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The Sociolinguistics of Asylum Decision-Writing in the Context of the Greek Appeals Authority

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Abstract

This paper draws on a social perspective of language use in the legal processes of asylum claims with particular attention to decision-writing and written texts within the context of the Greek Appeals Authority. Such a perspective aligns with an interdisciplinary call for emerging research framed in sociolinguistics and the law, that facilitates knowledge sharing in order to make visible the institutional veracity control inherent in asylum processes. To that end, applying van Leeuwen’s social actor network framework, I analyze nine (9) institutional written records, issued between 2011 and 2021 by focusing on the semiotics resources at play in writing. My conclusions highlight the institutional discursive power over writing and representing the applicants and their claims. Ultimately, such institutionally controlled texts are nothing but technopolitical discourse devices through which access to or rejection of protection is granted, thereby governing asylum in fundamentally stratified ways.

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Notes

  1. The constitutionally established Judicial system of Greece consists of two jurisdictions, the administrative and the civil/criminal. Greek judges belong to one of these two jurisdictions; thus, an administrative judge is not entitled to judge a penal or civil case, while a civil judge is not entitled to judge an administrative case.

  2. https://migration.gov.gr/en/appeals/archi-prosfygon-i-ypiresia/.

  3. Ministry of Migration and Asylum. 2022. Second instance procedure. https://migration.gov.gr/en/appeals/b-vathmos/

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  1. Department of Language and Intercultural Studies, University of Thessaly, Volos, Greece

    Christina Fakalou

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Fakalou, C. The Sociolinguistics of Asylum Decision-Writing in the Context of the Greek Appeals Authority. Int J Semiot Law 37, 305–328 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11196-023-10039-6

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