Refugee Roulette: how identity leads to unfairness in refugee status determination

Scholars across various traditions have emphasised that asylum seekers with similar persecution stories, requesting asylum in the same country, and under the same legal framework, may still end up with different outcomes. This phenomenon is called ‘refugee roulette’. 

In this episode, Vincent speaks with Esteban Octavio Scuzarello, a researcher from the SPS department of the European University Institute. They talk about his research, his passion, and the unique characteristics of the Refugee Status Determination process in Latin- and South-American countries. 

Meet the Guest 
My guest this week is Esteban Octavio Scuzarello. He is from Argentina, and in his own words he is also ‘legally Italian’... In the episode, he elaborates how his own family formed through a ‘forbidden love’ in Italy, and the first boat that sailed was simply bound for Argentina … Speaking about migration and asylum! 


Currently, he is a PhD Researcher at the SPS Department of the European University Institute, in Florence.  Before, he studied International Relations in Argentina and Transnational Governance in Florence. Beyond his academic endeavours, he has been active as a consultant and volunteer for various organisations - amongst others, the UN Working Group on Discrimination Against Women and Girls.   


Esteban’s research interests revolve around (forced) migration in Latin America and its legal and public policy implications, with a particular focus on gender and sexuality dynamics surrounding it. You can follow him on LinkedIn, or find his email on his EUI-page. 

Recommendations of the Week
Esteban recommends one movie, and two books. The movie ‘Io Capitano’ is the fascinating depiction of the story of two senegalese cousins that decide to leave their house cross a quarter of Africa and the mediterranean sea, to try to reach Italy. Here, you can watch the This movie has already once been discussed in a previous episode of Radio Vinternational, on how European films depict migration with Marek Maj as a guest!). 

The 2 recommended books, are: 

• ‘Refugee Roulette’ (by J. Ramji-Nogales, P. Schrag, A. Schoenholtz) is the original ground-breaking and shocking study that shows that life-or-death asylum decisions are too frequently influenced by random factors relating to the decision makers.
• The book How Migration Really Works, by Hein de Haas, who is Professor of Sociology at the Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research (AISSR), part of the University of Amsterdam (UvA). His latest book is specifically written for an international, non-scientific public and is already published in more than ten different languages.