Constructing a Productive Other

Discourse theory and the Convention refugee hearing

Robert F. Barsky | IGRC, Montreal, Canada

Hardbound – Available

ISBN 9789027250414 (Eur) | EUR 110.00

ISBN 9781556192975 (USA) | USD 165.00

e-Book –

ISBN 9789027282835 | EUR 110.00 | USD 165.00

This book is a description of the process of constructing a productive Other for the purpose of being admitted to Canada as a Convention refugee. The whole claiming procedure is analyzed with respect to two actual cases, and contextualized by reference to pertinent national and international jurisprudence. Since legal analysis is deemed insufficient for a complete understanding of the argumentative and discursive strategies involved in the claiming and “authoring” processes, the author makes constant reference to methodologies from the realm of literary studies, discourse analysis and interaction theory, with special emphasis upon the works of Marc Angenot, M.M. Bakhtin, Pierre Bourdieu, Erving Goffman, Jürgen Habermas and Teun van Dijk. In so doing, he illustrates a reductive movement that inevitably occurs in legal argumentation which results in the displacement the subject from the realm of “refugee claimant” to that of claimant as “diminished Other.”

[Pragmatics & Beyond New Series, 29] 1994. x, 272 pp.

Publishing status: Available
Published online on 20 July 2011

https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.29

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements | p. 9

Introduction: The Construction of the Other | p. 1

The Chronotope for the Convention Refugee Hearing | p. 17

Interpreting and Transcribing the Other | p. 37

The Opening Section: The Discursive Paradigm | p. 65

The Middle Section: The Life Story | p. 117

The Closing Section: The un-Dialogic Other | p. 167

The Implicit and Explicit Criteria for Rendering the Decision: The Woman as Wtiness and the Appeal Case | p. 203

Conclusion: The Destruction of the Self | p. 241

Notes | p. 247

Cases Cited | p. 253

Index | p. 271

“The book improves our understanding both of the plight of refugee claimants and of the ways in which their fate is decided.”

Ian Mason, Heriot-Watt University

“This book tackles the more substantive relationships between the written legal code and the discourse practices of participants in refugee hearings.”

Denise Gandhi in Forensic Linguistics 3(2), 1996

Cited by (57)

Cited by 57 other publications

Order by:

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2024. Chapter 2. Racist discourses of discrimination and assimilation in an antiracist corpus. In Exploring the Ambivalence of Liquid Racism [Pragmatics & Beyond New Series, 341], ► pp. 41 ff.

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Burn, Jo Anna

2023. The Use of Self-Reflection to Develop Intercultural and Pragmatic Competence in the Legal Interpreting Classroom. In New Advances in Legal Translation and Interpreting [New Frontiers in Translation Studies, ], ► pp. 197 ff.

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2023. Tensions between norms of everyday narrating and legal narrating. International Journal of Law in Context 19:2 ► pp. 177 ff.

Johannesson, Livia

2023. The Symbolic Life of Courts: How Judicial Language, Actions, and Objects Legitimize Credibility Assessments of Asylum Appeals. Journal of International Migration and Integration 24:S4 ► pp. 791 ff.

Nikolaidou, Zoe, Hanna Sofia Rehnberg & Cecilia Wadensjö

2023. ‘Do I Have to Say Exactly Word by Word?’ (Re)producing and Negotiating Asymmetrical Relations in Asylum Interviews. Journal of International Migration and Integration 24:S4 ► pp. 745 ff.

Verhaeghe, Loes, Marie Jacobs & Katrijn Maryns

2023. Discursive Tensions of Credibility and Performance in Assessing Lesbian Refugee Claims for International Protection. Journal of International Migration and Integration 24:S4 ► pp. 769 ff.

Archakis, Argiris & Villy Tsakona

2022. “It Is Necessary to Try Our Best to Learn the Language”: a Greek Case Study of Internalized Racism in Antiracist Discourse. Journal of International Migration and Integration 23:1 ► pp. 161 ff.

