Language analysis for the determination of origin (LADO) is an instrument used in asylum cases to determine the national or ethnic origin of the asylum seeker, through an evaluation of their language profile. To this end, an interview with the asylum seeker is recorded and analysed. The analysis consists of an examination of the dialectologically relevant features (e.g. accent, grammar, vocabulary and loanwords) in the speech of the asylum seeker. LADO is considered a type of speaker identification by forensic linguists. LADO analyses are usually made at the request of government immigration/asylum bureaux attempting to verify asylum claims, but may also be performed as part of the appeals process for claims which have been denied; they have frequently been the subject of appeals and litigation in several countries, e.g. Australia, the Netherlands and the UK.
Background
A number of established linguistic approaches are considered to be valid methods of conducting LADO, including language variation and change, forensic phonetics, dialectology, and language assessment.
The underlying assumption leading to government immigration and asylum bureaux's use of LADO is that a link exists between a person's nationality and the way they speak. To linguists, this assumption is flawed: instead, research supports links between the family and community in which a person learns their native language, and enduring features of their way of speaking it. The notion that linguistic socialization into a speech community lies at the heart of LADO has been argued for by linguists since 2004, and is now accepted by a range of government agencies (e.g. Switzerland, Norway), academic researchers (e.g. Eades 2009, Fraser 2011, Maryns 2006, and Patrick 2013), as well as some commercial agencies (e.g. De Taalstudio, according to Verrips 2010).
Use
Since the mid-1990s, language analysis has been used to help determine the geographical origin of asylum seekers by the governments of a growing number of countries (Reath, 2004), now including Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.
Pilots have been conducted by the UK, Ireland, and Norway. The UK legitimised the process in 2003; it has subsequently been criticised by immigration lawyers (see response by the Immigration Law Practitioners' Association), and also Craig 2012); and social scientists (e.g. Campbell 2013), as well as linguists (e.g. Patrick 2011).
In the Netherlands LADO is commissioned by the Dutch Immigration Service (IND). Language analysis is used by the IND in cases where asylum seekers cannot produce valid identification documents, and, in addition, the IND sees reason to doubt the claimed origin of the asylum seeker. The IND has a specialised unit (Bureau Land en Taal, or BLT; in English, the Office for Country Information and Language Analysis, or OCILA) that carries out these analyses. Challenges to BLT analyses are provided by De Taalstudio, a private company that provides language analysis and contra-expertise in LADO cases. Claims and criticisms regarding the Dutch LADO processes are discussed by Cambier-Langeveld (2010), the senior linguist for BLT/OCILA, and by Verrips 2010, the founder of De Taalstudio. Zwaan (2008, 2010) reviews the legal situation.
LADO reports are provided to governments in a number of ways: by their own regularly-employed linguists and/or freelance analysts; by independent academic experts; by commercial firms; or by a mixture of the above. In Switzerland language analysis is carried out by LINGUA, a specialized unit of the Federal Office for Migration, which both employs linguists and retains independent experts from around the world. The German and Austrian bureaux commission reports primarily from experts within their own countries. The UK and a number of other countries have commercial contracts with providers such as the Swedish firms Sprakab and Verified both of which have carried out language analyses for UK Visas and Immigration (formerly UK Border Agency) and for the Dutch Immigration Service, as well as other countries around the world.