Granting asylum is a form of humanitarian protection that provides the right to reside and work to people who are unable or unwilling to return to their home country because they have a well-founded fear of being persecuted there due to their race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion. Obtaining asylum in the United States typically becomes the first step toward getting the right to permanent residence and subsequently U.S. citizenship.
The study showed that in the United States this process depends on many factors that play an important role in the fate of people who have filed asylum applications. Such cases are heard by special immigration courts. It turned out that the outcome of court hearings can be predicted by knowing, for example, the nationality of the asylum applicant, the timing of their application, whether they have a lawyer, and so on. In addition, the gender and experience of the judge also play a significant role.
For example, statistical analysis showed that, all other things being equal, the chances of obtaining asylum in a San Francisco court are 12 times higher than in an Atlanta court. In a New York court (which handles most such cases in the United States), an asylum seeker has 420 times more chance of being granted asylum if their case is heard by an experienced judge. Male judges rule in favor of asylum seekers 60% more often than their female colleagues.
In most cases, courts grant asylum to migrants from Albania, China, Ethiopia, Iran, Somalia, and Yugoslavia. Russia also appears on this list with record-high rates: 73% of its citizens who applied in an 'affirmative' manner (i.e., were in the United States legally, had no issues with immigration authorities, and approached the authorities not to protect themselves from possible deportation or other sanctions) received asylum, and 46% of those who applied in a 'defensive' manner (the asylum application was filed after, for example, U.S. immigration authorities began removal proceedings against the Russian citizen). Residents of Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras have the least chance of obtaining asylum in the United States.
According to the Department of Homeland Security, more than 50,700 people applied for asylum in the United States in 2007. A comparison of these figures with statistics from the UN Refugee Agency shows that the United States accounted for about 10% of such requests filed worldwide.
Based on materials from Washington ProFile.