The waiting game: Immigration detention as the waiting room of immigration law

Abstract

Abstract In this article, I examine detained third-country nationals’ negotiations with the immigration system during detention, focusing on how immigration and removal proceedings inform their waiting while in detention. Based on multisited ethnographic research into the immigration detention system in Finland, I argue that waiting in immigration detention needs to be understood as a relational concept that involves different objects and expectations depending on the details of detainees’ immigration cases that affect the possibility of being released and the country of removal under the common European border regime. Immigration detention is a ‘waiting room’ of immigration law in that detainees wait for the outcome of pending immigration proceedings or the implementation of enforceable removal decisions. At the same time, immigration detention constitutes a space of border struggles, or what I call the ‘waiting game’, where detainees actively negotiate with authorities concerning their immigration cases, including terms of removal. Contrary to common belief, deportable detainees did not usually actively resist removal, especially to other European Union Member States. Instead, waiting in detention is a different matter for those with pending immigration decisions or whose removal would be to African or Middle Eastern countries. Additionally, detainees’ migration preferences affect their level of compliance and attitudes while in detention: many research participants planned to come back to Europe. My empirical analysis demonstrates that detention times and detainees’ attitudes toward removal are significantly dependent upon their individual immigration cases and their country of removal, resulting in different temporal horizons among waiting detainees.