Asylum as construction work: Theorizing administrative practices

This paper understands the administration of asylum as a vital element of the current migration regime in Europe, and investigates the migration regime 'at work' through an ethnographic case study of street-level bureaucracy. With a focus on the understudied role of social construction in the asylum procedure, I argue that the social practices of decision-making officials in determining refugee status go beyond labelling and categorization, and include the construction of facts, artefacts and (in)credibility. The argument is based on a qualitative investigation of the former Austrian Federal Asylum Office, including interviews with government officials in different positions, participant observation of asylum hearings and office life, and the analysis of documents, particularly records. While previous empirical studies of the asylum procedure tend to lack a broader theoretical embedding of their findings, this paper seeks to link empirical evidence to post-constructivist and structuration theories. Drawing on this theoretical background to explain and frame the observed practices of the asylum administration, I analyse how the diverse construction processes can be understood as a key characteristic of the present migration regime. Consequently, I argue that the perspective of structure and agency not only emphasizes the interdependence of the different levels of action but also highlights the contingency and volatility of the regime 'at work,' as it is necessarily reproduced and reinvented by bureaucrats in the process of determining refugee status. I conclude by pointing out that the structures of the migration regime might not be as entrenched as they seem at first glance.