WRITTEN LANGUAGE ANALYSIS AS METHOD OF DETERMINING REFUGEE ORIGIN

Language functionality in migration processes has been a highly important practical issue in social sphere and a focus of research in sociolinguistics, ethno linguistics and other domains. Refugee origin identification became a pressing problem for many receiving countries as the flow of migrants has been increasing. Conflicts often make people leave their home countries and claim asylum. Various procedures and methods have been devised for the asylum seekers to confirm their refugee status. The Language Analysis for Determination of Origin has been introduced by many states to obtain objective evidence of asylum seeker’s national origin in cases they lack documents of identity. The test is intended to analyze spoken language used by refugees in the interview. We assume that the spoken language analysis has to be extended to include written language analysis, as writing reveals various features pertaining to identity. The issue of writing and identity has been given a close consideration in various linguistic and social studies and is relevant to current problems of migration.Writing language bares traces of individual language use, various contexts, discourses and culture. The Forensic Linguistics procedures applied for written language analysis in various legal cases could be helpful for working out methods to obtain reliable linguistic data in the sphere of migration.