Abstract
AbstractThe phenomenon of irregular migration is very complex in the EU, including Finland. Definitions and practices regarding asylum seekers, refugees, and undocumented migrants are blurred. The laws and immigration policies also attempt to define and enact fixed categories by which to classify undocumented migrants, but these people always escape such legal boundaries through their actions, decisions, and migratory behaviours.In this chapter, we study the asylum-related legislation and processes from the viewpoints of both the authorities who decide whether to grant international protection, and the undocumented migrants who request asylum. The chapter describes the Finnish asylum process in detail, and explains how the undocumented migrants (mostly former asylum seekers) we studied experienced it. Some countries tolerate undocumented migrants, allowing them to work and have access to many public services. In other countries, such as Finland, they are denied the right to work and barely have access to healthcare. Being an undocumented migrant is simultaneously about becoming an undocumented migrant, and failing the asylum process is the most common path to becoming an undocumented migrant. We also indicate how, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of new asylum applications in Finland decreased by more than half.
Highlights
The phenomenon of irregular migration is very complex in Finland, as in many other European countries (Ambrosini 2018; Düvell 2006, 2011; Thomsen and Jørgensen 2012)
Refusal of entry decisions may be issued in the following cases: (a) after the first negative decision from Migri, if an appeal to the Administrative Court is not presented within 21 days, and the person does not leave Finland or does not apply for voluntary return within 30 days; (b) if the individual can be sent to another country that is responsible for examining the asylum application according to the Dublin Regulation (Migri 2019e); or (c) immediately after the second negative decision from the Administrative Court, if a ‘stop deportation’ is not promptly issued
Viewpoints on the asylum process differ substantially between authorities and asylum seekers; we briefly discuss the viewpoints of undocumented migrants who failed the asylum process
Summary
The phenomenon of irregular migration is very complex in Finland, as in many other European countries (Ambrosini 2018; Düvell 2006, 2011; Thomsen and Jørgensen 2012). It is possible to change status from undocumented to documented, and from an irregular migrant with almost no rights and responsibilities to a migrant with a residence permit and extensive rights, in a given country. Stricter asylum and residence policies cannot completely prevent the arrival of migrants in the EU; the number of undocumented migrants is likely to keep increasing (International Organisation for Migration 2018; Czaika and Hobolt 2016). Despite international law giving countries the right to make decisions about the presence of non-citizens in their territories, no country has as yet been able eliminate undocumented migrants (Triandafyllidou and Vogel 2010); they live among legally resident inhabitants, building liminal spaces of semi-legality and semi-regularity and, in some cases, even performing ‘experiments of citizenship’.
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