, in particular when he cannot show any documents to prove his claims. In such cases, the Dutch Immigration and Naturalisation Service can offer the applicant the opportunity to dispel these doubts by means of a language analysis. In a language analysis, the linguistic output of the applicant is analysed, as well as his geographical and cultural knowledge, in order to determine whether or not the applicant can be traced to the language and cultural community in his claimed place of origin. The outcome of the language analysis can be a crucial element in a government's decision to grant asylum or not. Language analysis is part of asylum procedures in a number of countries in Europe and elsewhere, including The Netherlands.

When an applicant disagrees with the outcome of a language analysis, he has the right to have a contra-expertise (second opinion) carried out by an independent organisation or expert, at his own cost. De Taalstudio is an independent linguistic company that offers such contra-expertises carried out by professional linguists.

In this presentation I will discuss the use of language analysis in the Dutch asylum procedure and some of the concerns that linguists have raised about the quality and reliability of such analyses. These concerns relate mainly to the complexity of the language phenomena involved: mutli-lingualism, language attitudes, and the scarcity of descriptive studies of certain languages.

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