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DECOLONIZING COLORBLIND ASYLUM NARRATIVES.
- Source :
-
St. Louis University Law Journal . Spring2023, Vol. 67 Issue 3, p523-542. 20p. - Publication Year :
- 2023
-
Abstract
- The essay addresses how law professors can engage critical and decolonial theories to teach students how to deconstruct the marginalizing narratives required in asylum advocacy. These theories provide the theoretical and praxisoriented frameworks for professors seeking to liberate their pedagogy. The goal is for law students to begin their legal work knowledgeable of the law and skilled at advocacy, while also cognizant of how the law reifies existing hierarchies. To achieve this goal, professors must begin to ask different questions in partnership with their clients and students that are historically informed and aimed at dismantling structures and systems that maintain hierarchies. To this end, this essay proceeds in three parts. The first part discusses how In re Kasinga--a seminal gender-based asylum case--helps law students engage with critical, intersectional, and decolonial theories. While Kassindja's case resulted in thousands of women and girls being granted asylum, it enshrined a baseline of objectivity that centers on the intersection of Westernized gender norms and racialized narratives that center whiteness. This section focuses on how decolonial theory highlights the invisible norms that have led to the disproportionate denial of asylum for Black and brown asylum seekers. The second part highlights how teaching the colonial history of the Refugee Convention permits students to understand the historical roots of the gender and racialized norms that pervade how we determine who qualifies as a refugee. The third part discusses how Kassindja's case can be instructive for highlighting the tensions that arise in attempting to conform the client's story to norms that often reinforce stereotypes. In conclusion, the essay starts to engage with pedagogical strategies for teaching clinic students to move from theory to praxis to generate alternative strategies for engaging in critical lawyering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Subjects :
- *DECOLONIZATION
*POSTRACIALISM
*SOCIAL marginality
*LEGAL education
*IMMIGRATION law
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 00363030
- Volume :
- 67
- Issue :
- 3
- Database :
- Academic Search Index
- Journal :
- St. Louis University Law Journal
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 163900568