Creating a future while waiting for a residence permit: temporary and irregular migrants in informal social infrastructures

ABSTRACT

In this article, we analyse how temporary and irregular migrants resist bureaucratically induced waiting for decisions on their residence permit applications in the unknown future [l’avénir] by engaging with the present. We argue that through their engagement with the present, they seek to create a future [un avenir] for themselves. Our approach challenges approaches to waiting as a passive experience. Drawing on ethnographic and qualitative research in Finland and Norway, we analyse how migrants draw on informal relationships or what we term informal social infrastructure to secure access to services and to transgress laws and policies which exclude them. We argue for an approach that considers waiting not as a pre-defined condition but as an induced temporal context within which migrants are oriented towards an unknown future. This creates spaces for action in the present through which migrants can transform the unknown future into a projected and desired future.

ABSTRAKTI

Artikkelissa analysoimme tilapäisillä oleskeluluvilla elävien maahanmuuttajien ja turvapaikanhakijoiden päivittäistä osallisuutta keinona vastustaa byrokraattisesti tuotettua oleskelulupapäätösten odotusta tuntemattomassa tulevaisuudessa [l’avénir]. Osoitamme, että osallistumalla nykyhetkeen he pyrkivät aktiivisesti harjoittamaan osallisuutta keinona luoda tietynlainen tulevaisuus itselleen [un avenir]. Lähestymistapamme haastaa käsityksen odottamisesta passiivisena vallan kohteena olemisena. Artikkelimme pohjaa monipaikkaiseen etnografiseen ja laadulliseen tutkimukseen Suomessa ja Norjassa. Analysoimme kuinka maahanmuuttajat hyödyntävät epävirallisia suhteitaan, mitä kutsumme epäviralliseksi sosiaaliseksi infrastruktuuriksi, pyrkiessään varmistamaan pääsyn palveluihin ja haastaakseen maahanmuuttajia ulossulkevaa politiikkaa ja lakeja. Lähestymistapamme korostaa, ettei odottamisessa ole kyse määrätystä tilasta vaan tuotetusta ajallisesta tilassa, johon liittyy tuntematon tulevaisuus. Tämä luo tilaa toiminnalle nykyhetkessä, minkä kautta maahanmuuttajien on mahdollista luoda tulevaisuuteen suuntautuvia projekteja ja muuttaa tuntematon tulevaisuus toivotuksi tulevaisuudeksi.

SAMMENDRAG

I denne artikkelen analyserer vi hvordan midlertidige og irregulære migranter motvirker byråkratisk medført venting på avgjørelser om deres oppholdstillatelsesøknader i en ukjent fremtid [l’avénir] ved å engasjere seg i nåtiden. Vi argumenterer for at migrantene gjennom sin engasjement med nåtiden søker å skape en fremtid [un avenir] for seg selv. Vår tilnærming utfordrer en forståelse av venting som en passiv erfaring og opplevelse. Basert på flerfelt etnografisk og kvalitativ forskning i Finland og Norge, analyserer vi hvordan migranter gjør bruk av uformelle relasjoner, hva vi kaller en uformell sosial infrastruktur, for å sikre tilgang til tjenester og for å overskride lover og politikk som ekskluderer dem. Vi argumenterer for en tilnærming som ikke anser det å vente som en forhåndsdefinert tilstand, men som skapt innenfor en temporær situert kontekst hvor migranter er orientert mot en ukjent fremtid. Dette skaper rom for handling i nåtiden som kan bidra til at migrantene kan transformere den ukjente fremtiden til en mer planlagt og ønsket fremtid.

KEYWORDS:

• asylum seekers
• legal status
• Nordic countries
• temporariness
• welfare state

AVAINSANAT:

• turvapaikanhakijat
• oikeudellinen asema
• Pohjoismaat
• tilapäisyys
• hyvinvointivaltio

NØKKELORD:

• asylsøker
• juridisk status
• nordiske land
• temporalitet
• velferdsstaten

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 In Norway, the research was approved by the Norwegian Centre for Research Data (NSD, number 207201). At the University of Helsinki, ethics committee approval was not required for research concerning adults.

2 Norway has two kinds of identification numbers: national identity numbers and d-numbers. A d-number is a temporary identification number given to individuals who have applied for asylum or if they have a residence permit and are going to stay in Norway for less than six months. The DUF number is the registration number in the computer system of the Norwegian Directorate of Immigration.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Lena Näre

Lena Näre is Professor of Sociology at the University of Helsinki, Finland. She holds a DPhil in Migration Studies from the University of Sussex, UK and a PhD in Sociology from the University of Helsinki, Finland. Her research focuses on migration, asylum, transnationalism, ageing, care work and precarity. Her research has been published in Sociology, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, Citizenship Studies, Journal of European Social Policy, among others. She is the Editor-in-Chief of Nordic Journal of Migration Research (Helsinki University Press) and Associate Editor of Global Social Challenges Journal (Bristol University Press).

Synnøve Bendixsen

Synnøve Bendixsen is Professor in Social Anthropology at the University of Bergen, Norway. She has conducted research on refugees and irregular migrants in Norway and young Muslims and religiosity in Germany, with focus on border constructions, political mobilisation, and humanitarianism. Her research has been published in Social Anthropology, History and Anthropology, Ethnic and Racial Studies, Ethnicity, among others. Bendixsen is the series co-editor for the Palgrave Macmillan series Approaches to Social Inequality and Difference.

Olivia Maury

Olivia Maury is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Swedish School of Social Science at the University of Helsinki. Olivia has conducted research with non-EU student-migrants in Helsinki, analysing the impact of the entangled processes of bordering and precarisation in producing flexible migrant labour with a particular focus on temporality. Her current research focuses on how the digitisation of society impacts labour-migration and generates new tensions between migrants’ subjective desires and capitalist value accumulation. Olivia’s research has been published in journals such as Work, Employment and Society, Sociology, Current Sociology and The Nordic Journal of Migration Research. Olivia received her doctoral degree from the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Helsinki in 2021.