Human Dignity on Trial: Welfare Judges, Immigration Politics and Social Change

Andreetta, Sophie

doi:10.1111/lapo.70007

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Human Dignity on Trial: Welfare Judges, Immigration Politics and Social Change

Andreetta, Sophie

2026 • In Law and Policy, 48 (1), p. 1-11

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https://hdl.handle.net/2268/338113

DOI
10.1111/lapo.70007

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Keywords :

Belgium; court; ethnography; judges; migration; migration studies; welfare; welfare trials; Sociology and Political Science; Law

Abstract :

[en] Building on ethnographic fieldwork in welfare hearings in French-speaking Belgium, this article explores how judges decide between irregular migrants claiming social assistance and the public welfare administrations refusing such claims. Investigating these cases helps to analyze how members of the bench establish truthfulness and ponder the social and political consequences of their decisions. In these contexts, irregular migrants, despite being the more disadvantaged party to the case, regularly win against the state. At the theoretical level, this article provides a counterpoint to two general trends in sociolegal and migration studies. First, it nuances the idea that judicial proceedings generally tend to further or reproduce inequalities by showing how courts can, under certain conditions, help uphold migrants' rights against the state. Second, it highlights the importance of law and formal institutions in the governance of precarious migrants.

Disciplines :

Anthropology

Author, co-author :

Andreetta, Sophie ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département des sciences sociales > Labo d'anthropologie sociale et culturelle (LASC)

Language :

English

Title :

Human Dignity on Trial: Welfare Judges, Immigration Politics and Social Change

Publication date :

2026

Journal title :

Law and Policy

ISSN :

0265-8240

eISSN :

1467-9930

Publisher :

John Wiley and Sons Inc

Volume :

Issue :

Pages :

1-11

Peer reviewed :

Peer Reviewed verified by ORBi

Additional URL :

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/lapo.70007

Funding text :

This work was supported by the Department of Law and Anthropology, Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology and FRS-FNRS National Fund for Scientific Research.

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since 02 December 2025

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