Swiss Asylum Law; The Urban Informality Machine

How Does Swiss Asylum Law Produces Urban Informality in Switzerland?

Shahin Haghinavand

1

The University of Basel Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences Urban Studies Department Critical Urbanisms

______

Swiss Asylum Law; The Urban Informality Machine How Does Swiss Asylum Law Produces Urban Informality in Switzerland? ______

Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Kenny. R. Cupers Advisor: Prof. Dr. Sophie Oldfield

Author: Shahin Haghinavand [email protected]

November 20, 2020 The thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the MA in Critical Urbanisms

2 Content

Acknowledgments………………………………………………………………….…4 Who is the reader of this thesis? ……………………………….…………………..…5 Abstract…………………………………………………………………………….….6 Chapter. 1: Introduction……………………………………………………………….7 Chapter. 2: Methodology………………………………………………………….…12 Chapter. 3: Literature review………………………………………………………...17 Theme 1. Informality and the notion of urban informality…………………..….17 Theme 2. Waiting and temporariness……………………………………………23 Theme 3. The right to the city and citizenship……………………………..……27 Theme 4. Space, illegality and the politics of space………………………….…30 Chapter. 4: Swiss Asylum Regime……………………………………………...……33 Chapter. 5: Narratives……………………………………………………………..…43 Chapter. 6: Critiques and Policy Revision Recommendations………………………60 Chapter. 7: Conclusion……………………………………………………………….68 References……………………………………………………………………………71

3 Acknowledgments

I would like to express my appreciation for the time and compassion of those asylum seekers who shared their life stories with me without having any expectation that they would benefit from my research. I learnt so much from their honesty, invaluable friendships and the ways they overcame obstacles.

I would like to extend my gratitude to Prof. Dr. Sophie Oldfield, who during my semester at the University of Cape Town, taught me so many lessons about the epistemologies of urban studies and the social sciences, since participatory observation played a focal role in understanding my urban questions.

I would also like to thank the president, the head, and the manager of Theological Alumni Basel, Prof. Dr. Jenni, Hanna, Dr. Benedict Schubert-Prack and Sabine Schubert-Prack for their unbelievable kindness.

Special thanks to the editor of the text Alexa Barnby and Alexander Crawford for the final revision of the text. Additional thanks to Linda Wermuth for the illustration on the cover page which expresses and reveals the entire thesis in a schematic sketch.

Finally, my sincere gratitude, however, goes especially to Prof. Dr. Kenny R. Cupers, whom, without his endless supports and advice this research would have never been successfully implemented. He has not just been my professor, but one of my best friends since I began this master’s degree in Critical Urbanisms.

4 Who is the reader of this thesis?

A major concern of mine has always been to establish a connected platform on which academia and the public can negotiate in a logical and productive way. Writing and publishing the scholarship, to my mind, may be a remarkable step in this process to shorten the gap between the public and academia. I have therefore attempted to illuminate a sophisticated, complex, interwoven urban issue sequentially. Indeed, I have not merely assessed the issue in an abstract way or contextualized it in such a way that only a certain group within a specific discipline can engage with it. On the contrary, I have strived to make this text readable for those who have an interest in contemporary urban issues in society. Since the entire thesis is based on an entire thread, different sections try to illustrate the issue from various angles. Therefore, even if a reader skims or even skips a chapter, the conclusion will still be comprehensible.

Representing social issues and even identifying answers to them is not the entire process. To my mind, the true meaning of academia is to dedicate, describe and scrutinize the issue but its implementation depends on public acceptance and public support. Society does not belong to a certain class or a tiny group of people, and social problems cannot be addressed without the participation of all members of society.

I recommend that the lay reader of this thesis read the narrative (chapter 5) after the introduction. The entire text would then make more sense and be easier to understand.

5 Abstract

This thesis presents a critical analysis of the socio-spatial marginalization of asylum seekers in Switzerland, and the urban spaces they inhabit and shape as they cope with this marginalization. The guiding question is: how does Swiss asylum law through the process of marginalizing asylum seekers produce urban informality in Switzerland?

The thesis answers this question by means of four layers of analysis. First, it reviews academic literature on migration studies which focus on; asylum and politics of the space; migrants, the space of waiting and temporariness; asylum seekers, citizenship, and right to the city; refugees, illegality and production of urban informality; to foreground the issue into both an academic and geo-political context. Second, the thesis analyses the new procedure of Swiss asylum law (accelerated in March 2019) and considers its impact on the Swiss asylum regime. Third, the thesis portrays everyday life of a group of rejected asylum seekers over a period of eighteen months in Switzerland and in particular in the city of Basel (Basel-Stadt). To narrate and illuminate their everyday life experience, the thesis utilizes a range of qualitative social science methods and techniques, e.g. participatory observation, in depth and semi structured interviews. Narratives are used to understand their practices to live anonymously as a form of “urban informality”. Finally, the thesis critiques the Swiss asylum regime and presents suggestions for policy revision.

6

Chapter. 1 Introduction

7 Introduction

A group of asylum seekers applications have officially been rejected and they are supposed to leave Switzerland. However, they remain in the country due to challenges, returning to their home country is impossible. As a result, they are forced to live in anonymity, act anonymously and shape urban spaces as illegal asylum seekers and with illegal activities. They are an invisible part of the society; they do not want to be recognized. Rejected asylum seekers live in a precarious situation, often invisible in the eyes of the society. Despite this, the Swiss asylum regime attempts to keep it invisible by applying and tightening the laws, regulations and measures, such as reducing the period of time in which processes of rejection, immediate expulsion, and the other similar policies can occur. The present study provides a picture, which reveals the failures of the Swiss asylum regime which produces (what I have called) ‘‘Swiss urban informality’’. This is a consequence of the Swiss asylum regime’s attempts to marginalized and immobilize rejected asylum seekers, who responded against that marginalization with informal practices. To understand and illuminates its complexity, as well as answer the question; “to what extent can we understand their practices as a form of ‘urban informality’; I have employed southern and northern urban theories and scholarships. These have been divided into four themes.

Theme 1. Informality and the notion of urban informality The purpose of this theme is to cover the main aspects concerning informality and in particular urban informality in the global North and South by focusing on both scholarships. The core foundation of the first theme is based on AlSayyad study (2004) and a few other such as Hodder’s study (2016) which tries to answer the questions of ‘why informality matters?’ and where informality is burgeoning? I have taken advantage of Portes and Schauffler’s study (1992) to classify the notion of informality as an inter-systemic and a widely analysed phenomenon. Moreover, Jaffe & Koster’s research (2019), as a critique against Dutch Governance and the illusion of formality in the global North, could perhaps help me to confidentially build my criticism on Swiss Governance. Harris (2017), also follows the same critique and attempts to represent the same mistake that many other scholars have. In his view, informality is a global phenomenon which, as a concept, has never been understood correctly and has mostly been applied to the other disciplines like economy. I have reviewed the study of Shin and Park (2019), to understand how informality as a conceptual notion crossed the borders among disciplines, subfields and subjects to deal with unplannable issues and dilemmas ahead of contemporary society. Borrowing from Roy (2009), she embodies informality on three principal features as an analytical framework which foregrounds my theoretical precipitations based on a ‘geography of theory’ in the 21st century as well. In another study, Roy (2005), presents a more profound and epistemological understanding of urban informality. Reviewing this scholarship enables my research to highlight urban informality as an exception not only to the formal sector of urbanization but also to planning mechanism in an inclusive sense.

Theme 2. Waiting and temporariness Waiting embodies the notion of urban informality in a way that accurately resonates the essence of temporariness. Waiting, not as an object, but as an abstract and in particular a subjective abstract, portrays the invisibility of the politics. Indeed, waiting in short, mid, and long term produces various faces and inevitability its consequences are unconcealable. I have studied numerous scholarships that assessed the subjectivity

8 of waiting in; connection to (im)mobility and the state regulations; urban everyday and the production of urban spaces. I have attempted to highlight the centrality of the state which controls the process of waiting, hence, in the second theme, the state plays the pivotal role. A scholarly review of the literature, among them, Oldfield (2015) brings more into the present research. Her study analyses different dimensions of waiting, critiques the produced dichotomy of purposeful and purposeless social suffering, the produced consequences, and the encounter of citizens and the state. Confluence of Oldfield (2015) and Roy (2011) ideas can be found on “gray space” in which ‘‘sovereign power’’ as a systematic violation applies the state’s bureaucratic madness in a general sense of power. Conlon study (2011), is a feminist analysis on (im)mobility of migrant through time and space that engages with a broader geopolitical context (regional and international scale) as well as migrants’ everyday life in urban spaces. I have utilized her concept concerning temporalities of waiting as well as multidimensionality of the time in migrant space as a battle and the notions of waiting as political weapon to stabilize (im)mobility. The study of Debele (2020), is an example of Ethiopian asylum seekers in Germany and their religious activities for dealing with social anxiety during waiting or the period of (im)mobility. He describes waiting as an anticipated contradiction between violence and freedom as well as a political instrument for social segregation against lower classes. Hyndman & Giles (2011) also articulate their opinion similarly to Debele (2020) to reflect on European Union asylum policies and its notion to deter migrants from arriving to the Global North.

Theme 3. Right to the city and citizenship In the 21st century, the idea of right to the city has moved into the heart of social and urban discussions. Studying the right to the city is essential to the present research since; this subject essentially belongs to the global North; has been studied mostly by northern scholars and applied widely; it conceptualises my study in its geo-political context (Switzerland as a liberal nation in global North) and eventually encounters my research with the heart of issue (capitalism) and enables me to criticize the issue in a direct way. Analysing the third theme provides a more profound understanding of the cornerstone of the issue, therefore, it might lead my research in the direction of finding a possible solution. Harvey and Henri Lefebrve’s idea have been used as a foundation of the third theme while Roy’s study (2019), was also beneficial for concluding this theme. Both scholars, (Harvey, 2008 and Roy, 2019), trying to answer this question by illuminating the reality of urbanization which marginalizes lower class (namely the poor) to the cities ‘‘hinterland’’, ‘‘margin’’ or ‘‘gray space’’. In this sense, the quality of urban life transforms as a commodity and the process of displacement to dispossession begins. Finally, I have employed Roy’s argument to illuminate a realistic perspective of this violent ‘‘racial banishment’’ in urban transformation against lower classes who have been forcibly marginalized. (Harvey, 2008 and Roy, 2019). Indeed, the story of urbanization and its features as a phenomenon has always had class struggle in its heart.

