Advice as a Vocation? Politics, Managerialism and State Funding in the Swiss Refugee Support Community

Abstract

Refugees often find themselves in precarious situations when trying to claim asylum. This paper examines the changing nature of legal advice in Switzerland, where a new law is drastically altering the asylum regime to a more centralised and tightly managed procedure. This reform directly affects the refugee advice community, which sees an increase in state funding opportunities paired with a higher demand for quality standards and 'managerial' practices. These changes reveal frictions between advice organisations and challenge long-standing agreements and collaborations. (Re-)emerging fault lines concern whether to collaborate with or oppose the Swiss asylum regimes, and whether to assist with asylum appeals with low chances of success. Structurally and individually, pre-existing notions of 'good advice' are being challenged and threaten to divide the advice community into political advocates and pragmatic caseworkers. The changing nature of advice thus brings with it both pitfalls and new opportunities that require careful examination.

Running for inclusion: responsibility, (un)deservingness and the spectacle of integration in a sport-for-refugees intervention in Geneva, Switzerland

“…The timeframe of this study overlapped with the period immediately following the final implementation of a radical reform of the Swiss Asylum System from the 1st March 2019. The reform, approved by 65% of voters in a referendum in 2016, aimed to accelerate the processing of asylum applications so that integration or expulsion could happen as quickly and efficiently as possible (Eule 2020). Under the new, more restrictive system, up to 70% of asylum applications would be dealt with in less than 140 days through an accelerated procedure in which their 'credibility' would be sorted through a number of criteria, including the nationality of the applicant (Poertner 2017; Asylum Information Database (AIDA) 2021).…”

“…Under the new, more restrictive system, up to 70% of asylum applications would be dealt with in less than 140 days through an accelerated procedure in which their 'credibility' would be sorted through a number of criteria, including the nationality of the applicant (Poertner 2017; Asylum Information Database (AIDA) 2021). The reform also implied the decentralisation of the asylum system and the creation of 21 federal asylum centres to house people waiting for their asylum response or appealing a failed application (Eule 2020;Amnesty International 2021).…”

“…Overall, the policy ambitions to 'expedite' the examination of asylum applications and the issues these ambitions create is not new, nor unique to the Swiss context. The reform adapted processes previously implemented in Denmark and The Netherlands (Eule 2020). Moreover, accelerating examinations of asylum applications is one of the objectives of the New Pact on Migration and Asylum currently under discussion within the European Union (European Commission 2019-2024.…”

“…In Switzerland, this 'fight against abuse' has been the driving force behind many of the restrictions made in asylum law in the past thirty-seven years (Poertner 2017;Affolter 2020). One important implication of these reforms is the seemingly paradoxical way in which calls for restrictive refugee status determination are framed as upholding the Swiss 'noble value of asylum' (Affolter 2020, p. 37) by ensuring that asylum is reserved for those 'truly deserving' (Eule 2020). As Affolter (2020) puts it, 'fairness is, therefore, based on exclusion' (28).…”

“…In light of the aims of this paper, focusing on a sporting initiative in the Swiss context has a double relevance. Switzerland, and namely Geneva, constitute the symbolic birthplaces of the asylum convention and the country prides itself on its historical 'humanitarian tradition' (Affolter 2020;Eule 2020). Furthermore, while Switzerland hosts international organisations increasingly engaged with sport in relation to issues of forced migration and displacement (e.g.…”