LANGUAGE TESTING OF ASYLUM SEEKERS

Prof. Peter L. PatrickDept. of Language & Linguistics

and Human Rights Centre

University of Essex

17 Sept 2011 Language Day Conference for Teachers

Outline of the talk

Asylum – a social and human rights problem…

…Thus, a problem for governments A possible linguistic solution… but, does

it work? What do we know about languages? So, who is a language expert? Involvement of the linguistics profession What can actually be achieved?

Please ask Questions at ANY POINT

Pressure to Manage Asylum Flow

Government concern for borders, control over population, spread of conflict, economic selfishness of Haves, the desire to regulate economic migration, leads to…

Attempt to manage/reduce flow of asylum seekers,

Selectively discriminate the categories & outcomes.

Search for way to serve these interests leads to (among many other trends, policies, procedures) a range of gate-keeping devices

Gate-keeping to Manage AS Flow

Gate-keeping mechanisms employed by govts. to assess claims of origin, weed out false ones Performed in context of general governmental and

public disbelief or hostility to immigration & refugees – . UKBA “culture of hostility”

Eg, belief most are economically motivated as opposed to motivated by ‘well-founded fear of being persecuted’

Bureaucratic pressures of cost, time, policy, caseload; judged on efficiency, quantity (& results...), perception

Effort to draft in the sciences to perform GK tasks

What evidence have we got?

An asylum seeker who lacks documents presents two main types of evidence: Her body Medical/physical evidence Her story Linguistic evidence Incl. all interviews, recordings, statements, texts in

process How does one assess such linguistic evidence? What factors influence its production and use? Who is qualified to perform assessment? Who does

so? What do RSD stakeholders need to know in order to

commission, evaluate & reliably use valid evidence?

Types of Gate-Keeping

Physical: Fingerprints: -- DNA:

Social/linguistic: Incl. LADO

Use of Gate-keeping Tools

Tools for interpreting/ascribing identity, including selective equation of language w/national identity

…in order to assess AS claims of origin, confirm true ones, and weed out false ones.

Language assessment of asylum seekers: LADO (Language Analysis for Determination of Origin) (focus may be national, regional or ethnic origin)

Motivating assumption seems plausible to laypeople: “Language reflects Citizenship” – “Linguistic Passport”

But: How valid and reliable is it, scientifically?

Who performs LADO for Govts.?

Varies widely from one jurisdiction to another Mediterranean nations do not use it: Spain, France, Italy, Greece Swiss, Germans/Austria use (mostly) independent academic

experts Dutch BLT have own analysts, but buy from commercial agencies

too UK, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Ireland, Norway,

Sweden have all used commercial analysis firms, e.g. Eqvator (formerly) – Skandinavisk Språkanalysis (=Sprakab) – Verified

Swedish bureau spun off company in 1990s – sold expertise back to government, then other EU governments, then further afield

Firms compete re contracts: business pressure on product offered Employ few linguists (w/BA, MA qualifications) but many analysts

(most NENS) who conduct LADO cases w/supervision by linguists

Who is unqualified to perform LADO? : Non-linguist language professionals Spoken-word interpreters or translators of written word

May be trained, but little/no linguistics, rarely do research Students of “foreign” languages at university/elsewhere

Typically no linguistic analytic or comparative training Rarely any formal training in ‘exotic’/unwritten languages,

hence no standards exist for knowledge of such languages Native speakers of exotic or un(der)-studied languages

Any university degree-level study of language usually = literary not scientific, text not speech, no comparative scientific base

Such persons can be classed as NENS, Non-Expert Native Speakers rather than expert linguists in view of (Shuy 2009)

“the definition of a linguist as a scholar who is highly trained and deeply involved in the scientific study of language”

Scientific, comparative study of language systems

Structure of sounds, words, grammar, meaning

Study the range of human languages to discover: What elements are necessary/possible in human

language? In which ways can they be organized into

systems? How language changes, is learned, come in

contact, disappear How speakers manipulate system/elements for

social function “Linguist” has both folk and expert senses:

Untrained person who speaks several languages? ☒

Specialist w/postgraduate training in linguistic science ☑

‘Language analysis’ requires expertise in Linguistics

What Linguists Do and Are

Analyse elements & structures of recorded speech data Identify them as organised into recognized systems –

languages/dialects described in the scientific literature Familiar w/contact processes between languages (not

random, but according to empirically-studied principles) Professional training means postgraduate specialization

in accredited institution by research-active scholars... Experts w/knowledge based in literature, own research

on 1 or more languages (besides native ones, usually)... Contribute to scientific knowledge: present research at

open conferences, publications reviewed by peers, etc.

