Bishop’s book portrays and communicates the essentials of the US refugee system in a very touching and overwhelming manner. That essence is composed of the stories of asylum-seekers and their narrative storytelling to successfully be granted asylum. In this sense, the author is shrewd enough to show that procedures based on factual evidence and designed to provide legal certainty and assure equal rights cause applicants to “recount to strangers the worst things that ever happened to them, adding an oppressive weight to them” (p. 62), and exacerbating awful memories or vivid trauma.
The book, placed in the area of migration and refugee studies but also in communication studies, shows how cultural differences, emotions, and divergent understandings impinge a rational legal procedure. That aim is fulfilled through powerful first-hand testimonies and stories of people determined to save their lives. Those testimonies include a young woman that flees from violence in Mexico, Valeria’s Cuban family in search for Zika treatment for their son, or a Gambian translator who was granted asylum herself and talks with other African women about how immigration officers expect victims of torture to behave.
The first chapter addresses the “halted expectations” as the length of the process or other aspects, such as waiting periods in Mexico while submitting and processing the applications, were unexpected. The second chapter discusses the need to pack “long stories short” to fit into the asylum process requirements, while there is a need to be precise on highly problematic aspects such as dates, names, or places. All that considering that “officers and judges are trained to look for even minor discrepancies in narratives as signals of the possibility of fraud, even a small culturally rooted misunderstanding might have a big impact” (p. 41). The third chapter focuses on asylum-seekers demeanour and nonverbal aspects of their hearings to ascertain the key role that experienced and dedicated attorneys play (p. 64) in a context in which asylum applicants “are expected to be calm enough to clearly and methodically recount their histories of persecution without being overwhelmed by emotion but who also must maintain enough of a connection to their emotions that they appear emotionally credible” (p. 82). All that considering its implications and consequences for judges’ decisions on stories credibility and on their possible appeal. The fourth chapter becomes a more academic analysis about nonverbal communication and credibility with two research questions that drive it (p. 91). This chapter means a turning point toward the negative consequences of denials of asylum claims, and the changes and restrictions related to the right to asylum in United States, with Chapter 5 devoted to “deterring asylum”, a sixth and final chapter on “the return” with experiences of failed asylum-seekers.
A very novel and remarkable aspect is its structure, in which, apart from those first-hand testimonies and stories, the form used to tell them stands out, as each of the chapters is followed by a brief oral testimony from an outer character: a border patrol agent, a former Judge who portrays the difficulties when everybody presses you from a different dimension (p. 142) or an immigration attorney who asserts that “I don’t think I’ve represented anyone in an individual hearing who has not been traumatized by having to go through that hearing process” (p. 59). All of this enriches, and in equal measure shocks the reader, the asylum-seekers’ views, feelings, and narrations with those of people who observe the process from the “opposite side” and through the lens of the American culture. The chapters also include information stemming from practitioners working to assist and support asylum-seekers: advisors, health practitioners… and the author’s own experience and participant observation.
Although the book could benefit from an introduction and some concluding remarks, Sarah Bishop’s critiques of the US asylum system rules and regulations are clear and noteworthy. In this regard, the author claims that “asylum is in a state of crisis” (p. 189). Additionally, she demonstrates this through the stories, data, and narrative she includes. Among the details compiled to show that crisis, several factors are directly linked to the impact of Trump administration, such as the Migrant Protection Protocols, or the changes implemented due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but it is clear that the Biden administration is not rowing in favor of the asylum system and the protection and well-being of asylum-seekers. Another relevant issue is that the immigration court exists in the United States under the executive branch, which makes it exceedingly susceptible (and vulnerable) to shifts in political attitudes.
In sum, this book is not only a masterpiece of academic research in providing a novel perspective on the asylum process but also a highly recommended reading for a wider audience, as it is very well-written, clear, and entertaining as well as detailed in recounting the difficulties linked to the process of becoming a refugee in United States. Moreover, it goes far beyond descriptions of the process and the experiences to give an account of hopes, shocks, fears, and a powerful number of feelings related to the process that goes from the decision to leave their country to the positive (or negative) end of the asylum claiming procedure.
