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Abstract
In Finland a rising number of asylum seekers from Islamic countries are converting to Christianity. As religious persecution is a ground for refugee status, the Finnish Immigration Service (Migri) must determine whether a change of religion poses a threat to the asylum seeker in their home country. But how can the conversion of an asylum seeker be, in fact, verified? In this article, I analyse – from a theological perspective – the view of Christianity that guides Migri’s credibility assessment of conversion in the asylum process. The focus lies in persons from Islamic countries converting to Christianity during their asylum process. The material consists of 48 application rulings, concentrating on the 20 negative decisions. The analysis focuses on the concepts of faith and the Church, as these central concepts of Christianity are highly relevant for the credibility assessment. I contrast Migri’s understanding of these concepts with illustrations of how they have been understood in theology. Thus, a clearer picture of Migri’s view on the Christian religion emerges, showing that Migri views it primarily as an inward orientation. As Migri does not acknowledge other manifestations of religious identity as authentic, it is possible that not all those in need of protection are identified.
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank my supervisors, Anni Maria Laato and Eveliina Lyytinen, for all the support during the research process. I am also grateful for my colleagues at the research seminar in systematic theology at Åbo Akademi University for commenting on several drafts of this article. I would also like to thank the anonymous reviewers and the editors for valuable comments and suggestions. Thank you, Talvikki Ahonen for sharing the asylum decisions with me. Finally, I would like to thank Elina Pirjatanniemi, Jaana Palander, and Jari Vuorijoki for sharing your expertise regarding the legal aspects of the credibility assessment process.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 UNHCR, “The 1951 Convention,” art. 1 A.
2 “A well-founded fear of persecution may arise after an applicant has left her or his country of origin, — as a result of her or his own actions after s/he has left the country of origin, making the applicant a refugee sur place.” UNHCR, “Guidelines No 12,” art. 31.
3 Migri, “Migri vastaa.”
4 Hartikainen, “Evaluating Faith after Conversion.”
5 Migri, “Migri vastaa.”
6 In many negative decisions, the asylum seeker has referred to their assumptions or second-hand information about a possible threat in their country-of-origin. However, they have seldom had any concrete evidence to support their fear of persecution.
7 See, e.g., UN, “ICCPR” art. 18; European Court of Human Rights, “ECHR,” art. 9.
8 Musalo, “Claims for Protection,” 226.
9 Gunn, “The Complexity of Religion,” 189; UNHCR, “Guidelines No 6,” par. 5–8; Aarsheim, “Sincere and Reflected?” 94–5.
10 Hansen, “State Controls: Borders, Refugees,” 254–5.
11 EASO “Practical Guide: Evidence Assessment,” 1.
12 UNHCR, “Guidelines No 12,” par. 89.
13 Kagan, “Is Truth in,” 367; Sweeney, “Credibility, Proof and Refugee,” 700–1.
14 Kagan, “Is Truth in,” 367; McDonald, “Escaping the Lions,” 152.
15 Kagan, “Is Truth in,” 414.
16 Ibid., 414–5.
17 Migri, “Maahanmuuttoviraston selvitys sisäministerille,” 63–4.
18 Credibility was questioned in two decisions based on the delay in giving this information to the asylum officials. In the first case, the person either converted or showed interest in Christianity in the home country (it is unclear which one is the case), but only told about this late in the asylum process (Iraq 9/2017). In the second case, the asylum seeker converted in Finland, but did not tell about it immediately to the asylum officials (Iraq 10/2018).
In three cases, the person had showed interest in Christianity in their country of origin, but converted only after departure (Iraq, 3/2017; Iraq, 6/2018; and Iraq, 11/2018). In the last decision, the applicant's credibility was considered to be weakened by the person only going to church after staying in Finland for one year, even though s/he claimed to have been interested in Christianity already in Iraq.
19 Thornburn Stern and Wikström, Migrationsrätt: skyddsbehov och trovärdighet, 15.
20 Ibid., 12–13, 130–1.
21 Ibid., 12–13.
22 UNHCR, “Guidelines No 6,” par. 34.
23 Kagan, “Refugee Credibility Assessment,” 1189.
24 Hoellerer and Gill, “Assembly-Line Baptism,” 19. Samahon, “The Religion Clauses,” 2232.
25 Kagan, “Refugee Credibility Assessment,” 1219–20. For other implicit assumptions of human behaviour in asylum determination processes, see Herlihy, Gleeson, and Turner, “What Assumptions about Human.”
