scholarly journals Collectivized Discretion: Seeking Explanations for Decreased Asylum Recognition Rates in Finland After Europe's 2015 “Refugee Crisis”

2021 ◽  
pp. 019791832110440
Author(s):  
Johanna Vanto ◽  
Elsa Saarikkomäki ◽  
Anne Alvesalo-Kuusi ◽  
Nea Lepinkäinen ◽  
Elina Pirjatanniemi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Refugee Crisis ◽  
Individual Decision ◽  
Immigration Control ◽  
Refugee Protection ◽  
Asylum Law ◽  
Large Numbers ◽  
Individual Assessment ◽  
The Individual

In 2015, during the so-called “refugee crisis” in Europe, Finland was among the European countries receiving exceptionally large numbers of asylum applications. As the volume of asylum applications surged, however, the percentage of positive asylum decisions in Finland declined substantially. In this article, we explore reasons for this dramatic drop in recognitions rates and examine Finnish immigration control authorities’ use of discretion in asylum credibility assessment. Our approach is unique in its application of mixed methods to examine asylum decisions in pre- and post-crisis situations. We found that asylum caseworkers’ inconsistent assessment of similar facts and lack of faith in the veracity of applicants’ claims were essential to the mass denial of young Iraqi asylum applicants in Finland. This finding is important because it illustrates how asylum officers are able to “shift the border,” or generate a shift in asylum decision-making on a grand scale, without meaningful changes in law. Asylum officers, we show, are able to bring about such a shift via what we call collectivized discretion, or large-scale use of discretion, in asylum status determinations to control migration. Prior research on discretion in asylum decision-making highlights the individual decision-maker. This article expands discretion research by offering new insights on large-scale, collective discretionary shifts in the application of asylum law. We conclude that it is crucial that asylum status determinations be anchored in the individual assessment of each applicant's case, as collectivized discretion can lead to arbitrary results in the application of asylum law, potentially forcing those in need of refugee protection to face deportation.

Are the saving decision patterns of bank customers also clouded by psychological biases? Evidence from Ghana

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph Emmanuel Tetteh ◽  
Christopher Boachie
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Loss Aversion ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Weighted Least Squares ◽  
Least Squares Regression ◽  
Individual Decision ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Saving Decisions ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Practical Implications

PurposeThis paper attempts to investigate the influence of psychological biases on saving decision-making of bank customers in Ghana.Design/methodology/approachIt employs weighted least squares regression to test the effect of psychological biases on savings decisions of bank customers.FindingsThe findings show that all the nine psychological biases, namely mental accounting, availability, loss aversion, representativeness, anchoring, overconfidence, status quo, framing effect and disposition effect employed for the study have a significant influence on saving decision of bank customers. The results depict that psychological biases are entrenched in the saving pattern of bank customers in Ghana.Practical implicationsFor policy purposes, the study recommends that bank customers need to enhance their knowledge of psychological biases in order to improve their gains from savings, and not to fall prey to these prejudices. The satisfied customer is a dependable source of bank viability and survival.Originality/valueTo the best of the knowledge of the author, this study provides the first empirical evidence of the influence of psychological biases on saving decisions of bank customers in Ghana. The findings of this study will enhance knowledge on the influence of psychological biases on individual decision-making and will accentuate the fact that the individual is not an entirely rational being.

The Global Refugee Crisis: Regional Destabilization & Humanitarian Protection

Daedalus ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 146 (4) ◽  
pp. 85-97 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Kenyon Lischer
Keyword(s):  
Civil Wars ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
Refugee Crisis ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Internally Displaced ◽  
Displaced Populations ◽  
State Security ◽  
Refugee Protection ◽  
Syrian Refugee Crisis

In addition to being a tragic output of civil war, large-scale displacement crises often become enmeshed in the politics, security, and economics of the conflict. Refugee and internally displaced populations thus exacerbate concerns about regional destabilization. The Syrian refugee crisis, for example, is deeply entwined with civil and international conflict. Neighboring host states of Turkey, Jordan, and Lebanon bear the brunt of the crisis, while European states seek to prevent further encroachment by Middle Eastern asylum seekers. Policy-makers often mistakenly view host state security and refugee security as unrelated–or even opposing–factors. In reality, refugee protection and state stability are linked together; undermining one factor weakens the other. Policies to protect refugees, both physically and legally, reduce potential threats from the crisis and bolster state security. In general, risks of conflict are higher when refugees live in oppressive settings, lack legal income-generation options, and are denied education for their youth. The dangers related to the global refugee crisis interact with many other threats that emanate from civil wars and weak states, such as fragile governments, rebel and terrorist group activity, and religious or ethnic fragmentation.

