Embarking on 'secondary migration', young people departing from Sweden following asylum rejections traverse not only state borders but also the boundaries between different legal frameworks. Upon arriving at their new destinations and providing fingerprints, they commonly disclose Sweden as their initial asylum-seeking country. This moment marks the legal transition from being an 'asylum-seeker' or 'illegalized' migrant to becoming a 'Dubliner', placing them within a novel legal and bureaucratic context.
This paper is grounded in longitudinal ethnographic research following 16 individuals, primarily from Afghanistan, as they move on to other nations after receiving rejections in Sweden. Employing a critical postcolonial perspective on Sweden's treatment of people seeking safety, the paper characterizes the asylum process as entrenched in a bureaucratic culture of disbelief towards asylum narratives and permeated by violations of the rule of law principles. It views 'secondary migration' to other EU states as acts of self-protection and self-realization. Nonetheless, the looming risk of becoming ensnared by the Dublin Regulation is palpable, compelling many project participants into extreme precarity while seeking avenues to circumvent the Dublin system to reinitiate the asylum process and avoid a forced return to Sweden.
In our research, several young individuals have successfully obtained refugee status in countries like France and Italy. However, the Dublin Regulation has become a trap for a few leading them into precarious employment and a state of 'stuckedness' while handling years of waiting. The primary aim of this paper is to elucidate and analyze the navigational skills and resourcefulness exhibited by these Dubliners as they contend with the hardships stemming from the hostile border regimes of the EU. Our research reveals the arbitrary and rigid bureaucratic callousness that subjects some individuals to years of suffering, uncertain of when or if the new states will permit them to enter the asylum process.