ABSTRACT
Abstract
This chapter offers reflections from an anthropologist who was involved in the case of a Bulgarian woman with a mixed-race child who sought asylum in the UK in the period before the former socialist state became a member state of the EU (in 2007). The author presents the background to the case and critically reflects on the ‘ready-made’ (rather than bespoke) ethnographic resources that she used in writing the expert report. She also offers reflections on two general aspects that arose from the particular case. The first is the issue of ‘credibility’: while it was the credibility of the asylum seeker's story that was at the centre of attention of both legal teams, the author's own credibility, as an ‘expert’, also required legitimation throughout the process. The second issue concerns the need to prove the ‘exceptionality’ of the case, as it involved a citizen from a ‘white listed’ country, meaning that – from the British government's perspective – the country of origin posed no serious risk of ongoing persecution to the asylum seeker. The author discusses how ‘exceptionality’ was argued, and the larger moral dilemmas this posed, not only for her work as an ‘expert’ in this specific case, but also for the precedent it could set for future asylum cases. The chapter concludes with a summary of the concerns and dilemmas, underlining the positive role anthropologists can play in the lives of persecuted persons seeking asylum.
