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

这项研究探讨了在英国评估庇护申请的“街头官僚”的决策。它旨在对内政部的制度文化以及行政当局自由裁量权的范围和行使产生新的理解。在英国引入限制性移民政策的同时，以犯罪为旗号重新制定了移民法，并增加了对移民的刑事化(Aliverti，2012)。1971年《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年)，随后的立法措施为2016年《移民法》提供了指导，其中针对非正常移徙的敌对环境成为政府的官方政策，并使寻求庇护者遣返而不是重新安置成为首选解决方案(Hambley，2019；Thomaz，2018)。评估庇护申请的责任在于英国签证和移民，并构成了与“街头官僚”的多重互动，这些官僚的工作受到巨大的案件数量、不断变化的目标和不足的资源的影响，但却拥有相当大的自由裁量权(Lipsky，1980)。数据显示，在英国成功申请庇护的总人数一直呈下降趋势。与此同时，判决的上诉比例稳步上升，综合起来，这些调查结果表明，驳回的理由往往经不起上诉程序的考验。这就提出了一个问题--内政部管理人员使用的决策流程是什么？研究问题--影响内政部管理人员决策过程的关键因素是什么？内政部管理人员如何理解“可信度”？内政部管理人员有多大的自由裁量权？这项研究将遵循混合方法设计，以官方统计数据的形式分析二级数据，同时生成原始数据。观察将首先在移民法庭的试探性阶段进行，采取“不惹人注意的观察员”的角色。随后，将在内政部管理人员中分发调查问卷，以生成定量和定性数据。然后将选择个别行政人员的样本，通过半结构化访谈收集详细的定性数据。人们承认，确保研究访问可能会被证明是困难的。如果事实证明是这样，那么观察结果将伴随着对HO拒绝信样本的语篇分析。将使用定量和定性分析。描述性统计将从英国成功申请的基线数据中提取，并汇总调查问卷的数据。将整理移民法庭的实地笔记，以提供对事件的描述性说明。这一点与利克特量表的数据和问卷上的开放式问题相结合，将形成半结构化面试时间表。半结构化面试的成绩单将按主题进行分析，其中包括一个编码过程，以扩展相关主题并开发类别或“分析图式”。通过对内政部拒绝信样本的文件分析，将遵循归纳和解释传统，探索内政部个案工作者的决策机制。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。这一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，并有助于加深对移民法庭为什么支持越来越多的上诉的理解。

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.