Revue européenne des migrations internationales vol. 33-n°2 et 3 | 2017 Dire la violence des frontières. Mises en mots de la migration vers l'Europe Exister au risque de disparaître. Récits sur la mort pendant la traversée vers l'Europe Existing at Risk of Disappearing. Narratives on Death during Border Crossing Existir arriesgando desaparece. Relatos sobre la muerte durante la travesía hacia Europa
Depuis la Seconde Guerre mondiale, l’asile a fait l’objet d’une institutionnalisation dans le cadre de la Convention de Genève de 1951. En France, la Cour nationale du droit d’asile examine les recours des déboutés de l’Office français de protection des réfugiés et apatrides. Son activité se déploie dans un contexte où le discours public fait prévaloir le doute sur le bien-fondé de la majorité des demandes, le taux d’admission en première instance étant passé de neuf à un sur dix en trois décennies. Nous nous intéressons à la manière dont les transformations de l’économie morale de l’asile, de la confiance au soupçon, se traduisent dans les pratiques de justice locale, fondées sur des principes d’indépendance et d’équité. Nous appuyant sur une enquête par observation et entretien conduite pendant dix-huit mois, nous analysons les recommandations des rapporteurs et les décisions des formations de jugement. Nous montrons qu’au-delà de la diversité de leur profil sociologique les rapporteurs se distinguent peu dans leurs avis, tandis que, sous l’effet des logiques institutionnelles, les différences entre les formations de jugement se corrigent. La tension qui s’instaure ainsi entre les idéaux et les normes de la protection asilaire, d’une part, l’injonction des politiques et la routine des pratiques, d’autre part, se résout dans le sentiment que le principe de l’asile est d’autant mieux défendu que l’accès en est restreint.
On a sunny Tuesday afternoon in May 2015, two young women walking by a lighthouse in Melilla, a Spanish enclave on the northern shores of Morocco’s Mediterranean coast, found the lifeless body of a young man. As the police quickly soon confirmed, the boy had died while trying to jump on a ferry that would take him “to the real Europe” (i.e., the Iberian Peninsula). Using ethnography, this article aims at mapping the afterlives of this dead young man, in their multiple dimensions. It traces the body’s trajectory through the judicial system and bureaucratic registration; it investigates attempts made by various agencies at identifying the corpse and carrying it to its final destination; finally, it analyzes the efforts made to pay him tribute. By tracing the dead boy’s itinerary, this article sheds light on the conflictual interactions between different actors (state and municipal institutions, civil society groups, and migrants themselves) involved in the treatment of deaths at the borders.
Some legal scholars have asserted that rigid notions of homosexual identity shape adjudicators' approach when evaluating asylum claims based on sexual orientation. Recent ethnographic research at the French Court of Asylum, in charge of reviewing appeals on decisions from the French Office for the Protection of Refugees and Stateless Persons, shows indeed that adjudication is based on particular gender stereotypes. However, my analysis centers on an unexplored but related issue: the relationship between the problems raised by adjudicators when facing what they call "intimacy cases," specifically regarding the administration of proof and stereotyped performances. Through ethnographic data drawn from encounters with adjudicators and asylum seekers at the French Court of Asylum; through interviews with judges, rapporteurs (reporters), interpreters, and lawyers; and by examining 60 court rulings, I argue that sexual orientation-based cases crystallize the importance of intimacy in the politics of asylum, helping to seize the new shapes of the refugee as well as the growing difficulties for judges in relying on material evidence. [asylum, sexual orientation, intimacy, proof, France]One morning in July 2010, in the Cour nationale du droit d'asile (French Court of Asylum) in Montreuil near Paris, the last case to be heard was that of a Kosovar claimant of Albanian origin. The courtroom had been cleared as the claimant's lawyer requested a hearing in camera, behind closed doors. The asylum seeker and the three judges allowed me to remain in the room, seated in the public gallery, in my capacity as researcher. The rapporteur (reporter), a civil servant of the court in charge of examining the case in detail, was seated sideways between the board of judges and the claimant.She provided a summary of the facts: The applicant, whom I call here Mr. Afrim, 1 claimed to have been persecuted in Kosovo owing to his sexual orientation; he stated that he became aware of his homosexuality and had a sporadic secret relationship with a neighbor; that he always hid his sexual orientation from his family; that he was the victim of insults and mockery on the part of the villagers due to his celibacy; that his parents put pressure on him to marry as soon as possible; that at a family gathering he was violently cast out by a cousin who publicly accused him of being homosexual and threatened to kill him in order to preserve the family's honor; that in
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