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(Please send comments to Michael Erard <[log in to unmask]>). All, My article in Legal Affairs (published at Yale University in the US) on the use of language analyses by governments to certify the claims of political asylum applicants is now available online. Here are the first two paragraphs: THE YOUNG MAN CLAIMED HE WAS FLEEING THE TALIBAN. They were killing all the Hazara, a Shi'a Muslim minority, in his village in Afghanistan, he said. He and his brothers had spent their days hiding in the mountains, but the Taliban came from an unexpected direction and caught him. The Taliban tried to force him to pray with them and struck him when he refused. He managed to escape, and his father, a poor wheat farmer, had paid a smuggler more than $3,000 to transport him to Sydney via Pakistan. Or so the refugee in his mid-20s told an official at Australia's Department of Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs during his interview for asylum. The applicant-whose case is described in a March 2001 report by the Refugee Review Tribunal-had no official documents, though, and anonymous sources suggested that he might be a businessman from a town in western Pakistan called Quetta. Suspecting a fraud, the DIMIA official mailed a 15-minute segment of the applicant's taped interview to a company in Sweden-likely one named Eqvator-that specializes in language analysis. (Eqvator refused to confirm that it had evaluated the tape.) You can read the rest at http://www.legalaffairs.org/issues/November-December-2003/story_erad_novdec03.html I believe this story is the first in the English-language press to uncover the origins of language tests and explain their extraordinary appeal among countries with asylum programs. Notably, the two main companies that do this work, Eqvator and Sprakab, both actively seek business with governments; according to officials at the US Department of Homeland Security, they saw a presentation by representatives of one firm (probably Eqvator), though the US does not currently employ the language analyses. I welcome any feedback on my article and any additional information. Thank you in advance. Sincerely, Michael Erard [log in to unmask] ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Note: The material contained in this communication comes to you from the Forced Migration Discussion List which is moderated by the Refugee Studies Centre (RSC), University of Oxford. It does not necessarily reflect the views of the RSC or the University. If you re-print, copy, archive or re-post this message please retain this disclaimer. Quotations or extracts should include attribution to the original sources.