Researchers get 3 million grant from Formas
Linna Martén, Henrik Andersson and Kristoffer Jutvik get allmost 3 million SEK from Formas for the project Who gets asylum? The impact of traits and biases on bureaucrats' decision making. The three-year project will study bureaucrats' decision making in the asylum process.

Linna Martén
The researcher’s main purpose is to investigate the outcome of asylum applications, and to what extent these are affected by traits and biases among the bureaucrats. Earlier research provides insights about the causes and consequences of migration, but according to the researchers, less attention has been directed to the intermediate bureaucratic process deciding who gets asylum.
-The lack of attention is surprising given the well-documented level of discretion bureaucrats enjoy in their work. We will study how similarity based on gender between case workers and applicants, and external events such as terror attacks affect the outcome of asylum claims at the Swedish Migration Agency (SMA). We will also study the relation between case workers’ career trajectories and asylum assessments, says Linna Martén, one of the researchers behind the project.

Henrik Andersson
The project will employ quantitative methods, relying on a database including all asylum cases from 2009-2018, but the researchers will also perform interviews with agents within the SMA. The project will be carried out by a research group with extensive knowledge on asylum policy and advanced methodological designs.
-Knowledge about what factors influence the asylum decisions are important in order to correct any discrepancies and safeguard equal considerations of asylum cases. Considering the contemporary migration flows, such knowledge is of great relevance both in Sweden and internationally, says Henrik Andersson, another researcher behind the project.

Kristoffer Jutvik
The research group will compile a high-quality database, which can serve as a resource for further investigations into the topic. Such data is not easily accessible today, partly due to reasons of confidentiality, but in order to answer important research questions, scholars need access to detailed data.
-We believe that our data together with the application of different quasi-experimental research methods will provide new knowledge about the role of the bureaucrat in asylum applications. A coherent consideration of asylum application is a central part of our contemporary migration policy and we believe that our project can contribute to the development of a sustainable and inclusive society, says Kristoffer Jutvik, part of the research team.
Formas assessment
”Outstanding proposal. It is novel, interesting, well-written and coherent. The available dataset is unique and proposed methodology is excellent. It would be interesting to see how migration bureaucrats might or might not be different from the others that have been studied in literature before and the analysis of the traits of the bureaucrats not only in terms of gender but also in relation to parameters such as ethnicity, age or residence. The team is excellent and the prior experience in the field invaluable. The research has immense societal relevance and takes account of users and stakeholders as an integral part of the research design.”