What is Sociolinguistics?

Comparative study of speech communities, linguistic practices, and social ecologies of

language Sociolinguists≠ HR practitioners, interpreters,

lawyers – and these professionals, of course, are not usually linguists

Sociolinguists professionally involved w/ issues such as language endangerment, esp.

preservation/revitalization language planning, at academic, govt/local/NGO levels forensic, clinical, and other institution-based

linguistics bilingual education &other school-centred language

issues action research with urban linguistic minorities discourse analysis of talk by powerful/vulnerable

speakers ethnolinguistic work w/indigenous peoples, & much

more...

What Languages are Involved?

Linguistics studies all languages – c. 6,900 in world 234 European languages: English, French, German etc.

3% of world’s languages, 26% of speakers, avg. 6.6 million 2,100 African: Niger-Congo (1,500), Afro-Asiatic (350)

30% of languages, 12% of speakers, avg. <350,000/lang. 2,300 Asian: Sino-Tibetan (450), Austronesian (1,200)

33% of languages, 60% of speakers, avg. 1.5 million/lang. Largest: Chinese (1.2b), Spanish, English (330m), Arabic LADO: Somali (13m), Pashto (9.7), Tigrinya (5.7), Rohingya (1.5)

What Languages are Involved?

Linguistics studies all languages – c. 6,900 in world 234 European languages: English, French, German etc.

3% of world’s languages, 26% of speakers, avg. 6.6 million 2,100 African: Niger-Congo (1,500), Afro-Asiatic (350)

30% of languages, 12% of speakers, avg. <350,000/lang. 2,300 Asian: Sino-Tibetan (450), Austronesian (1,200)

33% of languages, 60% of speakers, avg. 1.5 million/lang. Largest: Chinese (1.2b), Spanish, English (330m), Arabic LADO: Somali (13m), Pashto (9.7), Tigrinya (5.7), Rohingya (1.5)

Which languages relevant to LADO?

LADO: usually smaller, regional/ethnic dialects E.g. minority clans in Somalia (Reer-Hamar,

Ashraf) Often spoken across borders, not just

within them E.g. Mandingo: Senegal, Mali, Guinea, S.

Leone, Liberia Often unwritten for most speakers til very

recently Many unstudied, or little detail known

about them No standard tests for assessing speakers’

knowledge Handful of experts in each country, or the

world

Some Next Steps

Develop international scientific agreement over key issues Involve colleagues and public by raising basic science issues Convince UKIAT (via courts) to rely only on qualified expertise, by Unifying the standards with (civil and) criminal requirements, Thus making bad science less common and acceptable in court Press commercial applications to raise/adopt scientific standards Innovate methods/technology to lower costs of good science Develop secure, scientific research base against which expertise

can be established, by commissioning new applied research Expand reference database to focus on refugee-producing areas

Contact Info

My Email: patrickp@essex.ac.uk

Homepage: http://privatewww.essex.ac.uk/~patrickp

Dept. of Language & Linguistics: www.essex.ac.uk/linguistics

Human Rights Centre: www.essex.ac.uk/human_rights_centre

2004 Guidelines for best practice

2004: Guidelines for use of language analysis in relation to questions of national origin in asylum cases (Lang Nat Origin Group) 19 coauthors/signers from Africa, Europe, Australia, USA 17 PhDs, over half with 1st-hand forensic experience in RSD context Published in 2 peer-reviewed linguistic journals, UNHCR RefWorld

Main principles include: LADO must be done by qualified linguists – proof of expertise Caution in rendering opinions – degree of certainty Knowledge of native speakers ≠ expertise of linguists Linguists to determine/advise on data quality for LADO Other issues: cross-border, language mixing, 2nd-language LADO...

Now cited in courts from UK to Pacific, influences govt. practices