A narrative perspective on a well-founded fear: Officer stancetaking in a political asylum documentary

Abstract

Following Kynsilehto and Puumala’s (2013) call not to ignore officers when exploring perspectives in political asylum, this paper will focus on the stances of asylum officers in interaction as presented in the documentary, Well-Founded Fear. My analysis aims to demonstrate how officers’ expression of stancetaking affects the unfolding interview as the officers determine the credibility of the asylum narrative. Additionally, through post-reflective officer vignettes, I seek to answer how officers maintain their professional identities while managing the internal repercussions of following institutional guidelines of the officer/asylee relationship.