State Time Management Contributes to Increased Vulnerability and Exploitation of Asylum Seekers
With temporary residence permits as the new norm in Sweden, and employment as the only way to qualify for a permanent residence permit, time and proximity to work are crucial to people's life chances. The development must be understood as an institutionalisation of exploitability and vulnerability, where the threat of deportation is made a permanent condition for those living without citizenship, according to a thesis from the University of Gothenburg.
– The asylum process is often experienced as a compact temporal vacuum where people are excluded from a societal rhythm and find themselves in an endless sate of waiting, says Sarah Philipson Isaac, a doctoral student in sociology at the University of Gothenburg.
For four years, she has followed 14 people in different phases of the asylum process. Through interviews, observations and conversations, she has studied their everyday lives and attempts to navigate Swedish migration bureaucracy. The research also includes interviews with 14 case officers, decision-makers and lawyers at the Swedish Migration Agency, as well as representatives from various civil rights organisations.
Not Enough Time for the Asylum Interview
The research shows several examples where lack of time and time control affect asylum seekers. One of them is connected to the asylum interview, which is the basis for residence permit decisions. During this interview, asylum seekers are given three hours to present their reasons for asylum.
Some counsellors I have spoken to say that it is really only 30 minutes of effective time for the interview itself. A fragmented asylum narrative is then used against the applicant to point out their unreliability, rather than recognising how time management prevents them from formulating a coherent narrative.
– This is time to be shared between the case officer, interpreter and possibly a legal counsellor. Some counsellors I have spoken to say that it is really only 30 minutes of effective time for the interview itself. A fragmented asylum narrative is then used against the applicant to point out their unreliability, rather than recognising how time management prevents them from formulating a coherent narrative.
The time control also affects the case officer, who has the possibility to extend an interview, but at the same time has to maintain a certain pace in order to present good statistics.
– The case officers of the Migration Agency are expected to fulfil a certain quota per week. If the interview is extended, it is not counted in the statistics which can be used against them during monthly reconciliations or salary negotiations. Therefore, many choose not to do so.
Several of the asylum seekers report that the timing of their asylum application has been questioned.
– They were considered to have applied for asylum too early or too late. One person, who worked as an investigative journalist in Afghanistan, had been threatened and fled from the Taliban. However, when he arrived in Sweden without physical injuries, he was rejected because he could not yet prove that the threat could actually be carried out. Among those who sought protection on religious grounds, it could be seen as having converted too late or at a time that was considered suspicious – regardless of whether they had spent a lifetime being religious.
Precarious Labour Market Positions
The temporary condition of asylum seekers affects all aspects of their lives, including their vulnerability in the labour market. Asylum seekers who cannot find a job or are not allowed to work because they lack a permit are expected to live on a daily allowance of around SEK 2,000 per month – a sum intended to cover everyday expenses such as food, clothing and medicine.
The position they end up in then becomes a way of criminalising asylum seekers, for example by singling them out as part of a growing shadow society.
– Everyone I have met has said that it is impossible to survive on that amount. This leads many to seek more informal work. The position they end up in then becomes a way of criminalising asylum seekers, for example by singling them out as part of a growing shadow society.
For those who have obtained a temporary residence permit, employment is the only way to obtain a permanent residence permit.
– Sweden is among the worst in the EU at validating prior qualifications and the process takes longer than the duration of the residence permit. With the imminent threat of deportation, many end up in more precarious work, leading to a type of deskilling that puts them in a particular segment of the labour market. At the same time, many employers exploit these people with promises of permanent jobs in the future.
Digital publication: Temporal Dispossession: The Politics of Asylum and the Remaking of Racial Capitalism in and Beyond the Borders of the Swedish Welfare State
Contact: Sarah Philipson Isaac, PhD in Sociology, sarah.philipson.isaac@gu.se