Projects
Family-life, difference and practices of citizenship. A longitudinal ethnography on families’ experiences in the Belgian and Dutch asylum regime KU Leuven
This research investigates how families are living with and navigating the asylum procedure in Belgium – within “camps” and beyond – in order to shine light on the affective, embodied process of seeking access to legal status. The monograph is based on a longitudinal, follow-along ethnography of families’ trajectories through the asylum regime in Belgium. It follows a number of families throughout the various phases of their asylum procedure: ...
Towards the Emergence of Urban Asylum Regimes: Policies, Approaches and Consequences of the Reception of Refugees in European and US American Cities Vrije Universiteit Brussel
You too? No way! Rape mythology applied to credibility assessments of applications based on sexual or gender-based violence in the European asylum procedure Ghent University
This research will study the concept of ‘rape mythology’ in the asylum procedure. The key reason for the refusal of asylum applications based on sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) is their non-credibility. These credibility assessments are often based on stereotypical, superficial, erroneous, or inappropriate perceptions of gender. In the criminal justice system, such perceptions have been conceptualised as ‘rape myths’: prejudicial, ...
Children's rights in appellate asylum proceedings: a legal ethnography Ghent University
This project will for the first time empirically investigate how the key actors in appellate asylum proceedings engage with children’ rights When the Commissioner-general for Refugees and Stateless Persons in Belgium does not recognize asylum seekers as refugee and/or does not grant them subsidiary protection, the latter can file an appeal before the Council for Alien Law Litigation The role of children’ rights in such appellate asylum ...
The Legal Value of the Principle of Solidarity in EU Asylum and Migration. University of Antwerp
Challenging queer migration narratives. A case study of sexual orientation and gender identity rights in the Belgian asylum procedure. Ghent University
Forced migration continues to captivate social discourses, which often represent refugees as predominantly male, heterosexual, cisgender (and homophobic/transphobic) individuals. However, many people flee their home due to the persecution they fear on the ground of their sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI). Once arrived in Europe, in a country where SOGI rights are recognised as human rights and as such expanded the scope of refugee ...
Definitional uncertainties of political crimes in European extradition law: What is the impact on asylum law? Vrije Universiteit Brussel
Escaping gridlock through financial instruments? Analyzing change in EU funding for migration and asylum Vrije Universiteit Brussel
second existential crisis in the space of five years after the Eurozone
crisis. In contrast to a stalemated policy-making process in the realm
of migration and asylum, the financial responses have been
remarkable. The EU substantially increased the budget allocated to
migration, launched new instruments such as the EU Trust Fund for
...
The interactional dynamics of multilingualism and translanguaging in the Belgian asylum procedure Ghent University
This project investigates the ways in which linguistic diversity, multilingualism and translanguaging are institutionally managed in the Belgian asylum procedure. Drawing on linguistic-ethnographic data, this study (a) analyses language ideological issues related to competing forms of multilingualism, with a particular focus on interpreting practice and LADO applications and (b) explores how the observed interactional dynamics may affect the ...