Culture and credibility: the assessment of asylum seekers’ statements

Abstract

Asylum seekers typically have a different cultural background from the immigration officials interviewing and assessing their statements. Yet the role of culture in eliciting and evaluating asylum seekers’ statements has remained largely unexplored. This article addresses the intersection of memory and culture in the context of the asylum determination process. To that end, we draw on the literature on eyewitness memory, which has so far largely been studied separately from credibility assessments in asylum procedures. We integrate the academic literature on the two subjects by discussing memory aspects prone to cultural variations through the lens of credibility assessments in the asylum determination procedure. We highlight the need for further research, given that most studies on memory have involved participants from Western, Educated, Industrialised, Rich and Democratic (WEIRD) societies, ignoring 88 per cent of the world population. More insight into cultural differences within memory and reporting will allow for the creation of culturally nuanced credibility assessment tools that better accommodate the majority of the world population.