ABSTRACT
This chapter employs cultural expertise as a framework for ethnographic interviews to tell the stories of four asylum seekers and to examine their claims of rights and their requests for protection. The 1951 UN Convention on Refugees and the 1967 Protocol states that an individual applying for asylum protection must provide evidence of a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, be outside the country of their nationality and be unable or, owing to such fear, unwilling to avail themselves of the protection of that country. In the stories of these four asylum seekers' claims of rights, poverty did not drive them to seek asylum protection. They lead economically secure lives that reflect Asia's relative economic security resulting from global commerce, diplomacy, international travel and education. The judges on the cases were evidently moved by their unflinching sincerity and granted them asylum protection.