Theme 4. Space, illegality and the politics of space Perhaps, a way to understand why the production of illegality matters and who differentiates the notion of legal and illegal or similarly formal and informal, is to focus beyond the space and its physicality. Beyond its physical dimension, the space conveys a philosophical as well as political dimension which helps me in my research to have a phenomenological understanding the space complexities. However, to understand the rationality behind politicizing the space, the notion of control in space, and finally

9 reflect them all into the urban space in society, I was compelled to review the middle and latest works of French philosopher, Michel Foucault, to integrate my understanding of how space does (il)legalize? How does the mechanisms of control work in urban spaces? And indeed, how does governmentality work as a contemporary mechanism for (il)legitimizing the (il)legality? Hence, I have reviewed a bunch of Foucault’s philosophy and his arguments; for instance: his published books as well as a series of his lectures at the Collège de France (1975, 1978, 1961, and 1979). Indeed, studying a phenomenological subject called “governmentality studies” with the lens of Foucault, for understanding governmentality as the heart of the controlling mechanism of political institutions in governing the men even regardless to the regime of religious institutions (1978), enabled me to dive into the core of the issue. While, ‘‘Security, Territory, Population’’ illuminates how the state governs, the possible field of actions of others by structuralizing the laws and regulations (ibid), ‘‘The Birth of the Prison’’ as well as ‘‘Discipline and Punish’’ give an invaluable criticism of the rationality behind the metamorphosis in terms of the social transformation in Western civilization during the modern era. Moreover, I have taken advantages of scholars who studied Foucault and based their arguments on his philosophy. Genova's study (2002), for instance, resonates ‘‘migrant illegality as an effect of the law’’. He endeavored to present the notion of "migrant illegality and deportability" by focusing on undocumented migrants’ everyday lives. I am also inspired by Tazzioli & Walters’s study (2016) which attempted to describe the (in)visibility of the ‘‘mechanisms of control’’ and the strategies in ‘‘contemporary mechanisms of governmentality’’. Reviewing the study by Sanyal (2011) was also beneficial since her study portrays the systematic brutal behaviour based on class discrimination which has been racially legitimatized by developed countries' bureaucracies in describing different elements of sovereignty and hegemony. Borrowing from Roy (2009), allow me to refer to the aforementioned statement about the notion of informality as a mode of space production that has not been legitimatized by the state.

The heart of my research is based on eighteen months of empirical research, formulated with participatory observations and interviews with a few of the rejected asylum seekers (from Iran), who became friends of mine and agreed to share their life stories although they had received their expulsion letters and would be forced to leave Switzerland. These portraits, which I have presented as narratives, may give a sense of how it feels for an asylum seeker, whose asylum application has been rejected by the SEM, to live in Switzerland on emergency aid or anonymously without a resident permit. Their specific situation and some of the greatest challenges ahead of them will be highlighted in my thesis. In these narratives I avoid academic vocabularies and ironic descriptions to convey different concepts within the narratives. Even though this part of the research is written in a different style, the purpose is not to dramatize their life like a novel, but to provide the reader sense of their lived reality. Chapter five in brief portrays the story of socio-spatial marginalization of these asylum seekers in Basel-Stadt and their mobility in Switzerland.

The abstract together with the introduction (the first chapter) reveals the key features of what this research includes. The remainder of the thesis is organized as follows: Chapter two, methodology, presents the wide range of methods I used during the research, the techniques I utilized to produce and afterwards analyse my primary and secondary data. The second chapter, also, reveals how my thoughts developed through the lens of migration studies to understand urban informality as an urban issue produced withing the state complex. By focusing on Southern and Northern urban theories and practices, chapter three, reviews the

10 academic literature and scholarships on migrant studies, dividing them into four themes (Informality and the notion of urban informality; Waiting and temporariness; The right to the city and citizenship; and Space, illegality and the politics of space). In the fourth chapter I describe the main sequential process ahead of asylum seekers by reviewing Swiss asylum laws, its amendments, official regulations and legal policies. The process, which I have called the Swiss asylum regime, is an officially determined procedure, experienced by those who intend to seek asylum in Switzerland. Chapter five narrates the rejected asylum seekers’ experience in everyday life. In other words, the fifth chapter, portrays the story of socio-spatial marginalization of a few of rejected asylum seekers in Basel-Stadt. Considering the fact that I am not the first, nor the only person, who is critical of the Swiss asylum regime, the sixth chapter is an analysis of a number of reports which have already criticized the regulation of asylum in Switzerland. Chapter seven concludes my thesis, with me positioning my own understanding of the phenomenon of rejected asylum seekers and their practices of urban informality as a consequence of the Swiss asylum regime’s policies, followed with recommendations for policy revision.

11

Chapter. 2 Methodology

12 Methodology

There is a famous quote by Albert Einstein that comes to mind which reveals how deeply he engaged with complex and multidimensional phenomena. He says:

Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.

I always had a sense of empathy with this quote but my understanding of nature is limited in seeing its miraculous beauty since I am not a natural scientist! I prefer to look deeply into the city, society and urban phenomena as a planner or a critical urban thinker to understand not everything but at least something better. I am inclined to believe that the most complex social phenomena will never be fathomed unless we review them critically.

Our evidence-based experiences unavoidably play a pivotal role in our understanding of how the world works, while from the perspective of critical theory, they can be deeply fathomed by their appearance. As a consequence, the duty of the theorist is to unmask the invisible mechanism behind experimentality and what is measurable. There is always a threshold between the potential of society (future) and the actuality of society (present time). This threshold is not necessarily crossed instantly by, for example, a revolution (urban revolution) but it can happen over a period of time through reform (urban reformation) (Beauregard, 2012: 479).

What is hidden is the truth, and the point of critical theory is to protect theorists and others from the seduction of appearances (Beauregard, 2012: 479).

My observations were on different social groups who had shaped their own specific space to spend their time with their group members. While, these urban spaces, had somethings in common; I could not understand the key features, and that led me to develop a few questions and my perception about urban informality, and its various faces. Fortunately, but unintentionally through my research observation I met a group of Persian refugees who were hanging around in a place only with their compatriots, where I was also allowed to participate. I began communicating with other groups and gradually interacted with them more to understand more about those spaces. Indeed, my simple observation of a suspended place which was produced by rejected asylum seekers and refugees in Klein-Basel pulled me into a maze in which I asked myself why, how and under what circumstances this urban space had been produced. Assuredly, it was not by accident. Hence, I began to articulate a set of questions which had a profound sequential continuity in themselves. Those questions became a cornerstone for the foundation of the present research.

In the early stages of this research, I was inclined to believe that the urban informality which I was trying to illustrate is a nascent (external) phenomenon, originating from the Global South and that it does not relate to the Northern context. In coming to the end of this research, however, my belief has changed drastically. I began this research by focusing on the objectivity of a nascent urban phenomenon in the real world but this later changed with the main focus of the research being replaced in order to view the subjectivity of the issue. A deep reading of the Northern and Southern scholarships developed my understanding of informality. After reflection, it appeared no longer as an external phenomenon but as an internal, intrinsic phenomenon which has been produced intentionally not accidentally in the Northern context. Indeed, this research transformed my objective understanding of an urban issue to a subjective urban phenomenon in the broader context.

13 A crucial part of this research is based on eighteen months of empirical research together with participatory observations and interviews with a few of the rejected asylum seekers, who became friends of mine and agreed to share their life stories although they had received their expulsion letters and been forced to leave Switzerland. These portraits, which I have presented as narratives, may give a sense of how it feels for an asylum seeker, whose asylum application has been rejected by the SEM, to live in Switzerland on emergency aid or anonymously without a residence permit. Their specific situation and some of the greatest challenges ahead of them will be highlighted in my thesis.

The cases I have discussed in this thesis consist of asylum seekers who will never count as a vulnerable group. A vulnerable group refers to people with disabilities, those whose presence is required for the sake of family unity, those with small children etc. The cases I have analyzed include healthy young men with no disabilities or claims to family unity in Switzerland.

My purpose behind this was to show that this group of young men who are seeking asylum have the lowest chance in the asylum-seeking procedure in general since the asylum-seeking procedure is based on helping and supporting those people who are in extreme need or whose life is in danger. The overall perception of the asylum system regarding this group of young men is that they can survive and is not necessary to help them. They can just go back to their country of origin and live in peace. No specific danger threatens them and there are thousands or even millions of people living in the same conditions. Another reason which prompted me to concentrate on this group was that society and in particular the asylum regime erroneously legitimize only a targeted group of asylum seekers and exclude the rest (often the majority). The number of asylum seekers that the asylum regime tries to exclude is considerably lower than the legitimized group.

Social science research in general and research which encounters different social groups is classified as qualitative research. My research also belongs in this category. Social science, however, has developed a large body of research methodology through the years to enable researchers to interact with the target social group more profoundly and then how to deal with complex social issues. For a more scientific methodology for doing this research I have utilized a range of social science and qualitative research methodologies and approaches. My research included three main methodologies:

- Observation and participatory engagement - Interviews - Data analysis

This research started with my observations of the urban spaces occupied, inhabit and shape by asylum seekers. My observations were the key to my understanding of what was going on but were not enough. Later on I decided to participate in the activities that were going on in their communities and smaller groups to go deeper into the regulations they abide by and which were producing the urban spaces and urban regulations which will be presented in this research.

Researchers’ observations and/or participation should logically be contextualized within a body of literature which has developed in the specific academic field. Hence, I engaged in content analysis of the existing literature. Content analysis is a popular research methodology. By using this method, the researcher tries to immerse himself in the existing literature which enables him to find the necessary related, useful sources to continue his research. After finding the related literature and, in my case, the related laws and amendments (which were officially

14 written in German and I had to translate them all into English). Highlighting and memoing (making notes from all my highlights) was the next step ahead of my research. These steps are also recognized as an analysis approach for producing the secondary data for further analysis in my research.

Having a good understanding of the situation and its various conditions led me to begin my interviews with a vast range of people, including asylum seekers, rejected asylum seekers, refugees who were asylum seekers prior to gaining refugee status, NGO members, social activists, lawyers and the like. I identified a few themes for each group and tried to understand the regulations, the depth of the problem and the possible solutions by understanding their perceptions. To manage this, I coordinated a set of semi-structured interviews with different groups. Since almost half of this research took place at the time of the Covid-19 pandemic, the majority of my interviews (especially with the NGO members, activists and lawyers) took place via phone or Skype. One of the disadvantages of this type of interview is the lack of personal connection between interviewer and interviewee. However, access to these people was a vital aspect of this type of interviews. I could have a conversation with numerous people which played a remarkable role in understanding different perspectives in my research. After the lockdown and during the time that the pandemic decreased (summer and autumn 2020), I successfully managed to conduct and develop my previous observatory and participatory research with my target group.

To conclude, the narrative inquiry approach is a powerful methodological research tool. This was one of the most important parts of my research as it portrays and illustrates, beyond mapping, the reality of rejected asylum seekers lives.

Narrative inquiry seeks to humanize the human sciences, placing people, meaning and personal identity at the center, inviting the development of reflexive, relational, and interpretive methodologies and drawing attention not only on the actual but also to the possible and the good (Bochner & Riggs, 2014: 195).

In this research I have attempted to define an issue, clarify its various dimensions and also bring the policy revision alternatives to fundamentally solve the issues. I would consider the narrative of my research (chapter 5), as a unique part which has specifically been elaborated to critically merge different perspectives of everyday life and laws to reflect the reality of Swiss asylum regime in everyday life of Swiss society. Mapping the (im)mobility of the rejected asylum seekers, has never been the intention my research. The mandate of this research, by contrast, is to go beyond mapping the informality to convey the reality, rationality and circumstances in which rejected asylum seekers are being forced to make their decisions to produce urban informality in the Swiss context. Even though this part of the present research (chapter 5) written in a different style, mandate of that was not dramatizing their life like a novel.

Since Switzerland counts as a role model in many aspects for Europe, the author recommends that Swiss decision-makers should not repeat the incorrect actions that the rest of European nations have taken in response to the refugee issue. Otherwise the production of urban informality in Switzerland of different types would be inevitable.

In this research I attempted to portray the consequences of problematic laws and their impact on urban spaces and urban regulations. The production of urban informality will not be stopped and, as a survival practice, members of an excluded group of society will try to remain invisible

15 and do everything unofficially to keep themselves alive. Inevitably, this procedure will continue as a vicious circle and damage the everyday lives of urban citizens.

