ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to explore the caveats contained within the discretionary clause of the Dublin III Regulation. This exploration shall not only analyse these instruments as additions to the toolkit of institutional reluctance facing the admission of more applicants for international protection into state territory but also as heterotopic brushstrokes to the asylum and immigration regime conservatism, servicing specific occidental legal-socialised notions of family and familial dependency. Delving into critical legal scholarship, this chapter will shed light on how the application of Article 17(2) (or lack thereof) by States and asylum tribunals disregards the importance of the integrity of the applicant’s family unit as conducive to the applicant’s quality of life. Its use both achieves the gatekeeping of specific ideals of family structure and upholds occidental cultural values – allowing certain countries to self-insulate from exposure to foreign implants of familial association, solidarity, and kinship.
