ABSTRACT
The nation state forms a politically highly effective construction, discerning between citizens and non-citizens and creating its own hegemonic language, a universalist extract of the language of the community. Thus, every encounter of the ‘community’ with the ‘state’ requires or constitutes a form of translation. Even those included de jure as citizens and, thus, as political subjects, are frequently excluded de facto due to their inability to translate themselves into the language of the law and of bureaucracy. Non-citizens are also excluded de jure, not only as political subjects, but as holders of any rights on their territory of residence. They have to prove this right to the state and, thus, to translate themselves into the mother tongue of the state. The article analyses this form of translation on the basis of theoretical insights and empirical evidence about asylum procedures.