For the purpose of self-evaluating my research journey, I mention a few challenges which were out of my control and which I found difficult to manage. These include losing a few months during the best time of the year for social interactions and outdoor activities because of the Covid-19 pandemic and the accompanying lockdown. The biggest regret regarding the research, however, was the gender imbalance as it is dominated by young men. In the network I created, I also interviewed two girls (also from Iran) whose applications were in a similar position and totally applicable and relevant to my study. Regrettably, however, they did not feel comfortable narrating their stories. Since research ethics take precedence in social science research, and I would never cross that border, I decided not to feminize my research.

The majority of (I would say almost all) the NGOs activists and other employers who were working in refugee-related organizations were almost totally uninformed about the new (accelerated) asylum law. Indeed, in many of my interviews with this group of activists, the same phrases were constantly repeated. One common issue most of them pointed to was that applying all the procedures in one center on the margins of the city did not allow the asylum seekers to come into the city and ask for a help from any organization, NGO, activist etc there. In other words, the new process is not merely about acceleration, it is also about an extreme type of centrality, which I would call bureaucratic madness. All the major sources for my case studies, reports, regulations and laws were in German. I had to translate them all into English and this took time and effort as I wanted to be as accurate as possible.

Photography is an inseparable part of my research since photographs convey the depth of my intention as a part of my research. In the current research, I spent significant time taking different shots from different angles and perspectives to illuminate the subjectivity of the phenomena I mentioned in the research. However, by the end of the research process and on completion of the photo collection for this research, my supervisor and I agreed that it might not be a thoughtful decision to add my photos to this research, as the sensitivity of this topic and hiding the interviewees' personal identities should be central. However, to address this point, a set of schematic sketches have been drawn to assist in elucidating the atmosphere of the case studies.

16

Chapter. 3

Literature review

17 Literature review Theme 1. Informality and the notion of urban informality

The purpose of this theme is to almost cover the main tasks concerning informality and in particular urban informality in the global North and South by focusing on both scholarships. The argument by Roy, (Roy, 2009: 825-826), though may answer why the majority of scholarly readings I have reviewed in this theme has based on the Southern urban scholarships; informality is recognized as one mode of space production. The way in which urban theory in the First World remains silent concerning the informality issue can also be studied in the Euro- American urban experience, urban and metropolitan contexts and city-region scholarship.

There are a few significant questions surrounding my research, namely: Why should informality be studied? Why is this crucial for my research? What does it add to my understanding in this research? Lastly, what is its relevance for my research? Even if I cannot answer these fundamental questions directly, I hint at the reasons indirectly by borrowing from AlSayyad (2004). His study proposes an invaluable basis for recognizing urban informality as multidimensional phenomena in various types and forms. I would base the core foundation of the first theme on his study and a few other scholarly texts. To continue, Hodder’s study (2016) was also beneficial to my understanding of ‘why informality matters?’ and where the informality is burgeoning? I have taken advantage of Portes and Schauffler’s study (1992) to classify the notion of informality as an inter-systemic and a widely analysed phenomenon.

One considered informality to be a marginalized sector, a temporary manifestation of underdevelopment characterized by survival activities of the urban poor. The other considered it to be closely connected to the formal sector – an essential, permanent component of a modern economy (AlSayyad, 2004: 11).

AlSayyad refers to Yiftachel and Yakobi’s argument to reflect his understanding of urban space and informality dynamics in terms of three criteria:

The logic of capital accumulation, the evolution of modern governance, and the drive for ethnic and national control (AlSayyad, 2004: 22).

AlSayyad mentions a contradictory point about the ethnocratic nation, or city. The dichotomy lies behind access to the city which officially ought to open up the city’s globalizing culture and economy in contrast to the exclusion and marginalization of ethnic and national minorities based on the production of a nationalist logic of “purified” ethnic space (AlSayyad, 2004: 22). Informality may result from the state practices rather than from migrants settling on the urban fringes. It can be claimed that the creation of informality enables the segregation and control of a specific ethnic group. Moreover, as a way of being, informality may conclude the structure of a state or the nature of a political regime (AlSayyad, 2004: 22).

Theoretically, it can be stated that informality is not a new analytical concept or a new urban process. A discussion of the informal sector can prove that informality is not a recent phenomenon. By contrast, formality can probably be assumed to be a “new” mode which was introduced in the nineteenth century to organize urban society (AlSayyad, 2004: 24). Informality may be contrary to the concept of formal social interaction; however, it is important to differentiate between informality and disorganization. Indeed, informality is not anarchy or social disorganization; in fact, disorganization itself may be an institutionally structured form, a socio-spatial mechanism for ethno-racial closure and control (ibid: 25). According to Shin

18 and Park (2019), urban informality as a conceptual notion has been examined in various subfields such as planning, human geography, urban studies and the like. Addressing the unplannable issues and difficulties ahead of contemporary society, as well as housing problems, social issues, and job market difficulties, is the main purpose of studying urban informality. It should be borne in mind that the scope and scale of urban informality is not limited to the Global South, less developed societies, particular informal sectors, or to the poor as an everyday life practice (Shin & Park, 2019: 463).

What may most be needed today in thinking about urban informality is a shift of analytical framework. Thus, the current era of liberalization and globalization should be seen as giving rise to a new form of informality – one with several key attributes (AlSayyad, 2004: 25).

What confronts the understanding of informality in general and urban informality in particular is the presence of a wide range of subjects affiliated to informality. As Hodder claims, informality cannot be simply defined since it consists of a broad variety of subjects and also related affiliates. Moreover, there is no single type of informality, and this inevitability promotes further research to distinguish it more accurately (Hodder, 2016: 111).

AlSayyad proposes that urban informality should be understood as a “new” way of life. Since his scholarship is based on the ideas of the Chicago School, the limitations of this notion may also be criticized by the critiques of the Chicago School of thought1 (AlSayyad, 2004: 26).

Urban informality does not simply consist of marginality, a specific notion of labor or the activities of the poor. It is rather associated with a logical, organized concept that prospers within a liberal context (AlSayyad, 2004: 26).

AlSayyad refers to the viewpoint of Georg Simmel concerning the socio-psychological concept of the “stranger” to explain who urban informals are and what this urban informality is. The term, or maybe the notion, of “passivity”, as defined in the late 1950s and early 60s by the ethnographic work of Oscar Lewis, can also convey similar ideas. Correspondingly, AlSayyad refers to Robert Park's observation that many immigrants were “marginals” which is embedded in their social structure as a key feature. The marginal personality can also be manifested from Simmel’s perspective as a way of living on the margins of two cultures without being a full member of either of them…. This idea also expanded in the Los Angeles School, for instance AlSayyad refers to Asef Bayat to emphasize this cultural exclusion of the urban poor or marginalized group; even though this group becomes fully integrated into society, they are still culturally excluded, socially stigmatized, economically exploited and politically repressed (AlSayyad, 2004: 9). With Simmel's argument appears to be a statement of uncertainty in a way that makes cultural immersion somehow impossible. Rebecca Rotter2 refers to this as “Hanging In-between” (the title of her PhD thesis), which illuminates the experience of waiting among asylum seekers in the UK context (who live in Glasgow). Accordingly, this topic (waiting and temporariness) will form the second theme of this chapter and will be discussed in more in detail.

1 The Chicago School was one of the first rationalized attempts by scholars to systematically theorize the study of community and urbanism. By the end of the nineteenth century Chicago which was an enormous urban agglomeration which was examined as a live archive, in particular, the remarkable rapid growth dynamic driven by migration was scrutinized in detail. (AlSayyad, 2004: p. 8) 2 Rebecca Rotter, 2010, Hanging In-between: Experiences of Waiting among Asylum Seekers Living in Glasgow. PhD thesis in Social Anthropology, University of Edinburgh.

19 In comparison with urban scholarship in the Global South, there is considerably more limited literature written about informality in the Global North. While cities are inevitably confronted with this widespread phenomenon of informality across the globe, the reason for the paucity of literature may be the tendency of Western European and North American scholars to reproduce the same story as their governments like to tell; Western countries and their cities are formally governed by a formal mechanism and informality is presumed only to appear in corrupt and clientelist “developing countries” (Jaffe & Koster, 2019: 563).

In European and North American countries, the lack of focus on informality is driven by an ingrained and unrealistic academic imagination of the state. Many Northern urban and regional studies, partially or even totally, assert that the current systematized type of governance is achieved primarily through official networks and formal practices. In this point of view, non- transparent and personalized transactions, together with chaotic, unregulated economic activities, and similar informal practices, all belong to and are framed by the past. Otherwise, they are interpreted as a marginalized presence associated with pockets of poverty or immigrant groups. Inescapably, in the literature on informality in the Global North among immigrant populations and low-income groups, there is an illogical link between marginality and informality (Jaffe & Koster, 2019: 564-565).

Regardless of its context, even in the most formalized societies there are implicit regulations which underlie formality and are readily stretched to cover “social capital” and, therefore, “social networks”, “trust”, “norms” and “values”. Informality is an appropriate explanation to distinguish in what ways and to what extent societies diverge…. Even if informality is defined as chaotic, unconventional, corrupt, criminal, unregulated and unwritten, it also refers to certain types of practices that are patterned, regularized, predictable and structured (Hodder, 2016: 117).

Some evidence indicates that informality has always existed in the Global North. As an example, it has been remarked by a few scholars in particular concerning America’s history of informal development. Richard Harris (2017) refers to Anders and Sedlmaier (2016), de Soto (2000), Goff (2016) and Jindrich (2016) to prove his statement. “Some have even noted in passing that, as a matter of fact, informality does exist in the North, but their focus was elsewhere” (Harris, 2017: 5-6).

I cannot believe that such neglect or even ignorance in the Northern scholarships has happened accidentally. Rather, I would argue that there were strong interests between scholars to hide and even ignore the presence of informality and in particular urban informality in a way that the state and the politicians (political structure) expected. Regrettably, there is boundless proof for my perception concerning the presence of a systematic neglect in Northern scholarship about analysing informality in the Global North. A study by Jaffe and Koster (2019), “The Myth of Formality in the Global North: Informality‐as‐Innovation in Dutch Governance” highlights a few points to answer the following question:

Why has urban informality in the Global North received so little attention?

Jaffe and Koster’s (2019) study assists in answering the proposed question: to legitimatize their own (political and bureaucratic system) authority.

Roy (2009) makes explicit the intention behind this silence, stating that it is a systematic tendency to perceive and describe informality as statements of irregularity; a marginalized

20 survival practice by the poor; the scope of irregularity; and the sphere outside the state framework. By contrast, however, a remarkable collection of Third World literature concentrates on the comprehension of informality. Roy (2009) highlights three focal features as an analytical framework for the embodiment of informality (Roy, 2009: 826):

- The state, as the heart of determination, is always the central point for verifying the formal and the informal. Hence, the state should not be excluded from the verification scope. State processes do not normally take place in terms of formal mechanisms of accumulation and legitimation, as a consequence the state itself is a core operation in shaping informal spheres (Roy, 2003; Portes et al., 1989). This means that informality is not an unregulated domain but rather is structured through various forms of extra- legal, social and discursive regulation (Roy, 2009: 826). - Informality as a logical mode of space production contains much more than just an economic sector (Roy & AlSayyad, 2003). Informality produces an uneven geography of spatial value which differentiates valorized and devalorized spheres (Roy, 2009: 826). - Informality is internally differentiated, with this discrimination no longer merely referring to formality and informality since the primitive modes and forms of informality are no longer legal or legitimate. Instead, the informalized production of space has been legitimized under the neoliberal which can be regarded as the “privatization of informality”. This can convey a mechanism in wholly privatized and marketized urban formations. Class power is key and the central debate turns to legitimatization, command infrastructure and services and no longer focuses on primitive types of informality (like encroachment and slum creation) (AlSayyad & Roy, 2003, 4; Roy, 2009: 826).

