THE DISCURSIVE PRODUCTION OF REFUGE: NARRATIVES, PERFORMATIVITY AND LINGUISTIC IDEOLOGIES IN THE BRAZILIAN ELIGIBILITY SYSTEM

ABSTRACT

In this article, we reflect on the formal process of asylum eligibility in Brazil from a discursive perspective. We aim to underline the performative dimension of the refugee’s production. This label is understood here as dependent on discursive practices - especially narratives -, in which the applicants, officials, and other social actors participate. In these practices, what seems to be at stake are the narrative competencies of the asylum seeker and interviewers in shaping the migration experience into a matrix of intelligibility about human displacement and language functioning. We analyze at least two important aspects of the process: the texts of normative documents and interviews with volunteers who prepare applicants for their eligibility interviews. We then show how linguistic ideologies, especially beliefs about the nature of narrative construction, operate as protagonists of such an institutional process.

Keywords:
refuge; eligibility; narrative; linguistic ideologies