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Accepted Paper:
The politics of knowledge: an examination of the use of country information in the asylum determination process
Natasha Tsangarides
(IAS)
Paper short abstract:
not used
Paper long abstract:
Country of origin information (COI) is an important form of evidence used within the asylum determination process. COI material consists of a variety of sources including reports produced by experts, news services, NGOs, government bodies and the UKBA's COI Service. Within this newly constructed field of knowledge, hierarchies of knowledge have developed.
This paper intends to map what hierarchies have developed and how sources have gained the status of being "objective".
Results will show how sources gain weight amongst the diverse stakeholders and why certain sources, such as expert reports, are more heavily scrutinized than others.
With the majority of UKBA caseowners mainly or solely relying on the UKBA COIS reports, this paper seeks to critique the concept of a definitive report on a given country. Organising knowledge in such a way as to make it the most "legible" form of information for UKBA caseowners, not only ensures the use of one-dimensional knowledge, but also allows for the increased possibility of the centralized management of decision-making. However, as this paper will demonstrate, these reports do not allow the level of complexity necessary to gain a holistic understanding of a country or an individual claim.
The courts, experts and deciding the law
Session 1