Informality, in fact, should be considered as a mode of subjectivity, a way of “operating more resourcefully in under resourced cities”; cities thereby become “pirate towns” (Simone, 2006: 357); and infrastructure should be understood not as steel and concrete but rather as fields of action and social networks (Simone, 2004a; Roy, 2009: 826). As already discussed, informality commonly exists for a number reasons, thus considering informality as a mode of subjectivity does not seem enough. Informality must be accentuated as a remarkable epistemology of planning and be implemented by rethinking and replacing best practice models with realistic criticisms (Roy, 2005: 156).

Informality confronts planners with difficulties since informal spaces put planning into the zone of exception. In general, the state of exception, and in particular, informality as a practice, are both produced by the state in numerous forms and planning is not excluded from this enterprise. Dealing with informality requires confronting a planning mechanism which constantly produces unplannable and unplanned phenomena (Roy, 2005: 155. 156). Roy's study (2005) highlights urban informality as an exception to formal urbanization and the challenges that should be considered by the planner in addressing the statement of exception and unplannable urban issues. She maintains that such policy epistemologies are not limited to Third World urbanization but may also benefit urban planning generally in the sense of just distribution (Roy, 2005: 147).

Although many scholars claim that informality represents the limitations and failure of planning, the notion of informality has never been understood correctly. For example, it has always been applied to the economy and even to the process of urban development. In fact, it

21 fundamentally denotes the concept of urban has only occasionally been noted (Harris, 2017: 1).

22 Theme 2. Waiting and temporariness

As a political issue, waiting has been significantly and systematically rationalized to keep the poor, the lower classes, the foreigners and the like separate from society, preventing their integration. It can also be regarded as a sort of “racial banishment” (Roy, 2019) in which a certain group of society is forcibly removed, pushed back or marginalized. To illustrate the conceptual status of waiting, I review some of the scholarly writings in different contexts. Although my study is classified within the Global North bloc, I am willing to review the conceptual scholarship written to describe a broader geographical context as a theoretical framework. Moreover, in this part of the literature review, I have attempted to highlight the centrality of the state which controls the process of waiting, hence, in the second theme, the state as a complex that intentionally produces, shapes and governs the process of waiting plays the pivotal role.

A scholarly review of the literature, among them, Oldfield (2015) brings more into the present research. Her study carries a vital outcome since she tries to utilize encounters between citizens and the state to promote a shift and a change in the practices and techniques of subjective governance (Oldfield, 2015: 1109). Additionally, she analyses different dimensions of waiting, critiques the produced dichotomy of purposeful and purposeless social suffering, the produced consequences, and the encounter of citizens and the state. Confluence of Oldfield (2015) and Roy (2011) ideas can be found on “gray space” in which ‘‘sovereign power’’ as a systematic violation applies the state’s bureaucratic madness in a general sense of power. Despite Oldfield’s argument taking place in a South African context and she is trying to deal with the politics of housing in her study, it can be logically extended to other contexts, not only to the Southern block but also in the global North. In addition, Oldfield study convened a range of phrases from different scholarships which are also beneficial to understanding the same issue for instance, “permanent temporariness”. Oesch (2019), also uses this term but to show the ‘‘materiality of refugee camps’’ as a strong instrument for governing the population.

Oldfield’s her study dealt with the housing question and especially the politics of housing and housing policies in South Africa, and in general waiting as a process not unintentional but unavoidable as the centrality of the state. The epistemology of her research and the way she critiques the state regulations, however, are to an extent also applicable to other contexts as well, especially for examining the state as a machine of informality production. As an entry point to her research, I would mention a few phrases she refers to from previous studies to illuminate the subjectivity of waiting as a statement, situation, condition and inevitably a way of being: “permanent temporariness” as mentioned by Yiftachel (2009a); Jeffrey calls it, modalities of “being in the middle”, in limbo (2010: 97), while Auyero identifies this as “uncertainty and arbitrariness” (2012: 72) (Oldfield, 2015: 1100).

Oldfield and the other scholars mentioned are not the only scholars, however, and nor is South Africa the only context in which waiting as a political subject has taken place. Oesch (2019) in his study condemns waiting as a political struggle in the Al-Hussein Palestinian refugee camp in Jordan – “The Politics of Temporariness and the Materiality of Refugee Camps” – and draws a framework concerning “lasting temporariness”.

The phrase “permanent temporariness” is not only used as a theme for South African housing debates, but in other contexts as well. For instance, Oesch (2019) uses this phrase to portray a special experience in space-time. He discusses the conditions in several places where people are living with uncertainty about the future: what will happen, when is it going to be changed,

23 and when the arrival trend will stop. Oesch (2019) refers to Joronen (2017) to embody his opinion concerning the rationality of permanent temporariness, using the term “spaces of waiting” and indicates this as a “powerful tool for governing populations”…. He borrows the term “citizen-in-waiting”3 to explain how displacement characterizes a transitory state of being, before transferring to another more permanent situation, for example gaining legal citizenship in a new place (Oesch, 2019: 230-231).

Even if it takes decades, waiting for, hoping for and expecting state-provided homes is a rationalized right, specified in the Constitution and seems an adequate statement. As a logical strategy, its consequences which led to the production of South African townships should therefore be legitimatized.… Then waiting as a process as well as politics, shapes citizens’ encounters with the state in banal and profound ways. On the one hand, waiting highlights the centrality of the state. It requires applicants to be present and accountable, actively registered on housing databases. On the other hand, at the individual level, the often illegal situations in which people live while waiting has to be masked (Oldfield, 2015: 1101).

Persevering in informal settlements, townships and backyards is an inevitable requirement of waiting. Bayat calls it “quiet encroachments” (Bayat, 2010). While Yiftachel deepens this notion, utilizing the term “gray” to situate a dichotomy between lightness and darkness; “lightness of legality/approval/safety and the ‘darkness’ of eviction/destruction/ death” (2009b, page 243). Indeed, waiting brings the state and citizens onto a battlefield in their encounter with legitimacy and contention, legal and illegal…. She also articulates her investigations to classify waiting modalities into three modes as follows: how and where citizens wait and make do, what they do to live in limbo in the meanwhile, and their encounters with the state in these processes (Oldfield, 2015: 1101-1102).

In studying the subject of waiting, the extreme, opposite and even contradictory poles are always conveyed in terms of politics. Waiting as a nonmovement practice, on the one hand, polarizes – laws, the legitimated state bureaucracy and formal rights; while on the other hand, the reality in which waiting takes place produces and shapes illegality and informal circumstances (Oldfield, 2015: 1109-1110).

I have taken this statement and utilized it for the encounter between refugees and the state, refugees and society, and also refugees and their country of origin. Another reason I have used Oldfield’s statement is to make a comparative analysis between housing in South Africa and accommodation in Switzerland. Inevitably, the role of state and the social context are other focal points for this.

Oldfield’s statement concerning waiting has also a deep connection with the way South African cities have been constituted. To deal with that, she proposes illegality articulated in terms of Roy’s perception (2011): the grey spaces of informality. When it comes to the term “grey space” Oldfield’s statement with regard to Roy’s in “Slumdog cities” (2011) may be mentioned in this regard to gain better insight into the core of this debate. “Gray space” makes evident the flexibility of ‘‘sovereign power’’ that is at the heart of Ong’s analysis of zones of exception. Roy indicates that there is an inseparable interconnection between grey space and the zone of exception. She refers to Yiftachel (2008: 366) and argues that:

The “bare life” must be understood “as daily routine, not as exception” (Roy, 2011: 235).

3 Described by (Horst & Grabska 2015)

24

In analysing state power and sovereign power, Roy (2011) foregrounds the theoretical framework on spatial configurations as well.

The understanding of gray space as stretching over the entire spectrum, from powerful developers to landless and homeless “invaders”, helps us conceptualize two associated dynamics we may term here “whitening” and “blackening”. The former alludes to the tendency of the system to “launder” gray spaces created “from above” by powerful or favorable interests. The latter denotes the process of “solving” the problem of marginalized gray space by destruction, expulsion or elimination. The state’s violent power is put into action, turning gray into black (Roy, 2011: 235).

Indeed, Roy’s claim is not merely limited to the question or the context of housing debates in slum areas neither is the opinion of Oldfield. Instead, both scholars argue more profoundly about the systematic violation revealed as a state’s bureaucracy and in general the sense of power. I will expand this ideology and its related criticism in theme 3 (Right to the city and citizenship) as well as theme 4 (Space, illegality and the politics of space).

As Conlon asserts (2011), waiting is an inclusive practice, but is also an inseparable dimension from the contemporary era consolidated into countless forms of (im)mobility…. The different practices that imbricate waiting cannot be studied unless its various dimensions are scrutinized. In her view, the different layers include a broader geopolitical context or scale such as international and regional analysis of reflections and incorporations, as well as encountering the migrants’ everyday spaces (what I would call the migrants' urban everyday life) (Conlon, 2011: 353).

Conlon refers to recent studies (Knopp 2004; Cresswell 2005; Urry 2000; Cresswell 2001; 2006) to describe how the “mobilities turn” in social science is considered as vital to understand a wider context that focuses on mobility in terms of place and space (Conlon, 2011: 354). She also focuses on the importance of examining the mobility of people, objects and ideas across time and space instead of concentrating on the place alone (ibid: 354). The temporalities of waiting should be read as multifaceted, since time is complex and multidimensional (ibid: 357; Gray, 2011: 420).

Conlon illuminates the context in which waiting takes place as an “actively produced, embodied, experienced, politicized and resisted across a range of migrant spaces” (ibid: 355). Waiting can also be assumed to be a weapon used in the battle to deter the movement of asylum seekers (Conlon, 2011: 357).

Conlon refers to Gray's classification (2011). This divides the modes of active waiting into three categories: opportunity, return, and the statement of absence to be filled. His analysis describes how waiting in different cases and in each category is consolidated in everyday lives. In this regard, waiting does not take place in suspended time or outside of doing things. Instead, waiting is fundamentally an active, premeditated process to construct subjectivity and to notably shape the lived life (Conlon, 2011: 357; Gray, 2011: 421).

The practice of collective prayers by asylum seekers has been studied by Debele (2020) in Germany. His study focuses on Ethiopian asylum seekers to illustrate the role of religious activities for dealing with temporary life, (im)mobility and social anxiety in the context of waiting…. Indeed, she studies the subjectivity of waiting as multifaceted strains that induce a

25 dichotomy between waiting as an anticipated sort of freedom or a kind of violence. Waiting is an inextricable part of asylum seekers’ lives until they “settle” in the new society (Debele, 2020: 52). In addition, her study refers to Schweizer's argument (2005: 779) which illustrates waiting as an official tool or a political tool for social segregation against powerless and poor people. Waiting practices embody a solid illustration of the state power in society in a sophisticated way (ibid: 53). In her opinion, the state’s “tool of governmentality” is utilized in the subjectivity of time and in particular waiting as a weapon against asylum seekers (Debele, 2020: 54).

If we narrow this down to a more concrete embodiment of power, this is intricately linked to the manner in which states exercise power over asylum seekers. “The state plays the central role in perpetuating certain socio-political and economic demarcations by leaving asylum seekers in a perpetual state of unpredictability and precarity” (Debele, 2020: 53). Andersson (2014) proposes an idea that Debele borrowed to elucidate Western bureaucracy concerning the structuralized practice of waiting. Waiting can also be studied as an institutional framework or a bureaucratic exercise which has been established to control the mobility of “undesirable other” by Western states (ibid: 54).

