The Convention-based asylum regime has fostered characterisations of asylum seekers as either political and thus 'genuine' and 'legitimate' and 'deserving', or economic and thus 'abusive' and 'illegitimate' and 'undeserving'. Public debates on asylum seekers are often based on the assumption that such clear-cut distinctions actually exist. Most asylum seekers however come from countries where economic failure and political instability and persecution and poverty are inextricably mixed. And despite the either/or nature of determinations, distinctions between individual asylum seekers can rarely be established with any degree of certainty. There is rarely documentary evidence of persecution. It is well established in the literature that, with the advent of people smuggling, credible stories are purchased along with the journey.