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Refugee roulette refers to arbitrariness in the process of
refugee A refugee, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), is a person "forced to flee their own country and seek safety in another country. They are unable to return to their own country because of feared persecution as ...
status determinations or, as it is called in the
United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
, asylum adjudication. Recent research suggests that at least in the United States and
Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...
, the outcome of asylum determinations largely depends upon the identity of the particular adjudicator to whom an application is randomly assigned, and that the resulting disparities in rates of granting asylum are problematic "with some officers mmigration judgesgranting asylum to no Chinese nationals, while other officers granted asylum in as many as 68% of their cases. Similarly, Colombian asylum applicants ... in Miami had a 5% chance of prevailing with one of that court’s judges and an 88% chance of prevailing before another judge in the same building." "In many cases, ... a clerk randomly assigns an application to a particular asylum officer or immigration judge." On the other hand, some commentators state that a good deal of disparity is inevitable and that refugees and their advocates must "learn to live" with "unequal justice". Others report that the amount of disparity diminished after 2008. The original study that coined the term "refugee
roulette Roulette (named after the French language, French word meaning "little wheel") is a casino game which was likely developed from the Italy, Italian game Biribi. In the game, a player may choose to place a bet on a single number, various grouping ...
" presents an empirical analysis of decision-making at all four levels of the asylum process, namely the asylum office of the
Department of Homeland Security The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is the U.S. federal executive department responsible for public security, roughly comparable to the interior, home, or public security ministries in other countries. Its missions invol ...
, the immigration courts of the Department of Justice, the
Board of Immigration Appeals The Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) is an administrative appellate court, appellate body within the Executive Office for Immigration Review of the United States Department of Justice responsible for reviewing decisions of the U.S. immigration ...
, and the United States Courts of Appeals, between 2000 and 2004. The authors argue that their findings reveal an unacceptable level of disparities in grant rates, noting that the asylum adjudicators studied heard large numbers of cases from the same country in the same location over the same period of time. The study concludes with recommendations for reforming the immigration adjudication system. In a 2008 study of immigration court decision-making between 1994 and 2007, the United States
Government Accountability Office The United States Government Accountability Office (GAO) is an independent, nonpartisan government agency within the legislative branch that provides auditing, evaluative, and investigative services for the United States Congress. It is the s ...
found that "the likelihood of being granted asylum varied considerably across and within the mmigration courts studied" The findings of the original "Refugee Roulette" study were reported as the lead story on the front page of ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' on May 31, 2007. The study was also reported in the '' Atlantic Monthly'' and many other media outlets, including the '' Atlanta Journal-Constitution'', the ''
Christian Science Monitor ''The Christian Science Monitor'' (''CSM''), commonly known as ''The Monitor'', is a nonprofit news organization that publishes daily articles both in electronic format and a weekly print edition. It was founded in 1908 as a daily newspaper b ...
'', the ''
Dallas Morning News ''The Dallas Morning News'' is a daily newspaper serving the Dallas–Fort Worth area of Texas, with an average print circulation in 2022 of 65,369. It was founded on October 1, 1885, by Alfred Horatio Belo as a satellite publication of the ' ...
'', and the ''
Miami Herald The ''Miami Herald'' is an American daily newspaper owned by McClatchy, The McClatchy Company and headquartered in Miami-Dade County, Florida. Founded in 1903, it is the fifth-largest newspaper in Florida, serving Miami-Dade, Broward County, Fl ...
''. The study has been cited by numerous prominent legal academics, including Prof. David Cole of the
Georgetown University Law Center Georgetown University Law Center is the Law school in the United States, law school of Georgetown University, a Private university, private research university in Washington, D.C., United States. It was established in 1870 and is the largest law ...
, Judith Resnik, and
Cass Sunstein Cass Robert Sunstein (born September 21, 1954) is an American legal scholar known for his work in U.S. constitutional law, administrative law, environmental law, and behavioral economics. He is also ''The New York Times'' best-selling author of ...
. It was also discussed in a decision of the
United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit (in case citations, 4th Cir.) is a United States federal court, federal court located in Richmond, Virginia, with appellate jurisdiction over the United States district court, district cou ...
. The study has been cited by the
American Bar Association The American Bar Association (ABA) is a voluntary association, voluntary bar association of lawyers and law students in the United States; national in scope, it is not specific to any single jurisdiction. Founded in 1878, the ABA's stated acti ...
's Commission on Immigration and the Appleseed Foundation, among other organizations. A similar study of the Canadian asylum adjudication system was subsequently published. The term "refugee roulette" continues to be used by the popular media to describe arbitrariness in asylum adjudication.


See also

*
Administrative law Administrative law is a division of law governing the activities of government agency, executive branch agencies of government. Administrative law includes executive branch rulemaking (executive branch rules are generally referred to as "regul ...
*
Asylum seekers An asylum seeker is a person who leaves their country of residence, enters another country, and makes in that other country a formal application for the right of asylum according to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights Article 14. A pers ...
* Asylum shopping *
Refugee A refugee, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), is a person "forced to flee their own country and seek safety in another country. They are unable to return to their own country because of feared persecution as ...
*
Refugee law Refugee law is the branch of international law which deals with the rights and duties states have ''vis-a-vis'' refugees. There are differences of opinion among international law scholars as to the relationship between refugee law and internationa ...
* Right of asylum * Refugee employment


References


External links

The authors of the original "Refugee Roulette" study in the United States
Jaya Ramji-NogalesAndrew I. SchoenholtzPhilip G. Schrag
{{DEFAULTSORT:Refugee Roulette Right of asylum in the United States