As Mountz mentions (2011), in certain situations and places such as islands, detention centers, tunnels and the like, “time–space trajectories are altered in myriad ways” for asylum-seekers. These locations differentiate several dichotomies of before and after, legal and jurisdictional ambiguity, and are often linked to life disruption, limbo and waiting, among other things. Finding an opportunity to leave may address the issue of inhibited access to rights and protections (Mountz, 2011: 381).

According to my understanding of Hyndman and Giles’s study (2011), the intention of systematic tightening of regulations for those who want to seek asylum in the Global North is to deter migrants from arriving at all. In this regard, the European Union asylum policies (so- called European asylum regime) compressed the measures such as rapid return to transit countries (e.g. in accordance with the Dublin system) and increased detention for the new arrivals (Hyndman & Giles, 2011: 361).

26 Theme 3. The right to the city and citizenship

We can continue to fight all of the struggles we have to fight to try to preserve neighborhoods to prevent evictions and dislocations we can do it in a better way than we do now by combining together many different struggles of homeless people, anti- gentrification movements, affordable housing movements and the like but what Marx teaches is that at some point we have to go to the root of the problem and the root of the problem is capitalism. We have to find rather some way to transform many of the movements we are working with into an anti-capitalist movement and we have to ask some questions as to what that anti-capitalist movement would try to do? (Harvey, 2014: public lecture).4

Right to the city is a theoretical concept which was originally situated in Global Northern contexts and which, in the 21st century, has moved into the heart of urban discussions. Even if it is not a new idea – it was developed by the German philosophers Friedrich Hegel5 and Karl Marx6 – it has received attention in urban debates since the French urbanist, Henri Lefebvre, wrote The Urban Revolution in 1968, and later in 2008, when David Harvey wrote a paper on the issue.

The right to the city is important for my research since it gives a better understanding of how the state and its affiliated organizations as an inseparable part of an urban governance system have been organized within a specific context – in our case study they are located within neoliberalism. Recognition of neoliberalism, inevitably as a part of global capitalism, can lead us to find answers to our big questions; not only to merely criticizing neoliberalism as part of global capitalism but to think about the possible answers to our questions and criticisms.

Another purpose of analysing this theme is to build a base for analysing Basel as a living archive, famous for its neoliberal position which plays a focal role in the process of regional and national governance in Switzerland. The major position of Basel in global capitalism is recognized in its enormous pharmaceutical companies. These private companies have been established and developed in collaboration with other regional centers across the globe. The city of Basel also owes its development and international fame to these companies. This phenomenon has happened repeatedly throughout the history of urbanization in different parts of the world, Harvey describes it as “the urbanization of capital“. These companies play a pivotal role in urban politics and urban economies by financing the city or at least pumping financial resources into the city through various interesting, international activities like art festivals, cultural events, scientific congresses, and the like. However, they have expectations of the governance system, such as receiving support for their activities in order to convey Basel as a top destination for creative, high-class, high-level social activities for international companies

This urbanization process has produced the unique quality of Basel and its urban life. Harvey (Harvey. 2008: 31) maintains that ‘‘the quality of urban life has become a commodity, as has the city itself, in a world where consumerism, tourism, cultural and knowledge-based industries have become major aspects of the urban political economy’’. The commodification of urban

4 David Harvey, 2014: public lecture : This lecture took place in Fortaleza on November 17th 2014, during a series of talks entitled “The Political Economy Of Urbanization”; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjyLWMSZ2nY 5 Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, 1821: Philosophy of Right. 6 Karl Marx, 1867: Capital. Critique of Political Economy.

27 life does not seem to be a major problem at first glance. However, if we deepen our gaze we can identify its consequences. According to Harvey, who references Lefebvre (Harvey. 2008: 28), urbanization is a central feature of the survival of capitalism, producing the struggle for class, politics and spaces.

Right to the city does not merely include having access to urban services; it is indeed far more than that. It is a common right which is not limited to an individual member of society. It can be utilized to shape and change the process of urbanization if it is used as a social practice to unite society to utilize its collective power (Harvey. 2008: 23).

According to Harvey’s statement (2008: 32), since the 1980s class power has returned to the rich elites in urban areas all over the world under the shadow of neoliberalism; consequently, the spatial forms of cities have been transformed into various models and public spaces have been privatized. Hence, sustaining ''citizenship and belonging'' and the ''ideals of urban identity'' has become unattainable. Regrettably, the consequences of urbanization under the liberal state did not merely limit these issues.

Surplus absorption through urban transformation has an even darker aspect. It has entailed repeated bouts of urban restructuring through “creative destruction”, which nearly always has a class dimension since it is the poor, the underprivileged and those marginalized from political power that suffer first and foremost from this process. Violence is required to build the new urban world (Harvey. 2008: 33).

Similar to Harvey’s explanations, Roy expands her argument on “racial banishment’’ and land eviction in the 21st century in developed societies, especially in liberal systems in the United States, and argues that this is a generalisable concept, extendable to many other geographical contexts as well. Here I would like to borrow a term from critical geography. I use the term “reused” as developed by Roy (2019: 227, 228) to describe the “violence of urban transformation” concerning racial displacement and systematized eviction as ''racial banishment''. She also situates this term in terms of the statement “state-institutionalised human caging’’. Roy also insists on two focal features of displacement: “the role of the state’’ and the “centrality of race’’ (Roy 2019: 227).

Banishment shifts our attention from displacement to dispossession, especially the dispossession of personhood which underpins racial capitalism (Roy 2019: 227).

It seems logical to also spatially contextualize Harvey’s (2008: 34) view on “marginalized immigrants’’, and the displacement process which he calls “accumulation by dispossession’’ within the present reality in Basel. For instance, the way asylum seekers and their official spatial locations have been marginalized. I would call their spatial location as situated on the margin of margins, or as Roy (2011: 235) calls them “periphery of the peripheries’’, “hinterland’’ (2011: 232) or “gray space’’ (2011: 232). In further attention concerning rejected asylum seekers who are the target group of this research, dispossessing them even from the margin of margins indeed to nowhere or to what extends into a place they have to share with drug addicts, alcoholics, thieves and the like.7

Increasingly, we see the right to the city falling into the hands of private or quasi-private interests. In New York City, for example, the billionaire mayor, Michael Bloomberg, is

7 Basler Federal camp (Freiburgerstrasse 50, 4057 Basel), Basler cantonal camp (Vogesenweg 9, 4123 Allschwil), or other Basler cantonal camp in Muttenz (Stegackerstrasse 12, 4132 Muttenz); the first two are located in places that are less than five metres from the border of the country and the third one is in an industrial zone next to a marshalling (Classification) yard (Rangierbahnhof Basel/ Muttenz).

28 reshaping the city along lines favourable to developers, Wall Street and transnational capitalist- class elements, and promoting the city as an optimal location for high-value businesses and a wonderful destination for tourists (Harvey, 2008: 38).

One step towards unifying these struggles is to adopt the right to the city as both working slogan and political ideal, precisely because it focuses on the question of who commands the necessary connection between urbanization and surplus production and use. The democratization of that right, and the construction of a broad social movement to enforce its will is imperative if the dispossessed are to take back the control which they have for so long been denied, and if they are to institute new modes of urbanization. Lefebvre was right to insist that the revolution has to be urban, in the broadest sense of that term, or nothing at all (Harvey. 2008: 40).

I would prefer to finish this chapter with Harvey’s recommendations concerning what we should do in favour of right to the city.

I think that there are signs that this struggle is growing and becoming more and more significant and it's also becoming global and it's also becoming more explicitly anti capital. I think what is going on right now is essentially insane and I think that the only sane way out is to try to become more and more concerned to construct an anti- capitalist movement. A part of that movement will be around demanding the right to the city and the right to social justice. In the city part of that will be about maximizing the delivery of use-values and minimizing the exchange value power and part of it will also be about the search for democratic forms of representation and decision-making; in other words it is going to involve the construction of some sort of alternative political program which moves us steadily away from the capitalist track onto something radically different (Harvey, 2014: public lecture).8

Urbanization has always been a class phenomenon (Harvey, 2008: 24).

Roy (2005) articulates her argument in line with Henri Lefebvre, the French urbanist (1974), and borrows his term, “the right to the city”, contrasting it with “the right to property”. In her view, these terms can not only be used in Third World contexts but can also be applied to American planners concerned with distributive justice (Roy, 2005: 147-148, 155).

8 David Harvey, 2014: public lecture : This lecture took place in Fortaleza on November 17, 2014, during a series of talks entitled “The Political Economy of Urbanization”; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjyLWMSZ2nY

29 Theme 4. Space, illegality and the politics of space

Although with reviewing the previous themes I would be able to partially understand principal aspects of the issue, attaining a profound understanding of the space and its illegality might not be possible unless I hint at the philosophy and politics of the space. Borrowing from Foucault and his philosophy, as well as reviewing the scholarly reading based on his opinion, would be beneficial for this theme of analysis in my research. Namely, the ideas behind; “governmentality”, ‘‘mechanisms of control’’ and the strategies in ‘‘contemporary mechanisms of governmentality’’, ‘‘(i)legality’’, ‘‘(i)legitimacy’’ and similar ideas which their modern definition and criticism based on Foucault’s philosophies has been mentioned in this theme.

Genova’s study (2002), is another critical analysis of undocumented migration that endeavors to give a in order to contextualize significant viewpoints of undocumented migrants' everyday lives. Also, his study deals with theorizing the notation of ‘‘migrant illegality and deportability’’ as a theme for further rigorous and profound research (Genova, 2002: 420). While a few other studies, for instance, the one by Sanyal (2011), which is not based on Foucault’s philosophy has been analysed in this theme since those scholarly readings concentrate on the relationships between; space, politics and illegality in addition to bring migrant studies to urban discussion. Sanyal’ study (2011), combines relevant literature and embodies a theoretical understanding of the controversial relationship between the city and refugees. Indeed, her scholarship incorporates fundamental urban issues concerning the refugee debate, focusing on the heterogeneity of refugee discussions, socioeconomic class, race and current colonial relations. Accordingly, since her claims have consistent relevancy for my study, I perceive that she is deeply rooted in her arguments. To my mind, Sanyal is trying to portray the systematic brutal behaviour based on class discrimination which has been racially legitimatized by developed countries’ bureaucracies in describing different elements of sovereignty and hegemony. Referring to (Roy, 2011), has potential to integrate and forground all the discussions on this theme.

Principally, migrant illegality should be interpreted as a political identity since illegality itself (similar to citizenship) involves a juridical status and consequently encounters with the state (Genova, 2002: 422). Certainly, the production of migrant illegality cannot be formulated without analysing the production of the law itself. Despite this problem being spatial, to analyse it we have to consider the law and official regulations in which the politics of the space are articulated. To understand the production of power in its modern definition, illegalities and delinquency production and analogy, the critiques of the French philosopher, Michel Foucault, are useful here (Foucault, 1979: 257-92; Genova, 2002: 425).

Genova’s statement compelled me to point briefly to Foucault's analysis of society as an example of modern civilization, together with disciplinary attitudes and prison as playing the role of social punishment to maintain the cohesion of society. By reviewing his ideas, my mind turned to thinking more profoundly about the similarities as well as the relationships between waiting, illegality, production of the law, (Western) society and civilization and the role of power in the creation, shaping transforming the regulations and rationality of the urban life.

Indeed, Foucault's analysis (1979) of modern power as productive, specifically, plays an inextricable role in understanding the depth of discussion in ‘‘illegalitie’’ and ‘‘the production of delinquency’’. Also, have a look at Discipline and Punish written in 1975, with the subtitle, The Birth of the Prison. Foucault's analysis in this book is rooted in the theoretical mechanisms

30 of society. In Discipline and Punish, he criticizes the rationality behind metamorphosis in terms of the social transformation in Western civilization during the modern era.

