Nineteenth International Conference on Interdisciplinary Social Sciences

Abstract

Having a documented civil status plays a great role in the reconstruction of the lives of refugees and their families. The incapacity of proving a civil status, makes it difficult for refugees to rebuild their existence and their family lives that have been destroyed or weakened by forced migration. Despite international treaties influencing migration and asylum regimes in the European Union, there are differences in the interpretation and implementation of the rights of refugees in EU member states. In France, the recognition as an internationally protected refugee goes hand in hand with the re-establishment of refugees’ civil status by the French authorities. In Germany by contrast, the entitlement to international protection does not pave the way to recover the documents proving refugees’ civil status. In many cases, refugees in Germany are required to have contact with the authorities of their country of origin to receive official papers relating to their civil status. Based on the analysis of documents, this paper explores the discrepancies between French and German asylum regimes relating to the re-establishment of the civil status of refugees entitled to international protection. In addition, by help of qualitative interviews conducted with refugees in both countries, this paper investigates comparatively, on the one hand, the importance of reconstructing the civil status of refugees in rebuilding their lives and families. On the other hand, it points out how the non-reconstruction of the civil status negatively affects the family lives of refugees, especially relating to their family reunification.