"It depends a lot on the case officer" : A qualitative study of case- and executive officers´assessment of asylum applications at the Swedish Migration Agency.

Abstract: The purpose of this study is to highlight the work of asylum case- and executive officers at the Swedish Migration Agency. It focuses on the oral investigation that is conducted by the Swedish Migration Agency with an asylum seeker in Sweden, how the case- and executive officers assess if an asylum seeker is credible, and if there are any difficulties with this process. The aim of this study has not been to investigate how the credibility and reliability assessments should be conducted; instead, it has been to understand the complexity of these assessment and how the case- and executive officers experience the same. The study is ethnographic, and the empirical material consists of interviews with individuals who work as case- and executive officers at the Migration Agency's asylum units in Sweden. The study has a qualitative approach since the interest lies in individual experiences. The analysis is based on extracts from the interviews and is linked to existing research and theories. Theoretically, the thesis is inspired by Michael Lipsky's concept of street-level bureaucracy. In addition, we have also built up a theoretical chapter presenting the legal framework. The study shows that the assessment of an asylum seeker is a complicated and abstract process. And in the end, it all comes down to an overall assessment.