In Madness and Civilization (A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason (1961)), he discusses various changes that occurred in the classical period. Legitimatization of a ‘‘Great Confinement’’ profoundly transformed the type of madness in society, especially for those who could not accept the principles of the society, social deviants for instance. The places of confinement were the places to practice power; a set of exercises including different practices and disciplines. Foucault examines insane attitudes in terms of economic ideas, labor and ideas of the city. A valuable aspect of Foucault's analysis was the centralization of confinement as a theme for the ‘‘animality of madness’’.9

While the origin of illegality and the status is basically deeply invisible, illegal migration has naked visibility although its consequences are barely visible in society. I would quote a sentence from Genova (2002) here who refers to Carter (1997: 129-58) to articulates his argument as follows: ‘‘migrant illegality is produced as an effect [I would say as a consequence] of the law, but it is also sustained as an effect of a discursive formatio’’ (Genova, 2002: 431) ‘‘Illegality’’ is the production of immigration laws (p. 439). Therefore, we must go further and examine the fundamental origin of the status ‘‘illegal’’ in the law itself – what I call the legal production of migrant ‘‘illegality’’ (Genova, 2002: 440).

Genova (2002) refers to Carter (1997: 129-58) to articulate his argument to show that migrant illegality is produced as an effect of the law, but it is also sustained as an effect of a discursive formation (Genova, 2002: 431). Similarly, I have based my claim on the notion that urban informality is a specific type of migrant illegality that has led to the production of a special form of urban regulation. Inevitably, I have articulated and based my arguments in relation to (Swiss asylum) law.

Sanyal’s (2011) study illustrates a heterogeneity of refugee spaces and practices across the globe; expresses various political refugee issues and the difficulties that lie ahead of refugees when socializing in camps as well as in cities. She applies urban informality and other urban debates to illuminate the nexus between cities and refugee spaces (Sanyal, 2011: 633). Sanyal’s (2011) essential claim is to differentiate the heterogeneity of refugee politics and types of informal survival practices to face oppressive power; rather than recognizing their position as passive and the objects of policy-making. It is crucial to consider their imaginations and aims to challenge the fragmentation of power (ibid: 641). Contextualizes these debates around urban informality to present the interconnections between politics and the governance of the urban poor, as well as refugees like the other undesirable groups of society. (Sanyal, ibid: 640-641). To her mind, which I deeply admire, discussions on informal practices are “context-specific” and inseparable from the “specific histories and geographies”. Moreover, she presents her reflection against a specific type of governmentality in which the subject and its regulation are non-negotiable unless within a specified framework.

The informal economy absorbs the majority of refugees when they move to cities. Refugees quickly engage in the informal sector to benefit from the anonymity of the urban environment. If the authorities realize that there is a notable increase in refugees in the urban economy permitting them to live in the city. Through reading Sanyal claims (2011; p. 638) I educed an

9 https://www.sparknotes.com/philosophy/madnessandciv/summary/ - :~:text=Madness and Civilization is a,end of the Middle Ages.&text=Madness became tamed and existed at the center of the world.

31 invisible network in which bribery takes place between police and (illegal) refugees; refugees have to pay bribes (like tax!) to stay in the city; extend their permission to stay in and postpone their eviction from the city. Unlike normal citizens, regrettably, they are being forced to pay to become protected against eviction.

Marginalization takes place in different modes and is a common practice against refugees in which services become inaccessible for them and their right to the city is officially prevented (Sanyal, 2011: 638). Being a refugee or belonging to this class (of course as a lower socioeconomic class) is a marginal statement by itself. Similarly, perhaps, being an undocumented/rejected or illegal refugee is an even worse situation with the worst conditions being experienced among the marginalized refugees. I would like to situate the cases I have examined in this research in a ‘‘grey space’’ (Roy, 2011), a space in which the spaces they are trying to produce, the activities they are trying to undertake, the various kinds of jobs they are trying to do all have the potential to be classified and recognized as ‘‘grey space’’.

32

Chapter. 4 Swiss Asylum Regime

33 Swiss Asylum Regime

This part briefly explains the legal situation pertaining to and the official stages for seeking asylum in Switzerland. In the first section, short, sequential and schematic flowcharts will illustrate the newly established, accelerated asylum procedures and their consequences. Then, for a deeper understanding, some of the key features will be highlighted.

On 1 March 2019, the new, accelerated asylum law was introduced as a new principle. The main intention concerning the acceleration process was to deal with applications more rapidly (within 140 days in a federal asylum center), efficiently, correctly and fairly; to unite the asylum seekers, the responsible persons and organizations involved in the procedure under one roof in one federal center; and to provide entitled asylum seekers with advice and legal representation right from the start. These all may help asylum seekers to understand the asylum-seeking procedure better.10

Restructuring of the asylum law may also empower and boost the interrelationship between different levels of decision-making in asylum structure such as the federal, cantonal, city and municipal level. Also, the acceleration of the asylum procedure could boost the integration of recognized refugees and temporarily admitted persons, in addition to returning those who do not depend on the protection of Switzerland to the country of origin or a third country.(ibid)

As mentioned above, the intention is to accomplish all the processes involved in Bundesasylzentrum; Federal Asylum Center (BAZ) for a maximum of 140 days. As might be expected, many efforts have been made to bring all the responsible persons and organizations in the process together to ensure its efficiency. This extra distribution will only take place to the cantons if further clarification is required. In this case, these extended procedures should be completed within a year. (ibid)

Diagram 1 gives an overview of the asylum process.

10 https://www.sem.admin.ch/sem/de/home/aktuell/news/2019/ref_2019-02-28.html

34

Diagram 1: Schematic representation of the asylum (13.07.2020)11

According to the Federal Assembly of the Swiss Confederation, Art. 2 Asylum:

In response to an application, Switzerland grants asylum to refugees in accordance with this Act.

Therefore, there would be no limitation or segregation in terms of nationality or race etc. Whoever is seeking Switzerland’s protection from persecution is able to apply for asylum at the Swiss border or on Swiss territory. The asylum procedure is intended to determine whether the applicant has the right to Switzerland’s protection and whether they are really in need of being permitted to remain in the country.12

First, each asylum seeker should be assigned to one of the six Swiss federal reception and processing centers. Depending on the capacity and availability of centers, asylum seekers may be distributed or transferred in other federal centers. Since the purpose is to run the procedure as efficiently as possible; the State Secretariat for Migration (SEM) staff, translators, legal protection and return counselling13 are all based in these centers.14

Based on the Swiss federal governance system, in order to balance geopolitical decentralization and to achieve equal spatial and political distribution, six federal asylum centers, including

11 https://www.sem.admin.ch/dam/sem/en/data/asyl/beschleunigung/grafik-asylprozess- e.pdf.download.pdf/grafik-asylprozess-e.pdf 12 https://www.sem.admin.ch/sem/en/home/asyl/asylverfahren.html 13 Also calls as return or returning assistant who assist asylum seekers to come back to their country of origin or the third country to begin a new life but certainly out of Switzerland. 14 https://www.sem.admin.ch/sem/en/home/asyl/asylverfahren.html

35 processing facilities, have been established to implement federal government decisions in the following regions: Altstätten (Eastern Switzerland asylum region), Basel (Northwest Switzerland asylum region), Balerna and Novazzano (until further notice Chiasso) (Central Switzerland and Ticino asylum region), Bern (Bern asylum region), Boudry (Western Switzerland asylum region) and Zurich (Zurich asylum region).15

Map 1 illustrates distribution of asylum centers in Switzerland.

Map 1: Distribution of asylum centers in Switzerland16

The procedure begins on arrival with the registration of asylum seekers. The process continues by asking them for their basic personal details, taking their photos and collecting their fingerprints (which are then stored in a database). Identity cards, passports and the like are seized, and then asylum seekers undergo a primary medical care check-up. In the next step, asylum seekers will be introduced to an independent but professional legal representative who assists them in navigating the procedure, for instance in filling out the necessary paperwork etc. These legal representatives assist the applicants free of charge.17

In cases where the applicant is already registered in another European country, it should be assessed whether he/she should be sent back to that country. If that is the case, the previous European country should take responsibility for him/her. If, however, the SEM approves the applicant’s asylum application in Switzerland, the next step is a detailed hearing, in which the applicant should present adequate reasons for leaving his/her country and support his/her claim

15 https://www.refugeecouncil.ch/topics/asylum-in-switzerland/the-asylum-procedure 16 ibid 17 https://www.sem.admin.ch/sem/en/home/asyl/asylverfahren.html

36 with evidence (police summons, court decisions, medical certificates, photos, newspaper articles etc.).18

The SEM makes a decision based on the applicant's statements, and whether or not he/she was able to provide reasonable proof on his/her claims. If the asylum application is accepted, the applicant will be recognized as a refugee and granted asylum in Switzerland. If the cases are highly distinctive, a decision will be made regarding the applicants within just eight days of the hearing.19

However, if the SEM needs more time to consider and make a decision the procedure may be extended. In such cases, the application is transferred to the “Extended procedure”, and as a consequence, the asylum seeker relocates to a cantonal reception center. The extended procedure may take up to a year, and the SEM notifies the applicant of its decision at the end of this process.20

According to Art. 26d concerning the extended procedure; If it is clear after the interview on the grounds for asylum that a decision cannot be made under the accelerated procedure, namely because further investigation is required, the asylum seeker shall be assigned to the extended procedure and be allocated to a canton under Article 27.21

According to the Federal Assembly of the Swiss Confederation, Art. 42, regarding stay during the asylum procedure:

Any person who applies for asylum in Switzerland may stay in Switzerland until the conclusion of the procedure.

A person who is recognized as an asylum seeker in Switzerland and admitted by the SEM will receive a residence permit and will be allocated to the responsible canton in order to proceed with his integration process. In contrast, if his application is rejected by the SEM, the applicant must leave Switzerland. As an exception, those who assert that their life would be in danger in their home country and returning is impossible, are recognized by the SEM which grants them “temporary admission” status. In this case, those who have been admitted temporarily are officially recognized for residence in Switzerland until their life is no longer in danger in their country or the situation in their country of origin becomes normalized. 22

According to Art. 106 concerning grounds for appeal: The applicants are able to request for an appeal on the following grounds: a. the violation of federal law, including the abuse and exceeding of discretionary powers; b. incorrect and incomplete determination of the legally relevant circumstances; c. if the decision on allocation violates the principle of family unity. 23

18 https://www.sem.admin.ch/sem/en/home/asyl/asylverfahren.html 19 ibid 20 ibid 21 (Asylum Act. The Federal Assembly of the Swiss Confederation, of 26 June 1998 (Status as of 1 April 2020)) 22 https://www.sem.admin.ch/sem/en/home/asyl/asylverfahren.html 23 Asylum Act. The Federal Assembly of the Swiss Confederation,

37 Those asylum seekers whose applications for refugee status in Switzerland have not been accepted are able to appeal to the Federal Administrative Court. According to Art. 108 concerning time limits for appeals: An appeal against a decision must be submitted within five days of notification of the ruling.

