ABSTRACT

Based on data from the author’s ethnographic fieldwork as anthropologist and migration lawyer, the article starts from the writing technique here named “fictional proxy”. It aims to analyze the structure and the conditions of eligibility and veracity required of the biographical narratives that justify the requests for refuge made by international migrants, according to the “Formulário de Solicitação de Reconhecimento da Condição de Refugiado”, the pertinent legal norms and the daily practices that are reiterated in this context, in the city of São Paulo. Hence, it also discusses the different functions performed by Law, politics and emotions in the composition of the true speech and the effects of meaning and power that this production arouses both in the narrator and in their relations with the States of origin and reception.

KEYWORDS:
Anthropology of Law; Anthropology of the State; refugees; emotions; truth