Abstract

This article investigates the role of asylum judges in asylum policy implementation, focusing on the pressures and constraints produced by the managerial turn affecting judicial offices. Comparing Italy and France, the study examines how asylum judges handle increased caseloads and demands for efficiency and accountability using the Street-Level Bureaucracy (SLB) framework, which has rarely been applied to these professionals. Data analysis from interviews, observation, and shadowing reveals that asylum judges experience pressures that vary in extent and form between the two cases. French judges at the National Court of Asylum (CNDA) experience intense managerial pressures to expedite cases driven by political demands. In contrast, Italian judges deal with pressures related to societal accountability caused by backlogs and scarce resources and respond by adopting diverse local practices.