Christianity on Trial: Asylum, Conversion, and the Modern Nation-State
Decisions on asylum applications based on conversion to Christianity are notoriously difficult to reach and contain several challenges for the decision-makers, applicants, lawyers, and supporting pastors/congregations involved. This research seeks to discover the specific challenges involved in asylum processes of religious converts in Germany that are based on the fear of religious persecution. Between 2019-2022, this research was funded by a Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellowship based at the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies, University of Oxford.
This research consists of ethnographic and legal methods. The ethnographic elements include observation of court proceedings, interviews with judges, asylum-seekers, lawyers, immigration officials, pastors, and translators, as well as ‘participant observation’ in some of the churches of those who have converted to Christianity. Each of these research activities is guided by the question: “How is Christianity understood by the respective actors in the respective event?” Legal analysis is based on the thematic analyses of appeal decisions of asylum claims based on religious conversion in Germany, as well as anonymised protocols of first asylum hearings of religious converts.
Christianity on Trial interrogates the historical, political, and legal forces that determine what kind of Christianity is ‘acceptable’ in asylum processes based on conversion to Christianity. The research highlights tensions between state and religion, as well as difficulties in credibility assessments and the complicated role of evidence in refugee status determination.
KEY OUTPUTS
2024
Asylum and Conversion from Islam to Christianity in Europe: Interdisciplinary Approaches, Bloomsbury Academic, co-edited with Dr. Ebru Öztürk.
2023
‘Asylum Adjudications on the Basis of Religious Conversion’ in Fiddian-Qasmiyeh, E. and A. Rowlands (eds.), Oxford Handbook of Religion and Contemporary Migration.
2022
„Finding the True Convert: Tensions between Church and State in Asylum Appeal Hearings based on Conversion to Christianity”, Biennial Conference of the European Association of Social Anthropologist, School of History, Anthropology, Philosophy and Politics at Queen’s University Belfast, 26.-29. Juli 2022
‘Conversion Through the Eyes of the State’, Keynote Summer School Religious Conversion, Universität Leipzig, 14. Juni 2022.
Christianity on Trial: Creating a ‘Christian Religion’ in Asylum Processes of Converts to Christianity”, Workshop Asylum and Conversion to Christianity – New Directions in Research (Online), organised together with Ebru Öztürk
‘Christianity on Trial: Asylum, Conversion, and the Modern-Nation State’, Departmental Seminar at School of Anthropology and Museum Studies, University of Oxford, 20. Mai 2022
‘Finding the ‘True Convert’ in Asylum Appeal Hearings of Converts to Christianity’, Annual Conference Socio-Legal Studies Association, University of York, 6.-8. April
2021
‘What is truth? – negotiating Christian convert asylum seekers’ credibility’ Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science (with Z. Given-Wilson; eds. S. Fiske, D. Massey, I. Varie-Lavoisier).
‘Finding the true convert: Tensions between church and state in asylum appeal hearings based on conversion to Christianity’, ASYFAIR Conference, 30 Jun – 1 Jul 2021, online.
2020
‘What is truth? – negotiating the credibility of religious conversion of asylum seekers in German courts’, Cognition and Migration Workshop 2020, 16 Dec 2020, online.
‘What is truth? – negotiating the credibility of religious conversion of asylum seekers in German courts’, Civil and Administrative Justice Cluster Workshop, Centre for Socio-Legal Studies Centre, University of Oxford, 25 Nov 2020, online.
2019
‘Refugee Status Determination on the basis of fear of religious persecution in cases of religious conversion of asylum seekers in Germany, France, and the UK’, Workshop ‘Recognizing Refugees’ by Prof Cathryn Costello, Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung, Berlin, 12 December 2019.
2018
‘What Kind of Christianity? A v Switzerland ‘ (2018) 7 Oxford Journal of Law and Religion 543 [Case Note, with D. Thebault]