Assessing asylum claims: a critical investigation of the key factors influencing UK Home Office administrators in their decision-making processes

这项研究探讨了英国“街头官僚”评估庇护申请的决策。它的目的是让人们重新理解内政部的制度文化，以及行政人员自由裁量权的范围和行使。在英国，限制性移民政策的引入伴随着以犯罪为旗帜的移民法的重构和对移民的刑事定罪的增加（Aliverti, 2012）。1971年的《移民法》首先对1951年《公约》所赋予的权利进行了限制（Gill and Good, 2019），随后的立法措施为2016年的《移民法》提供了依据，其中对非正规移民的敌对环境成为官方政府政策，并为寻求庇护者遣返而不是重新安置提供了首选解决方案（Hambley, 2019; Thomaz, 2018）。评估庇护申请的责任在于英国签证和移民局，并与“街头官僚”进行多次互动，他们的工作受到大量案件，目标变化和资源不足的影响，但却拥有实质性的自由裁量权（Lipsky, 1980）。数据显示，英国成功申请庇护的总人数呈负趋势。同时，裁定上诉的百分比稳步增加，综合来看，这些调查结果表明，拒绝的理由往往经不起上诉程序的考验。这就提出了一个问题——内政部行政人员使用的决策过程是什么？研究问题影响内政部行政人员决策过程的关键因素是什么？内政部的行政人员是如何理解“信誉”的？内政部的行政人员有多少自由裁量权？如何行使这种自由裁量权？该研究将采用混合方法设计，分析官方统计形式的二手数据，并生成第一手数据。观察将首先在移民法庭的探索阶段通过采用“不引人注目的观察员”的角色进行。在此之后，一份调查问卷将在内政部管理人员中分发，以产生定量和定性数据。然后将选择个别管理人员的样本，从中通过半结构化访谈收集详细的定性数据。人们承认，获得研究机会可能是困难的。如果证明是这样的话，那么观察将伴随着对HO拒绝信样本的话语分析。将使用定量和定性分析。描述性统计数据将从英国成功申请的基线数据中提取，并从问卷中总结数据。将整理移民法庭的现场记录，以提供事件的描述性叙述。这与李克特量表的数据和问卷上的开放式问题相结合，将为半结构化面试时间表提供信息。半结构化访谈的转录将按主题进行分析，并包括一个编码过程，以扩展相关主题并开发类别或“分析模式”。对内政部拒绝信样本的文件分析将用于探索内政部个案工作者的决策机制，遵循归纳和解释传统。这是一个原创项目，开发了一种新的理论方法，并将犯罪学理论应用于庇护决策过程。这种微观层面的分析，直接借鉴了那些在英国评估庇护申请的人的经验，可以最准确地突出决策过程，并有助于理解为什么越来越多的上诉在移民法庭上得到支持。

This research explores the decision-making of 'street-level bureaucrats' assessing asylum applications in the UK. It sets out to create new understanding of Home Office institutional culture and the extent and exercise of discretionary powers by administrators.The introduction of restrictive immigration policies in the UK has been accompanied by the reframing of immigration law under the banner of crime and an increased criminalisation of migration (Aliverti, 2012). The 1971 Immigration Act first placed restrictions on rights afforded by the 1951 Convention (Gill and Good, 2019), and successive legislative measures informed the Immigration Act 2016 wherein a hostile environment for irregular migration became official government policy and made the preferred solution for asylum seekers repatriation, not resettlement (Hambley, 2019; Thomaz, 2018). Responsibility for assessing asylum claims lies with UK Visas and Immigration and constitutes multiple interactions with 'street-level bureaucrats' whose work is shaped by huge caseloads, shifting goals and inadequate resources and yet wield substantial discretionary authority (Lipsky, 1980). Data demonstrates that the total number of successful asylum applications in the UK has been trending negatively. Concurrently, the percentage of appeals awarded has increased steadily and, when taken in combination, these findings suggest the rationale behind rejections often fails to withstand the appeals process. This poses a question - what are the decision-making processes used by Home Office administrators?Research QuestionsWhat are the key factors influencing Home Office administrators in their decision-making processes?How do Home Office administrators understand 'credibility'?How much discretion do Home Office administrators have and how is this exercised?The research will follow a mixed-method design analysing secondary data in the form of official statistics and also generating primary data. Observations will first be carried out in the exploratory stage at Immigration Tribunals through adopting the role of an 'unobtrusive observer'. Following this, a questionnaire will be disseminated amongst Home Office administrators to generate quantitative as well as qualitative data. A sample of individual administrators will then be selected from which detailed qualitative data will be collected through semi-structured interviews. It is acknowledged that securing research access might prove difficult. Should this prove to be the case then observations will be accompanied by a discourse analysis of a sample of HO rejection letters.Quantitative and qualitative analyses will be used. Descriptive statistics will be drawn from baseline data on successful applications in the UK and to summarise the data from the questionnaires. Field notes from Immigration Tribunals will be collated to present a descriptive narrative of events. This, in combination with the data from the Likert scale and open-ended questions on the questionnaire, will inform the semi-structured interview schedule. Transcriptions from semi-structured interviews will be analysed thematically and include a process of coding to expand upon relevant themes and develop categories or 'analytic schema'. A document analysis of a sample of Home Office rejection letters will be used to explore the mechanisms for decision-making by Home Office caseworkers, by following an inductive and interpretive tradition.This is an original project developing a new theoretical approach and applying criminological theory to the asylum decision-making process. This micro-level analysis, drawing directly upon the experience of those assessing asylum claims in the UK, can highlight most accurately the decision-making processes and help develop an understanding of why an increasing number of appeals are being upheld at immigration tribunal.