On 11 June 2025, the Eur-Asian Border Lab Forum convened a roundtable at Tallinn University to explore how credibility is interpreted and operationalised in asylum and border procedures. The forum, titled Interpreting Credibility in Asylum and Border Procedures: Perspectives from Practice, brought together insights from researchers, policy practitioners and institutional actors to ask how judgements are made, and how decision-makers within the system navigate asylum-seekers’ diverse backgrounds and stories.
Drawing on grounded examples from Estonia and Italy, the discussion examined how personal narratives, documentation, identity and belief are assessed in asylum-seeking processes. Rather than treating credibility as a neutral legal category, participants highlighted how it emerges as a complex affective, cultural and institutional process shaped by structural expectations and human limitations.
The forum featured reflections from Teele Jänes (University of Eastern Finland), Priit Paakspuu (Estonian Police and Border Guard Board), and Timothy Anderson (Tallinn University and the Eur-Asian Border Lab). Moderated by our very own John Buchanan, the session moved between fieldwork insights, institutional dilemmas and lived realities, tracing the space between what applicants are expected to prove and what they express under varying circumstances.
Audience members from diverse professional and cultural backgrounds also contributed, recounting cases involving inconsistent narratives, trauma and cross-cultural translation. While asylum-seekers often struggle to present their experiences in ways that align with institutional expectations, decision-makers struggle with finding expert knowledge on applicants’ political, cultural and religious contexts.
Although legal frameworks were not absent from the conversation, the true focus of the forum was human experience, both that of the asylum-seekers and decision-makers. Ultimately, the roundtable centred on understanding what it means to narrate the desire for asylum and to assess stories that are often fragmented yet invariably marked by trauma.
The Eur-Asian Border Lab extends its warmest thanks to all who contributed their insight, energy and time to this gathering. As with every Forum event, the aim is not merely to talk about borders, but to think with them, and with the people who cross, guard or negotiate them every day.
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