To access state-based refugee protection regimes, refugee applicants must speak. They must narrate the basis of their claims in person, often before a single decision-maker, repeatedly and at length. In Judging Refugees Anthea Vogl investigates the black box of the refugee oral hearing and the politics of narrative within individualised processes for refugee status determination (RSD). Drawing on a rich archive of administrative oral hearings in Australia and Canada, Vogl sets global trends of diminished and fast-tracked RSD against the critical role played by the discretionary spaces of refugee decision-making, and the gate-keeping functions of credibility assessment. Judging Refugees explores the disciplining role of 'good refugee' stories within RSD and demonstrates that refugee applicants must be able to present their evidence in model Anglo-European narrative forms to be judged as authentic, credible and ultimately, to be granted access to protection.

Winner, 2024 Book/Monograph Prize, Law and Society Association of Australia and New Zealand

‘Judging Refugees is a landmark work. In pages packed with novel insights, Vogl gives the clearest and most persuasive account of the bind that refugee claimants face in trying to tell their stories. Anyone hoping to understand refugee status decision-making must read this book.’

Hilary Evans Cameron - Professor of Law, Lincoln Alexander School of Law, Toronto Metropolitan University

‘Anthea Vogl’s exceptional study thoroughly changed my thinking about the processing of refugee protection claims. Contrary to intuition, the discretionary space of Refugee Status Determination is not empty, leaving free reins to the subjective preference of the decision-taker. Rather, it is governed by a thick narrative norm, laying out a stock plot that claimants as much as officials are to follow, and privileging a hearing process that is actively challenging claimants and their narrative production. This finding is at the core of Vogl’s work. Writing in a light and accessible style, she placed her astute observations of actual hearings into the wider context of narrative politics. As it were, the narrative form that Canada and Australia impose on asylum applicants reflects central features of an emancipatory form of novel-writing associated to European enlightenment. What we learn from this eminently practical book is that we urgently need to track the narratives that are determinative of how the law is constituted and enforced.’

Gregor Noll - Professor of International Law, University of Gothenburg

‘Vogl’s remarkable book dissects the complexity of refugee status determination, the irrational expectations placed on asylum seekers’ testimonies, the tactics used to attack their credibility, and fundamentally the institutional reluctance to listen to their stories in a spirit of care. As well, each chapter powerfully reveals the process itself being structurally instrumentalised as a border-guarding mechanism.’

François Crépeau - Professor of Law, McGill University

‘This book powerfully demonstrates how language shapes the socio-legal realities of refugee applicants. While credibility assessment in asylum procedures has gained increased scholarly attention, this book stands out for its unique focus on narrative performance and assessment of oral testimony in Global North asylum policies. Readers will find invaluable data and empirical analysis of asylum interviews, as well as critical reflections on the global politics of migration management. This book is bound to become a must-read for anyone interested in understanding the interconnection between narrative performance and linguistic human rights in a refugee context.’

Katrijn Maryns - Associate Professor of Translation, Interpreting and Communication, Ghent University