26 Bodström, “‘Because Migri Says So’,” 4. Bodström refers here to Wikström and Johansson, “Credibility Assessment.”
27 Hoellerer and Gill, “Assembly-Line Baptism,” 12, 19. There are examples of questioning the legitimacy of certain churches even in written sources. For example, in a precedent on the Finnish Supreme Administrative Court, Migri deems the baptism certificate of a Pentecostal Church to have lesser weight as evidence than a certificate of a Lutheran church, and a Pentecostal pastor’s expertise as a witness merely an opinion of a private person. Supreme Administrative Court of Finland, “KHO:2017:63.”
28 Thornburn Stern and Wikström, Migrationsrätt: skyddsbehov och trovärdighet, 223–4. Rose and Given-Wilson recommend that asylum judges undergo training in cultural differences as well as trauma and memory which includes perspectives from scholars such as theologians, anthropologists, psychologists, and sociolegal scholars. The goal would be a reflexive experience that would heighten awareness “and loosen decision-makers from their own customs and habits, which will allow for a fuller evaluation of the facts and hopefully a fairer trial.” Rose and Given-Wilson, “What is Truth?” 233.
29 McDonald, “Escaping the Lions,” 135; Samahon, “The Religion Clauses,” 2232.
30 Samahon, “The Religion Clauses,” 2233.
31 Thebault and Rose, “What Kind of Christianity?” 543–50.
32 Kagan, “Refugee Credibility Assessment,” 1221–3.
33 Ibid., 1222.
34 Ibid.
35 Samahon, “The Religion Clauses,” 2234.
36 Bergström et al., Konvertitutredningen, 32.
37 Ibid., 18–20.
38 Ibid., 45.
39 Hartikainen, “Evaluating Faith after Conversion,” 54.
40 The documents were obtained from Migri through a material request made by D.Soc.Sc. Talvikki Ahonen and shared by Ahonen with permission from Migri.
In a news article from the Finnish Broadcasting Company on August 8, 2020, Migri’s representative Anu Karppi states that Migri changed some of its practices concerning the credibility assessment of religious conversion in winter 2019–2020, and an asylum seeker’s individual circumstances are now taken into account to a greater extent. The significance of these changes remains to be seen and cannot be analysed based on the material presented here.
41 Of the 28 positive decisions, 11 were granted directly, and 17 only after an appeal procedure. Of the 20 negative decisions, 6 were made after an appeal procedure where the administrative court returned the case to Migri after new information concerning the conversion had come forth in the appeal phase. The rest of the negative decisions were first-instance decisions, of which 6 were cases of renewed asylum application, meaning that the asylum seeker had applied for asylum again after the first negative decision had the force of res judicata. In the decision Iraq 10/2018, Migri granted the asylum seeker subsidiary protection on another ground than religion, despite deeming the conversion inauthentic. This decision is classified as negative.
42 The asylum seeker’s country of origin affects the risk-assessment, as the actors of persecution differ from country to country. In its decisions, Migri refers to country-of-origin –information from various sources. However, due to limited space in this article, it is impossible to analyse in detail how Migri understands the situation of converts in each above-mentioned country. This remains a topic for future research.
43 Processing of asylum appeals is decentralised to four Administrative Courts in Finland.
44 The sparse information on the grounds for positive decisions has been observed also by Bodström and Saarikkomäki et al. Saarikkomäki states that this makes it is hard to assess the equality of Migri’s decision-making. (Saarikkomäki et al. 2018, “Kansainvälistä suojelua koskevat” 12; Bodström, “Asylum Decisions as Performances,” 631.)
45 Afghanistan, 9/2017.
46 Iraq, 3/2017; Iraq, 5/2017; Somalia, 12/2017; Iraq, 12/2017a; Iraq, 12/2017b; Afghanistan, 5/2018; Iraq, 6/2018; Iraq, 10/2018; Iraq, 11/2018.
47 UNHCR, “Guidelines No 6,” par. 34.
48 Other sources that Migri frequently refers to are different sources of country-of-origin information and the Finnish Aliens Act. However, Migri does not refer to international decisions or government-issued guidelines in the negative decisions comprising the material of this article. In addition, Migri does not refer to any internal guidelines concerning credibility assessment of Christian converts.
