Fraudulent Families? Investigating the Role of Paperwork in the Assessment of Refugees’ Family Reunification in Belgium

Current European directives indicate that refugees must be afforded more leniency when certifying the family relationships in family visa applications. However, our research—based on an in-depth thematic analysis of a sample of proceedings of the Belgian Council for Alien Law Litigation (2015–2019)—shows that even when refugee families provide documentary evidence about family ties and identity, this is often used against them. Building on studies on the bureaucratic culture of disbelief/suspicion, we illustrate that refusals are often based on discretionary decisions not to further investigate the application, as families allegedly committed fraud by presenting fake or discrepant proofs, while discrepancies may well emerge from the complexity of refugees’ transnational lives and bureaucratic experiences.