Archakis, Argiris & Villy Tsakona

2024. Chapter 9. A migrant’s public apology as an instance of internalized racism. In Exploring the Ambivalence of Liquid Racism [Pragmatics & Beyond New Series, 341], ► pp. 225 ff.

Archakis, Argiris & Villy Tsakona

2024. Chapter 1. Antiracist and racist discourse as antagonistic and overlapping. In Exploring the Ambivalence of Liquid Racism [Pragmatics & Beyond New Series, 341], ► pp. 1 ff.

Buzelin, Hélène

2022. Ethnography in Translation Studies: an object and a research methodology. Slovo.ru: Baltic accent 13:1 ► pp. 32 ff.

Jacobs, Marie & Katrijn Maryns

2022. Managing narratives, managing identities: Language and credibility in legal consultations with asylum seekers. Language in Society 51:3 ► pp. 375 ff.

Jacobs, Marie & Katrijn Maryns

2023. Mediated disclosure in asylum encounters. Multilingua 42:2 ► pp. 165 ff.

Pian, Anaïk

2021. L’interprétariat à la Cour nationale du droit d’asile. Terrains & travaux N° 36-37:1 ► pp. 137 ff.

PIAN, Anaïk

2024. Interstitial position or ‘bastard’ status? Interpreters at the French National Court of Asylum. Ethnography 25:3 ► pp. 335 ff.

Wadensjö, Cecilia, Hanna Sofia Rehnberg & Zoe Nikolaidou

2021. Från tolkad interaktion till enspråkig text – om en asylberättelses framväxt. HumaNetten :46 ► pp. 100 ff.

Anna De Fina & Alexandra Georgakopoulou

2020. The Cambridge Handbook of Discourse Studies,

De Fina, Anna, Paternostro, Giuseppe & Amoruso, Marcello

2020. Learning How to Tell, Learning How to Ask: Reciprocity and Storytelling as a Community Process. Applied Linguistics 41:3 ► pp. 352 ff.

Ng, Eva N.S. & Ineke H.M. Crezee

2020. Introduction. Interpreting in legal and healthcare settings. In Interpreting in Legal and Healthcare Settings [Benjamins Translation Library, 151], ► pp. 1 ff.

Shuman, Amy & Carol Bohmer

2020. Discourse and Narrative in Legal Settings: The Political Asylum Process. In The Cambridge Handbook of Discourse Studies, ► pp. 547 ff.

Carver, Natasha

2019. The Silent Backdrop: Colonial Anxiety at the Border. Journal of Historical Sociology 32:2 ► pp. 154 ff.

Hanna, Rachel

2019. Conflicts of policy and linguistic self-representation in the UK asylum process. In The Routledge Handbook of Language in Conflict, ► pp. 514 ff.

Inghilleri, Moira & Katrijn Maryns

2019. Asylum. In Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies, ► pp. 22 ff.

Miaz, Jonathan

2019. Le Droit et ses médiations. Politique et Sociétés 38:1 ► pp. 71 ff.

Pokorn, Nike K. & Jaka Čibej

2018. “It’s so vital to learn Slovene”. Language Problems and Language Planning 42:3 ► pp. 288 ff.

Raboin, Thibaut

2017. Exhortations of happiness: Liberalism and nationalism in the discourses on LGBTI asylum rights in the UK. Sexualities 20:5-6 ► pp. 663 ff.

de Wildt, Roos

2016. Ethnographic Research on the Sex Industry: The Ambivalence of Ethical Guidelines. In Ethical Concerns in Research on Human Trafficking [Studies of Organized Crime, 13], ► pp. 51 ff.

Memela, Sinehlanhla & Brij Maharaj

2016. Challenges Facing Refugee Women. A Critical Review. In Global Change and Human Mobility [Advances in Geographical and Environmental Sciences, ], ► pp. 53 ff.

Behrman, Simon

2014. Accidents, Agency and Asylum: Constructing the Refugee Subject. Law and Critique 25:3 ► pp. 249 ff.

Crezee, Ineke, Shirley Jülich & Maria Hayward

2013. Issues for interpreters and professionals working in refugee settings. Journal of Applied Linguistics and Professional Practice 8:3 ► pp. 253 ff.