There are a few exceptions to the appeal time, for instance under the Dublin procedures, the time limit for appeal is only five working days, while under the accelerated procedures it is seven working days. There is also another exception to the extended procedure in which the appeal time limit is 30 calendar days. The final decision on the appeal is made by the Federal Administrative Court. Thus, an applicant who receives a negative decision may only appeal once. Exceptions may be admitted for reappraisal; however, these are rarely successful in practice.24

There are many possibilities for the SEM to determine asylum seekers’ status. If the decision is positive, the applicant will be granted asylum and will be identified as a refugee, and will be allowed to stay in Switzerland. The refugees will be given a Swiss resident permit type B. However, if the decision is negative, the applicant must leave Switzerland, although the applicant may be able to stay longer in Switzerland if there are challenges related to their return.25

The eligibility of the applicants to be considered as refugees depends on the proof of persecution in their country of origin they submit to the SEM. Even though under the asylum law there is no entitlement to a permit for rejected asylum seekers, in some cantons rejected asylum seekers are allowed to keep the N permit or may be issued with a temporary permit. Bearing in mind that, until rejected asylum seekers leave the country, their rights to emergency assistance (emergency aid or Nothilfe) are guaranteed.26

The main reason for accelerating the asylum process is to assure faster integration into society for those who are granted asylum and more expeditious expulsion for those who are rejected and have to return to their country of origin.27

In fact, despite the above statement, many rejected applicants refuse to leave Switzerland. They try to start their application by making a complaint regarding the SEM decision. The director of the non-governmental organization, the Swiss Refugee Council, Miriam Behrens asserts that the reason behind the rising number of complaints by asylum seekers against SEM decisions that are being upheld by courts ‘‘shows that there is an issue’’. Prior to announcing the accelerated asylum process, very few appeals, only 4.8%, were sent back by the court for further review. In comparison, the number increased by 16.8% during the first six months after the introduction of the accelerated asylum process. 28

According to Articles 44 and 45, if an applicant has been rejected by the SEM, the expulsion order is imperative, and he or she generally have to leave Switzerland within seven and thirty days (seven days for the accelerated and up to thirty days for the extended process), unless the

24 https://www.refugeecouncil.ch/topics/asylum-in-switzerland/the-asylum-procedure 25 https://www.refugeecouncil.ch/topics/asylum-in-switzerland/residence-status 26 ibid 27 https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/explainer-_how-well-does-the-new-swiss-asylum-system-work--/45360318 28 https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/immigration_refugee-council-head-criticizes--hasty--swiss-asylum- procedures/45537946

38 case includes a family unity issue. If the applicants' removal order falls under the Dublin Association Agreements, it should be implemented in less than seven days. 29

Almost all adult asylum seekers participate in a Dublin interview in which the responsibility of other states processing the asylum application under the Dublin system is assessed by the SEM. The fingerprints taken in another state, and interviews held with and statements made by the asylum seeker, as well as previous visas, can determine Dublin cases. In addition, having an interview allows the applicant to express his or her plea not to be returned to the state responsible for processing their application (called the “right to be heard”). This decision results in either applying the Dublin procedure or the accelerated process. If the SEM finds that responsibility for the applicant lies with another European state, the SEM can reject the application. Afterwards, the application will be revoked, or it will be considered as a so-called non-admission decision (Nichteintretensentscheid, [NEE]). 30

According to Art. 46; Enforcement by the cantons: The allocated canton has the responsibility for carrying out the removal order.

Diagram 2 illustrates in detail all the possibilities for applicants in the asylum-seeking process from the beginning.

29 Act. 44; Removal and temporary admission and its amended (No. 1), Art. 45; Removal order and its amended (No. 2, 3), - Amended by No I of the FA of 25 Sept. 2015, in force since 1 March 2019 (AS 2016 3101, 2018 2855; BBl 2014 7991). - Amended by No I of the FA of 25 Sept. 2015, in force since 1 March 2019 (AS 2016 3101, 2018 2855; BBl 2014 7991). - Inserted by Art. 2 No 2 of the FD of 18 June 2010 on the Adoption of the EC Directive on the Return of Illegal Immigrants (Directive 2008/115/EC), in force since 1 Jan. 2011 (AS 2010 5925; BBl 2009 8881). 30 https://www.refugeecouncil.ch/topics/asylum-in-switzerland/the-asylum-procedure

39 The following chart depicts the accelerated asylum process in force since March 2019.31

Diagram 2: Accelerated asylum procedure introduced March 2019

31 https://www.refugeecouncil.ch/topics/asylum-in-switzerland/the-asylum-procedure

40 The asylum seekers who receive a removal decision by the SEM must leave Switzerland within a certain period, however, if they cannot or does not want to leave Switzerland there is a possibility for them to stay in the country. In this case, they have to participate in the emergency aid system to remain in Switzerland. It is true that the SEM is responsible for deciding on an asylum application, but the cantons are responsible for enforcing this decision and taking care of the people who are supposed to leave the country (Häberlein, 2020: 6). Indeed, since the asylum seekers’ application allocated to the responsible canton, according to the federal government regulations, social welfare organization has the responsibility of structuring social assistance within the canton. Despite all the inter-cantonal differences, the overall conditions are the same: the accommodation these people have to live in is normally group accommodation on the periphery of the cities; they receive between eight and twelve francs a day to cover the cost of living including food, clothes and transport; those who receive emergency aid do not have a work permit (even social work is forbidden); and they are excluded from all integration opportunities. Indeed, “the emergency aid regime is designed to induce rejected asylum seekers to leave the country” (EKM, 2019a: 4). Although the social welfare organization has the responsibility concerning all the assigned asylum seekers, the situation is not the same for those who has received removal order and supposed to leave the country. Those group of rejected asylum seekers, should be accommodated in an emergency sleeping places until their removal time.32

There is an option, however, for getting out of emergency aid; the hardship regulation. The hardship regulation is a chance to obtain a regular residence permit by those people in need of help. However, the conditions for obtaining it are not easy to comply with. Accordingly: Article 14 paragraph 2 of the Asylum Act stipulates that asylum seekers can receive a residence permit at the request of the canton if they have been in Switzerland for at least five years and are in severe hardship due to advanced integration. This regulation applies regardless of the status of the proceedings, i. H. also for persons whose asylum application has been finally rejected. Another prerequisite for a hardship permit is that the location of the person concerned was always known to the authorities. There are still more conditions that have to be met to become accepted for the hardship regulation (EKM, 2019: b: 20). However, due to the strict requirements, the hardship regulation is limited to a very small number of long-term recipients of emergency aid. To clarify this statement, ''of the around 8,500 recipients of emergency aid in 2017, 60 percent of whom were long-term recipients, only around a hundred people received a residence permit through a hardship provision'' (EKM, 2019b: 20).

Different types of accommodation 1. Federal asylum centers The six aforementioned asylum regions offer accommodation for about 5000 people. The number of places are determined based on the population of each region. Centers are distributed in such a way that between two and five centers are allocated to each region. There are three types of accommodation at the federal level as follows: - centers that conduct the asylum process (federal asylum centers with processing facilities) - centers that accommodate people whose application is being examined under the Dublin regulation procedures or have to leave Switzerland (federal asylum centers without processing facilities)

32 Also have a look on: https://www.sozialhilfe.bs.ch/ueber-uns/auftrag.html and, https://skos.ch/themen/sozialhilfe#:~:text=%C3%9Cber%20270'000%20Menschen%20beziehen,der%20Schwei z%20die%20Kantone%20zust%C3%A4ndig

41 - one center to accommodate people who breach the peace or disrupt a center’s operations. This center is currently closed (special center). Due to the specific regulation of accelerated asylum law, the applicants are able to be accommodated for up to 140 days. Then they have to be transferred to the canton. 33

According to Art. 24; federal centers: Asylum seekers shall be accommodated in a federal center from submission of a request for asylum: a. under the accelerated procedure, until they are granted asylum or temporary admission, or until they leave the country; b. under the Dublin procedure, until they leave the country; c. under the extended procedure, until they are allocated to a canton.

A reasonable extension may be granted during this period if it allows the asylum process to be concluded promptly or enables removal. The Federal Council shall determine the detailed rules for extending a stay in federal centers beyond the end of this period.34

Art. 24d Accommodation in cantonal and communal centers: The canton or the commune concerned: a. shall ensure suitable accommodation, care and activities for the asylum seekers

2. Accommodation in the cantons (cantonal accommodation)

Art. 91 Further subsidies The Confederation shall pay the cantons a flat-rate subsidy towards the administrative costs incurred in respect of persons seeking asylum and persons in need of protection without a residence permit.

In exceptional cases, the SEM will not be able to announce the asylum status or reject the applicant within 140 days, e.g. the extended procedure. In such cases, after an asylum decision has been issued, cantons are responsible for accommodating asylum seekers, towards which the Federal government pays a set amount as compensation to the asylum seekers.

3. Emergency sleeping places The emergency sleeping places are located in a dormitory, mainly for homeless people but also for unaccompanied asylum seekers.35 Unaccompanied underage asylum seekers, however, should be accommodated in one or two assisted living groups. If it becomes essential in an emergency situation, civil defense systems provide temporary accommodation (Häberlein, 2020: 9).

33 https://www.refugeecouncil.ch/topics/asylum-in-switzerland/accommodation 34 Article 24(3) and 24(6) Federal centres; https://www.admin.ch/opc/en/classified- compilation/19995092/index.html 35 https://www.sozialhilfe.bs.ch/asyl/betreuung.html

42

Chapter. 5 Narratives

43 Narratives

Although Narrating Stories Makes Everything Clear, Tongueless Urban Issues are Clearer

In this chapter, the research seeks to portray and differentiate different types of lifestyles of a few of the asylum seekers whose applications have been rejected. It attempts to show and how some experience very negative circumstances, while others, as a result of their social networks, have managed to do better for themselves. The narratives utilize strong interconnections between a few countrymen in a foreign context who can rely on nobody but themselves. The types of activities, help, support and kindness apparent in the narratives can also be defined in a social capital context, especially when it comes to sharing social networks.

Inevitably, asylum seekers cannot give a completely truthful account of their life story, nor would any researcher be able to narrate everything they mention during the interviews and our conversations. Since researchers are supposed to be take cognizance of the ethical aspects of their research as well as the academic aspects, I have attempted to shield the identity of the interviewees – the participants – and those who participated in their life stories by changing their names. There are many things I know as their friend or as the person they interacted and lived with that cannot be narrated in this research. As the author, I could not relate every detail of their lives for the following reasons: this text is essentially classified as scientific research conducted within a specific frame which enabled me to elaborate and merge a critical perspective with the reality of everyday life, laws and scholarship. Indeed, the mandate of this research is not merely to map the (im)mobility of the rejected asylum seekers on a corner of the street or to legitimatize the urban spaces they have produced; rather it is to go beyond mapping the informality to convey the reality, rationality and circumstances in which rejected asylum seekers are being forced to make their decisions to produce urban informality in the Swiss context. The aforementioned statement should clarify that this text is not a novel; hence, dramatizing their circumstances is not the purpose as their lives are dramatic enough.

44 Alex is a postgraduate student who was born and grew up in Iran and had never had an opportunity to leave Iran until he was 26 years old when he was forced leave after participating in a protest against the Islamic Republic regime in Tehran in November 2018. He fled to Turkey and stayed there for a while until he could join a group of young men who intended to travel to Athens on a people smuggler boat. The smuggler, however, deceived them, taking their money and leaving them on a plastic boat at night in the middle of the sea. They were lucky to be rescued, and subsequently moved to the island of Lesbos in Greece to be transferred to the largest refugee camp in Europe; Moria camp. Although he intended to launch his asylum- seeking application in Switzerland, he had no option but to accept his fingerprints being taken in Greece as the first European country he entered. He was forced to spend more than eight months in Moria camp while planning to leave the island with the help of a group of well- known smugglers. The journey from Lesbos to a city near Milan in Italy took more than four months.

