Court Ethnography

ASYFAIR conducted 496 ethnographic observations in asylum appeal hearing centres in France, Germany, Belgium and Austria, and 400 court observations in UK (largely from a previous ESRC project).

Next to this qualitative data, we also completed collected quantitative data in the form of 601 researcher-completed surveys (311 in Germany, France and Austria; 290 in the UK, largely from a previous ESRC project).

pexels-photo-534204 — Image by Arek Socha from Pixabay

WHAT DID WE OBSERVE?

The ASYFAIR research team watched public court proceedings from the public area of the court. We observed what happened during the hearing. We took notes of the procedure, the questions and answers during the hearing, the evidence that was presented for and against the asylum claim, as well as the behaviour of all case participants.

The project aimed to collect enough information to understand how judges and others involved in the asylum adjudication process can ensure that appellants understand the processes and can take part in them where possible and appropriate.

WHAT HAPPENED TO THE INFORMATION THAT WE RECORDED?

The information has been analysed to see if there are patterns in the ways asylum appeals are heard (using the qualitative data mining software NVivo). It has been securely stored and transferred and is anonymous, which means it will not be possible to identify cases from anything that is published as part of the research. This includes taking out identifying names and places, as well as altering unusual events and characteristics where possible and appropriate.

The data has been used to write academic research published in academic journals and discussed at academic conferences. In addition, as the study aimed to improve asylum adjudication, we have used anonymised data to present to policy makers, the public and the media.

The anonymised research information is kept on a secure archive for ten years as required by the University of Exeter. After this time it will be securely disposed of.

HOW HAS PRIVACY BEEN PROTECTED?

We did not record names, dates of birth or addresses anywhere in the data. The ASYFAIR research team respects the participants’ privacy and only collected personal data where absolutely necessary for the research. All researchers who work with the information had to sign a confidentiality agreement.

Some of the data that we collected might be sensitive and we have stored it securely and treated it carefully. We ensured that there is no information in our published research or in the data available to other researchers in the future that would identify specific cases and participants.

Further information on data protection is available here.