Resisting social death with dignity. The strategy of re-escaping among young asylum-seekers in the wake of Sweden’s sharpened asylum laws

Abstract

This article examines experiences of ‘social death’, and the strategy of ‘re-escaping’, following sharpened Swedish asylum laws and practice. The arguments stem from ethnographic research with people who arrived in Sweden as ‘unaccompanied minors’ between 2014 and 2016. The participants have experienced step-by-step rejection processes from both the Migration Agency and social services, resulting in homelessness, pennilessness and a dependency on civil society goodwill. Some research participants remain in Sweden while others have re-escaped searching for asylum elsewhere in Europe. It is argued that the treatment from the Swedish Migration Agency and the social services has contributed to situating these young asylum-seekers in a position of ‘social death’, a condition lacking hope and opportunities for agency where they are not treated as fully human or grievable. The aim is to analyse their experiences of social and legal ostracism in Sweden and the act of ‘re-escaping’ to other countries as a strategy not only to gain asylum, but also belongingness, self-control and dignity. While such handling of oppression may boost dignity and self-control, it may also lead to prolonged insecurity where individuals risk becoming permanent refugees stuck in precariousness within European borders.