Refugee Sandwich: Stories of Exile and Asylum

Joseph Jones is librarian emeritus at the University of British Columbia
Library. He is the author of Reference Sources for Canadian Literary
Studies.

Author Peter Showler writes out of his experiences in hundreds of
Canadian refugee hearings between 1989 and 1999. In some instances he
was the lawyer presenting a claimant’s case, in others he was one of
two refugee board members hearing a claim. He now teaches refugee law at
the University of Ottawa.

A prefatory chapter outlines two primary perspectives. While the
refugee claimant tries to overcome multiple disorientations in
presenting a claim, the refugee board member attempts to winnow the
evidence heard in six cases a week.

The book’s 13 stories range from 5 to 32 pages in length. An opening
page of caveats emphasizes that the stories are “solely fiction,”
because actual refugee case materials must remain confidential. This
legal consideration seems paramount. The requirements and technicalities
of content largely overwhelm efforts to dramatize situations and to
involve the reader.

In each story, the set of characters is taken from some combination of
refugee claimant, claimant’s lawyer, board members, government
officials, interpreters, witnesses, and appeal judges. Point of view
shifts among these categories from story to story. Another major
variation is the refugee claimant’s country of origin. A few stories
are vague, some tie to a large region like Latin America or Africa, and
some specify countries such as Rwanda, Iran, and Somalia. Apart from the
obvious hearing room, settings for the narratives include washroom, bar,
restaurant, and backyard patio.

A lengthy afterword provides a useful sketch of Canadian refugee
procedures. This coda complements the collection of 13 instances
presented as fiction. The exposition of the framework that looms behind
the stories might be the preferred starting point for a deductive mind.

Readers interested in Canadian refugee law and policy will find here a
nuanced portrait of a particular decade. Library classification rightly
places the book with works on refugees, and not with fiction.