A Rare Examination of Typically Unobservable Factors in US Asylum Decisions

Abstract

The United States has obligations under international law and US statutory law to adhere to the legal principle of nonrefoulement to consider asylum claims. Under these laws, a person who qualifies as a refugee may be eligible for asylum and may avoid being deported to his or her country of origin if the applicant meets specific legal requirements. Because of congressional limitations to asylum case information, few studies have used individual level data and none have been able to include evidentiary factors or applicant characteristics. Using an original database of asylum applicants from a Dallas, Texas based NGO we examine individual, case and country factors to explore factors that affect the likelihood of receiving asylum in the immigration system in 1998–2005.