49 Schreier, “Qualitative Content Analysis,” 170.
50 Ibid.
51 Occasionally, also other theological works are cited, such as Pannenberg, Systematic Theology. Vol. 3; Fisichella, and Latourelle, Dictionary of Fundamental Theology; Hägglund, Trons mönster; and Catholic Engagement with World Religions.
52 Luther, The Large Catechism, part II, art. III. See also Lumen Gentium, art. 9; and World Council of Churches, The Church, art. 3.
53 Baldi, “The Mission of the Church,” 280–1. See also Ephesians 2:19; the opening statement of Lumen Gentium emphasises the role of the Church as a sign and an instrument of God’s plan of universal reunification. (Lumen Gentium, art. 1.)
54 The Apostolic Creed; the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed.
55 McGrath, Christian Theology: An Introduction, 372.
56 According to Hägglund, organisations and structures exist only to secure the continuity of the Church as a spiritual community. Hägglund, Trons mönster, 90. Within Catholic theology, the Church is understood to include both the social organisation and the spiritual reality. (Lumen Gentium, art. 8.)
57 See Ephesians 1:4-5, 10.
58 Hägglund, Trons mönster, 90.
59 The will to separate “true” Christians emerged, among other eras, in a time of persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire, when some leaders of the church publicly renounced their faith, and the question was whether these people could be allowed to re-join the Christian community after the persecutions. McGrath, Christian Theology: an Introduction, 358–9.
60 A conventional biblical reference to this effect is Matthew 13:47–52.
61 McGrath, Christian Theology: An Introduction, 359. See also World Council of Churches, The Church, art. 22; and The Augsburg Confession, art. VIII.
62 McGrath, Christian Theology: An Introduction, 359.
63 Iraq, 9/2018.
64 Somalia, 12/2017; Iran, 10/2017.
65 Somalia, 12/2017.
66 Iraq, 3/2017.
67 Iraq, 9/2018.
68 The Finnish word used is aitous. Iraq 9/2018.
69 Iraq, 9/2018.
70 Iraq, 9/2018.
71 Somalia, 12/2017.
72 Afghanistan 10/2017b; Afghanistan 10/2017c.
73 Also Rose and Given-Wilson came to a similar conclusion that asylum judges differentiated between socially motivated conversion and “real” conversion in their study of German asylum proceedings. (Rose and Given-Wilson, “What is Truth?,” 230–1.) Even Hoellerer and Gill’s article mentions a German judge making a distinction between a “social” and “spiritual” conversion. (Hoellerer and Gill, “Assembly-Line Baptism,” 10.)
74 Confessing the One Faith, art. 5.
75 Fisichella, and Latourelle, Dictionary of Fundamental Theology, 312–3.
76 McGrath, Christian Theology: An Introduction, 83.
77 Pannenberg, Systematic Theology. Volume 3, 153.
78 Ibid.
79 Iraq, 11/2017.
80 Iraq, 11/2017.
81 It is noteworthy that this interview took place after Migri restricted the length of the asylum interviews. Thus, the amount of time spent on each aspect of the asylum seeker’s story is limited in the asylum interview. (Helsingin Sanomat, September 4, 2016.) The restriction has been criticised, among others, by Amnesty International. (Amnesty, “Suomen osaston ehdotukset hallitusohjelmakirjauksiksi,” par. 2.2.)
82 Iraq, 11/2017.
83 Miller, Living Among the Breakage, 203.
84 Afghanistan, 9/2017. This decision was already made in 2017 (the earliest year the material encompasses). However, the negative decisions made later include no comments on the possibility of persecution based on the asylum seeker being viewed as a Christian in their home country.
85 Iraq, 9/2018; Iran, 10/2017.
86 Iraq, 9/2018.
87 Iran, 10/2017.
88 UNHCR, “The 1951 Convention,” art. 1 F.
89 Könönen, “Legal Geographies,” 5.
90 On the active role and power of interpreters in asylum determination process, see Dahlvik, “Why Handling Power Responsibly.” On the incorrect assumptions of memory in the asylum process, see Herlihy and Turner, “Untested Assumptions.”
91 OHCHR, “The principle of non-refoulement.”
92 Blumgrund, Lydén and Leminen, “Migrin teologia.”