Thanks, Laurance! Yes – even when interpreting is provided, this is not enough in itself to ensure that asylum seekers have a fair hearing. As you point out, different people have different resources to successfully navigate these processes, meaning that decision-makers need to be very very careful before drawing negative conclusions about someone’s credibility.

Thanks Brittany! In fact, there are various guidelines and policy directions for decision-makers, and I’ve considered some of these in my more recent research on this topic. Even those present some difficulties, and in my more recent publications and blog posts, I’ve outlined some of the problematic beliefs that this guidance relies on. I feel that this goes some way to addressing or explaining some of the difficulties that asylum seekers face navigating these procedures.

So true, Paula! It really is a performance, and so challenging to meet this fine balancing act, between conforming with very structured, specific requirements in terms of what is said, when, and how, while as you say, also appearing “natural”…

Thanks Donna! Yes, it definitely has the feel of a performance – and a very important one at that. Considering the case officer follows a script (the interview proforma), you could say it really is a performance from that side of things too! And when we start to look at the way credibility is scrutinised in these interactions, it becomes clear that it is a situation where the applicants need to follow very specific ways of communicating and interacting, but at the same time “act natural” so as to be believable. Quite a challenge, in some cases!!

Very true! It reminds me of an early campaign by the Australian government, with the same end. There was horribly tragic irony when a billboard with a similar deterrent message from the Australian government featured in the background of a targeted bombing in Quetta, Pakistan in 2011. No doubt the billboard was aimed at dissuading those in Quetta from attempting to seek asylum in Australia. Meanwhile, the sad truth of the harm they faced presents itself in the foreground of the photo – the bombing targeted the Hazara-Shia minority living in Quetta. see https://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/10869608/refugee-leaky-boat-billboard-anger/ (warning: the photo is quite graphic)

Thanks, Donna! My sense exactly! And the multilingual trouble they’ve taken with the ad, too … I first saw it in a Persian-language community newspaper, and it’s available in 18 languages (see https://www.border.gov.au/about/operation-sovereign-borders/counter-people-smuggling-communication). Quite a bit more than most other public service announcements in this country …

BTW, the Aus govt advert is so awful, so chilling, that at first I mistook it for a spoof on an Aus Gov ad. I’m feeling a dispiriting sense of alienation…

Thanks very much for your comments, Diana. I agree about Ali’s experience. But how different the outcome may have been if he did not understand English, or if the officer had been less inclined to follow up on his concerned facial expressions (as I imagine may often be the case in those situations you refer to.