Refusing Refusal
practical impediment to enforcement to the UAE. It is therefore clear that Sweden
is for now the country in which you have a possibility to establish and develop
relationships with other people. … A deportation of you to the UAE thus runs
counter to European Convention on Human Rights article 8. 116
If the SMA considers impediments to be present, then there are different
alternatives: deportation may be postponed or a temporary residence may be
provided whilst waiting for the impediment to be removed.
What alternative we choose depend on the duration of the impediment, personal
considerations and process-economical balances. For example, it could be the case
that a person resides in Sweden for such a long time that he or she has had time to
adjust to life here. 117
Time and waiting could then, in theory, at least, also be a source of relief and
rescue, if a person waits ‘long enough’. No one could know, however, what term
would be considered ‘long enough’. For Khalil, waiting paid off, in a sense. Still,
he only received a 13-month permit and uncertainty lingered on.
As Bridget Anderson underscores, time is not only an incarcerating mechanism
for asylum seekers, but is also utilised in an ‘anticipatory’ biding of time, hoping
for change, waiting for the next opportunity to again apply for protection, waiting
out the system to wear down or simply forget about them — it may be used as a
strategy of resistance. 118 Such resistance may be represented by coping,
navigating and mitigating detrimental decisions and temporalities, 119 in learning
the language, trying to prepare for a future employment, engaging in the black
labour market (to survive), evading being chased away from accommodations or
deported, keeping in touch with relatives, getting involved in sports, trying to
socialise and trying to understand the operative framework and the decisions of
the SMA. Temporal disobedience may be a term that is appropriate for connecting
to aspirations, hopes as resistance and future-making strategies. Waiting can
nurture a productive capacity to navigate and mitigate detrimental
temporalities. 120 Abed, who in 2021 had been staying in Sweden for 13 years
without a residence permit, received a work permit with the help of the trade union
and was employed as a sailor in the Summer of 2021. To him, this was a victory
in the struggle against the exclusionary mechanisms pursued by the SMA and
meant that he could change ‘track’ and apply for a work-related residence permit
rather than one for protection. 121 However, Leila, a young woman who previously
lived in Lebanon, did not consider it right to change track, although she had a
permanent job contract. For her, the right decision would be to provide her with
protection and she continued to struggle for that. 122
116 Swedish Migration Agency decision, Gothenburg (March 2020) (copy on hand with author).
117 Rättsligt ställningstagande angående praktiska verkställighetshinder (2016) Case No SR
25/2016 (Swedish Migration Agency).
118 Anderson (n 3) 170; Shahram Khosravi, ‘Waiting’ in B Anderson et als (eds), Migration:
119
120
121
122
COMPAS Anthology (COMPAS 2014) 170. Conlon (n 104); Griffiths, ‘The Changing Politics
of Time’ (n 102); Rebecca Rotter, ‘Waiting in the Asylum Determination Process: Just an
Empty Interlude?’ (2016) 25(1) Time & Society 80.
See Rotter (n 118); Page, Christou and Mavroudi (n 80); Lindholm (n 101) 1668.
See Conlon (n 102); Griffiths, ‘Out of Time’ (n 102); Page, Christou and Mavroudi (n 80).
Conversation with Abed (Helena Lindholm, Messenger, 19 July 2021); Conversation with
Abed (Helena Lindholm, Phone, 27 August 2021).
Conversation with Leila (Helena Lindholm, Zoom, 10 February 2021).
281