‘Assembly-Line Baptism’

We explore judges’ approaches to asylum court appeals based on the issue of conversion from Islam Christianity. Our ethnography in Germany and Austria 2018 2019 provides an insight into how such claims are discussed during appeals. At time, they were increasingly common, especially concerning Iranians Afghans involved ‘free churches’ (e.g. Evangelical, Pentecostal or charismatic). show rumours, congregations’ reputations assumptions about baptism what genuine conversions entail discussed. These factors can not only influence appellants’ cases, but reveal church–state tensions some intractable challenges refugee status determination.