Geographies of asylum justice: the lived realities and spaces of the danish asylum procedure
This proposed research examines the ways in which Western states’ receding commitment to refugee protection is re-shaping the current asylum system. As a result of ongoing global refugee crises, the institution of asylum is coming under great pressure. Countries across the world are growing increasingly reluctant to provide asylum to people in need. While asylum remains in force in national and international laws, it is being subverted in practice through a complex web of border enforcement and bureaucratic interventions. By analysing the lived realities of the asylum procedure, this research project will assess how these changes materialize and shape the provision of asylum as a legal right. More specifically, this research will develop a feminist geographical approach in order to trace the ways that this legal process of deciding who obtains asylum is carried out in practice and experienced by the actors involved. To do this, the researcher – Dr Malene H. Jacobsen – will relocate from Ireland to Newcastle University in the United Kingdom in order to undertake an in-depth qualitative study of the asylum procedure in Denmark, a country that has long been at the forefront of reducing the EU’s commitment to asylum and refugee protection. This research project will significantly advance scholarship on asylum determination, refugee protection, and processes of juridical border work, contributing to the fields of political geography and legal geography as well as broader interdisciplinary debates across border studies, refugee studies, and socio-legal studies. Findings from this research will further inform European public and policy debates about asylum through engagement with key stakeholders and targeted audiences. Dr Jacobsen will gain research expertise in social geography, feminist theory, and creative qualitative methodologies, and expand her European networks among scholars, policy communities, and the nongovernmental sector.