Edwards, Jason A. & Richard Herder

2012. Melding a New Immigration Narrative? President George W. Bush and the Immigration Debate. Howard Journal of Communications 23:1 ► pp. 40 ff.

Pöllabauer, Sonja

2012. Community Interpreting. In The Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics,

van der Pijl, Yvon, Brenda Carina Oude Breuil & Dina Siegel

2011. Is there such thing as ‘global sex trafficking’? A patchwork tale on useful (mis)understandings. Crime, Law and Social Change 56:5 ► pp. 567 ff.

Hertog, Erik

2010. Community interpreting. In Handbook of Translation Studies [Handbook of Translation Studies, 1], ► pp. 49 ff.

Hertog, Erik

2012. Legal Interpreting. In The Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics,

Spijkerboer, Thomas

2010. A distributive approach to migration law: or the convergence of communitarianism, libertarianism, and the status quo. In Cosmopolitanism in Context, ► pp. 249 ff.

Tipton, Rebecca

2008. Reflexivity and the Social Construction of Identity in Interpreter-mediated Asylum Interviews. The Translator 14:1 ► pp. 1 ff.

Basalamah, Salah

2007. La traduction citoyenne n’est pas une métaphore. TTR : traduction, terminologie, rédaction 18:2 ► pp. 49 ff.

Van Liempt, Ilse & Jeroen Doomernik

2006. Migrant's Agency in the Smuggling Process: The Perspectives of Smuggled Migrants in the Netherlands. International Migration 44:4 ► pp. 165 ff.

Venn, Edward

2006. ‘AsylumGained’? AspectsofMeaninginThomasAdès'sAsyla. Music Analysis 25:1-2 ► pp. 89 ff.

Blommaert, Jan

2005. Bourdieu the Ethnographer. The Translator 11:2 ► pp. 219 ff.

Maryns, Katrijn

2004. Identifying the asylum speaker: reflections on the pitfalls of language analysis in the determination of national origin. International Journal of Speech, Language and the Law 11:2 ► pp. 240 ff.

Maryns, Katrijn

2013. Procedures without borders: The language-ideological anchorage of legal-administrative procedures in translocal institutional settings. Language in Society 42:1 ► pp. 71 ff.

Maryns, Katrijn

2013. Disclosure and (re)performance of gender‐based evidence in an interpreter‐mediated asylum interview. Journal of Sociolinguistics 17:5 ► pp. 661 ff.

Inghilleri, Moira

2003. Habitus, field and discourse. Target. International Journal of Translation Studies 15:2 ► pp. 243 ff.

Mcmenamin, Gerald

2002. Forensic Linguistics. In Forensic Linguistics,

Cohen, Daniel G.

2000. Naissance d'une nation :. Genèses 38:1 ► pp. 56 ff.

Meintel, Deirdre

1998. Récits d’exil et mémoire sociale de réfugiés. In Récit et connaissance, ► pp. 55 ff.

Sarangi, Srikant

1997. Public discourse. In Handbook of Pragmatics, ► pp. 1 ff.

Barsky, Robert F.

1996. The Interpreter as Intercultural Agent in Convention Refugee Hearings. The Translator 2:1 ► pp. 45 ff.

[no author supplied]

2015. Status Determinations in International Waters and in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. In United States Migrant Interdiction and the Detention of Refugees in Guantánamo Bay, ► pp. 137 ff.

[no author supplied]

2024. Narrative Contest as Structuring the Oral Hearing. In Judging Refugees, ► pp. 90 ff.

[no author supplied]

2024. ‘I’ll Just Stop You There’: Fragmentation of Refugees’ Oral Testimony. In Judging Refugees, ► pp. 113 ff.

[no author supplied]

2024. Conclusion. In Judging Refugees, ► pp. 154 ff.

[no author supplied]

2024. Introduction. In Judging Refugees, ► pp. 1 ff.

[no author supplied]

2024. Law, Literature and Narrative in the RSD Oral Hearing. In Judging Refugees, ► pp. 23 ff.

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 27 october 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

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