Assembly Sites in Scandinavia: Activities and Rituals of the Community

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandra Sanmark
Keyword(s):  
Social Cohesion ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Group Interaction ◽  
Collective Memories ◽  
Community Activities ◽  
The People ◽  
Large Numbers ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Shared Ownership

Chapter 5 shifts the focus to the rituals and activities of the wider community in Scandinavia. At thing sites a wide range of community activities and rituals, which most likely and created collective memories and strengthened social cohesion, were enacted. Many of these activities may have been designed by the elite, but equally the idea of assemblies as communal spaces may have been collectively driven. The archaeological signature of meeting-places and assembly-sites suggests associations with feasting and eating on a large-scale, and architectural layouts that emphasised the collective over the individual and facilitated group interaction and cohesion. The construction, enlargement and maintenance of monuments and other features required the participation of large numbers of people. By joining in this work the population gained shared ownership of the sites. This was further enhanced by communal activities during the meetings, which also involved games and sports, as well as trade. Assemblies therefore formed arenas of interplay between the top-elite and the wider population; kings were elected and ruled through the assembly, while at the same time continuously dependent on the endorsement of the people.

Assumptions of Rationality and Non-Rationality in Models of the International System

1961 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 93-117 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sidney Verba
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
International Relations ◽  
International System ◽  
Individual Decision ◽  
Individual Decision Making ◽  
Nation States ◽  
Simplifying Assumptions ◽  
Explicit Consideration ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Impact

It is a truism that all action within the international system can be reduced to the action of individuals. It is also true, however, that international relations cannot be adequately understood in terms of individual attitudes and behaviors. Models of the international system usually deal with larger units, nation-states, as prime actors. To what extent can such models give us adequate explanations of international relations without some built-in variables to deal with individual decision-making?It may be that some processes in international relations can be adequately explained on the level of social structure without explicit consideration of the personality, predispositions, attitudes, and behavior of the individual decision-maker. In that case, the introduction of variables dealing with individual behavior would complicate the model without commensurate payoff in terms of increased understanding and prediction. This would be true if the impact of individual decision-making on the behavior of nations in their relations with other nations were slight, or if the impact varied randomly (because, for instance, of idiosyncratic factors) among the population of international events that one was trying to explain. If, on the other hand, models of the international system that either ignore or make grossly simplifying assumptions about individual decision-making can explain international relations only very imperfectly, it may well be worth the additional effort to build variables about individual decision-making into them.

Emotional experience and personality traits influence individual and joint risk-based decision making

2017 ◽  
Vol 45 (6) ◽  
pp. 881-892 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xin Wang ◽  
Yu Pan ◽  
Kecheng Zhang ◽  
Yujia Sui ◽  
Tingjie Lv ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Personality Traits ◽  
Big Five ◽  
Emotional Experience ◽  
Big Five Personality Traits ◽  
Big Five Personality ◽  
Individual Decision ◽  
Joint Decision ◽  
Individual Decision Making ◽  
The Individual

We compared individual and joint risk-based decision making using the Balloon Analogue Risk Task, with a focus on participants' (160 Chinese men) emotional experience during decision making and their Big Five personality traits as measured by the NEO Five-Factor Inventory. We found that, compared with the individual decision-making process, making a joint decision led to reduced risk taking and increased earnings, and brought a greater sense of control, stronger feelings of achievement and happiness, and a reduced sense of regret for the participants. The Big Five personality traits of the participants were related to their risk-based decision making; participants tended to act differently according to their personality traits during individual and joint decision making. Our findings show that, compared with individual decision making, joint decision making has many advantages.

scholarly journals Cooperation in large-scale human societies -- What, if anything, makes it unique, and how did it evolve?

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon T. Powers ◽  
Carel P. van Schaik ◽  
Laurent Lehmann
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Social Interaction ◽  
Collective Action ◽  
Social Interactions ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Prosocial Behaviors ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Individual Decision ◽  
Individual Decision Making ◽  
Self Interest

To resolve the major controversy about why prosocial behaviors persist in large-scale human societies, we propose that two questions need to be answered. First, how do social interactions in small-scale and large-scale societies differ? By reviewing the exchange and collective-action dilemmas in both small-scale and large-scale societies, we show they are not different. Second, are individual decision-making mechanisms driven by self-interest? We extract from the literature three types of individual decision-making mechanism, which differ in their social influence and sensitivity to self-interest, to conclude that humans interacting with non-relatives are largely driven by self-interest. We then ask: what was the key mechanism that allowed prosocial behaviors to continue as societies grew? We show the key role played by new social interaction mechanisms -- change in the rules of exchange and collective-action dilemmas -- devised by the interacting individuals, which allow for self-interested individuals to remain prosocial as societies grow.

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