Monolingual language ideologies and code choice in the Belgian asylum procedure

When refugee claimants enter the Belgian asylum procedure, they have to motivate their application during one or more interviews with public officials. This paper examines the limitations of the procedural imposition of a monolingual standard code for a clear understanding of narrative accounts. Drawing on the case of a West African asylum seeker, it is shown how the applicant is forced to assimilate to English and how the imposition of this code acts as: (a) a catalyst to widen the gap between intended meanings and interactional uptake and (b) a filter on the subsequent entextualisation of the case.