Azyl przy urzędowym okienku. Jak biurokracja odpolitycznia prawa obcokrajowców
The Asylum Ticket Window: The Depoliticization of the Right of Foreigners by Bureaucratic Work

Summary/Abstract: This article is based on the ethnographic observation of a Prefectureservice in charge of immigration control. By emerging himself in this professionalenvironment, the observer develops an understanding of the relations betweenthe social position of the actors, the bureaucratic norms under the constraintof which they operate, and the resulting professional practices. The organizedscarcity of resources, the technical codification of procedures, the bracketingof legal rules, and the imposition of quantitative goals in the processingof asylum requests are as many factors that contribute to creating a relationof bureaucratic domination over asylum seekers. In their daily practice, these“low-level policing agents” are led to develop a depoliticized vision of “socialproblems” and, depending on their social trajectory, their years of serviceand their own persuasions, they adopt different strategies to cope with theirsituation. Those who have access to sufficient resources can choose to leave.But for the others, the effect of time is a certain habituation to the establishednorms. Beyond the changes heralded by new regulations, the length of serviceappears as the best way to ensure the reproduction of supervisory practices.

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