Alex: I was so happy for arriving in Milan! I knew nothing going to last days or weeks anymore. It took only an evening to travel from Milan to Lugano for me. I did not have enough money to buy a ticket in Milan, then I asked a person to help me with half of the ticket's price, and he luckily did! I intended to stay on the train until the end of the way, not just until Lugano. I was tired and hungry; I fell into sleep before arriving in Lugano. The train stopped in Zürich, and only then I woke up.

At midnight, he found himself in Zürich Bahnhof and went directly to a police station. After asking a few questions about his identity, the police officers asked him whether he knew anybody in Switzerland and who they could call. He said did not and spent his first night in Switzerland in a room at the police station (in detention).

Early in the morning, the police officer gave Alex a map and marked the Zürich Migration Office on it. On arriving at the office, the Zürich migration officers asked him a few questions concerning his mental and physical health as well as for his personal information. A few hours later, Alex was transferred to a closed camp for one night.

Alex: The camp and its facilities were suitable, the environment in particular, was peaceful; made out of wood, not iron, not cement nor fence which reveals the cage. You were in the camp, but you could still feel the freedom.

After spending two nights in Zürich, he was transferred to the federal camp (known as Camp 50 among asylum seekers) in Basel City,36 where new arrivals have their fingerprints taken. During the first few days, generally around three to five days, the asylum seeker’s lawyer should be identified to assist in speeding up the asylum process. After three days, Alex had his first interview during which general questions were asked in order to assess his story.

Alex: The first interview is more like a checkpoint. The purpose of that interview is to assure; nobody will present any other cases in the future.

36 Bundesamt für Migration located in Freiburgerstrasse 50, 4057 Basel.

45 Just a few days later, a few young people came to the camp to invite the asylum seekers to lunch at their church and to have a conversation with them. Alex talked to them since he could speak English, and he had recently become a Christian; he also has strong communication skills. He arranged to accompany the young people to the church and took three friends with him. After having the first conversation, the church community invited Alex to the worship service on Sunday. During the first testimony, he began to translate the Bible into Farsi for his friends.

Since he had already had his fingerprints taken (in accordance with the Dublin system) in another European country (Greece), he was transferred to a closed camp in Muttenz37 for two weeks.

Alex: The Muttenz closed camp had its regulation; during 9 am to 5 p.m. you are allowed to be out; a funny, but also silly rule was that between 7.30 a.m. and 11.00 a.m., staying in the rooms was not allowed and the time should be spent in yard or out of the camp! The camp was made out of a large industrial shed which was separated by partitions into separate rooms; the rooms were shared between four people; the space was quite large, with only a few people and the place was clean. The low-quality food was provided, and we were receiving 21 CHF every week.

Meanwhile, he was participating in camp life and doing different tasks. The majority of activities in the camp were done by asylum seekers and included service work, various jobs in the kitchen etc. Asylum seekers can collect points: an hour’s work in the camp is approximately equal to one point. Collecting points forms part of systematic permission which enables asylum seekers to work in the new society. Indeed, it can be assumed to be one of the steps towards their integration. There are various types of jobs that asylum seekers can participate in such as cleaning small amounts of rubbish from the street, pruning plants in the forest etc. After working a whole day, they receive 30 CHF. After two weeks, Alex was transferred back to Camp 50 and given the date of his first official interview. His first interview took place fifteen days after his return to the federal camp.

Alex felt comfortable in the federal camp because the overall situation for living was appropriate such as the condition of the camp and the new, modern facilities. There are always some regulations in such camps, for example asylum seekers are not allowed to bring certain types of food and drink into the camp. However, they were not allowed to return to the camp later than 5 p.m. For this reason, Alex complained that he had missed some of the church meetings and ceremonies that were held between 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. on Wednesdays and Fridays.

His second interview took place a month after the first one. In the second one, the types of question were supplementary to the direction of the previous interview to assess the validity of his answers. It did not take long for him to receive the response; his asylum application was rejected by the SEM. His lawyer appealed against the SEM response in less than five days. Hence, Alex received the second negative response within seven days.

Alex:

37 Located in Stegackerstrasse 12, Muttenz, CH-4132.

46 They conduct a meeting for me to talk to a person who called himself helping assistant (return assistant), and he began the conversation; I want to help you, so please let me know if you need any help or support for coming back to your home country. I did not even respond to his statement, and I tried to end the conversation. Again he continued; Alex, you have no way to move forward. You should be aware of the fact that you have to leave Switzerland in less than 30 days.

Alex was transferred to a camp in Allschwil38 (cantonal camp) the day after he met the return assistant. Conditions in this camp were better because there was no more restricted control; they could cook for themselves, the rooms were shared by four people, and there was only one other person in his room; they were allowed to go shopping; and they were allowed to stay out between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m. Moreover, they did not need to collect points by going to work, and they could work in the city two or even more days during the week for the same salary (30 CHF a day).

Alex: Unfortunately, however, good days will not take so long for asylum seekers. Whenever you feel your life is becoming to stability, suddenly you receive a letter which changes whole your life.

After 140 days, Alex received his return letter (Zurück Brief) which gives asylum seekers less than 30 days to return to their country of origin or a third country. This time, Basler-Socialhilfe was the organization responsible for his application. After receiving two negative responses to his appeals, Alex became a rejected asylum seeker. A social worker in Basler-Socialhilfe clarified his current situation and explained to him that this place is only in the case of an emergency and he could only stay there until he returned to his own country. Notschlafstelle (emergency sleeping places)39 is a place organized by Socialhilfe to accommodate homeless people. It is a shelter with 75 beds and accommodation for a night is cheap. Rejected asylum seekers like Alex do not need to pay to stay there. Notschlafstelle only protects homeless people at night, between 8 p.m. and 8 a.m. The rooms are equipped with a bathroom and toilet and is just for sleeping, not cooking or any other activities, and people are allowed to bring one backpack (or a small suitcase). Socialhilfe supplied Alex with 12 CHF per day.

Alex: Tut mir leid! This is the most common phrase or expression you mostly hear when an officer does not tend to do anything for you! That phrase literally means you fucked up! I went to the riverside and was waiting for 8 p.m. Notschlafstelle was clean, and the beds were in a good condition. However, people were horrifying, and I had to live in a shared place with drug-addicts, the homeless and vagabonds, thieves, murders, drug- sellers. No one knows who they are, but everyone knows those people have been rejected from society and social life. They can be dangerous for an ordinary person in the nation since they do not have anything to lose. However, that was not the issue, what should I have done since morning until the evening without any permission to study or work? What could I have done?

Living in a city, though, provides many opportunities, such as finding social networks through social life. The city and its urban spaces do not belong to a specific social class or a particular

38 Located in Vogesenweg 9, Allschwil, CH-4123. 39 Located in Rosentalstrasse 70, Basel, CH-4058.

47 race but to the citizens. International cities like Basel, in particular, incorporate a diverse range of people from different countries and create a transnational and transcultural environment for all of their residents. Asylum seekers, refugees, highly skilled migrants, students, and everyone else can also be found and make a social network for themselves. Alex is no exception, and he knew that he should make an effort to find a suitable social network for himself. Despite knowing that, this was a tough and challenging period for him. Alex sat under the bridges for days on end all alone in the new, unfamiliar society where the people were not comfortable communicating with and making contact with foreigners, especially strangers and asylum seekers. The rainy autumn season in Europe, when the sky is mostly grey, may also mentally add to the problematic situation. After a few weeks, however, Alex adapted to the new conditions. He learnt about the places where non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and other activists distribute free food to asylum seekers. So as not to freeze in the cold weather, people in need who do not have any place to go, like the rejected asylum seekers, have to stay long in a few places from morning to the night. Certainly, they have to be super conscious about the date and time during the week, otherwise they may lose the opportunity for a meal and a warm place to sit, since access to such places is limited to a specific period.

No more than a month later, Alex received a letter from Socialhilfe granting him another interview. The interview took place with the previous social assistant at Basle-Socialhilfe, a lady who knew everything about Alex's application. She asked him what he had done so far to get back to his home country. Again, Alex repeated his previous response to her question, which was written in his application. Due to his political issues, he had difficulties returning to his own country. The second question she asked was to clarify what he had done so far to obtain his documents from his home country. He had also responded to this question earlier, stating that he did not have access to any of his legal documents (passport). The social assistant then requested him to negotiate with the embassy of his country to at least receive his passport. ”It means I put a signature on the letter of my own execution,” said Alex. The interview finished and it subsequently appeared as if he had been forgotten for a while.

Social assistant for Alex After a few weeks of wasting time and doing nothing special except walking through the city in a group with other rejected asylum seekers, he went back to Socialhilfe to ask for permission for social work. The social assistant responded in this regard: ”For a year you will not receive any legal right to work, nor study the language. You do not have any right in this country. You are illegally staying in Switzerland, and you should return to your own country.”

These circumstances have various consequences, for example some rejected asylum seekers become depressed and commit to suicide; others leave Switzerland for another European country, and after a few months they are returned to Switzerland by the third countries, becoming confused and exhausted.

Alex: Even though I had to spend the entire day in the city, I could not sleep for weeks at night even for one minute. A friend of mine took my suitcases, and I had only one backpack on my shoulder for more than two months. Unintentionally, and totally unconsciously, the confusion and exhaustion force you to take unreasonable decisions for your future.

Coincidentally, Alex found a few of his countrymen who had also experienced his situation. I would call it an informal Iranian refugee community who spend most of their time together in

48 Basel-Stadt. I use the word “informal” here for this community since it has not officially been established; it is not a part of any other social network and has no connection to Socialhilfe or any other organisation. However, I believe it has numerous functions making it a community albeit an informal one. It has been around for years including a certain group of people who have been displaced from their home country for various reasons during the last two decades. Through the years, they have shared their social networks with new arrivals in order to help them to settle down successfully. They advise new asylum seekers and transfer their experiences and knowledge of asylum law and its regulations for free; try to introduce the new asylum seekers to the places they can get help, advice and assistance or to people who are working at NGOs, non-profit organizations (NPOs), churches and the other humanitarian associations. Alex was meeting the community and its members regularly.

Through these networks after less than two months, Ahmad, a member of this community who had been living in Basel for more than eleven years, introduced Alex to a Mr. Thomas who is head of an NGO concerned with refugee issues. This NGO has worked directly with the evangelical and reformist churches in Basel for more than fifteen years and assists refugees and asylum seekers to integrate into urban life by helping them find accommodation, learn the language, find jobs, and solve their legal issues on an administrative and legal level. Alex had already met this person at the church when he was living in the camp.

Alex: Some people are absolutely strong and always believe in themselves, even in the most arduous situation. Some others, however, do believe in a more dominant power in life; whose power is beyond our expectations and even our imagination. Nobody can resist in front of his power and the heart to heart connection with him will protect us on every occasion.

During these two months, Alex proved himself to be a young and active member of the church's community and attained their support. He made many friends in the church and they also supported him. As a friend, Ahmad generously recommended Alex as a person with acceptable behaviour to Mr. Thomas, and he did not refuse to accommodate Alex. Hence, Alex was provided with a room to begin his new life with a Swiss Christian family.

Alex: That was a new chapter in my life. A chapter I could begin to write it down by myself. There were no more external forces to keep me out of home for the entire day; I did not have to spend whole the day to find meal; Nothing else could distract me from doing the task I supposed to do. My life was organizing gradually, and I was happy to help in the housing works to the family I was living with them.

Mr. Thomas: There were different tasks neither my family nor I could manage to do regularly; cleaning the house, grocery, gardening, and a person to talk while sitting next to each other to eat our dinner. Since I got divorced, my children can only visit me during the weekend. I also settled down a Pakistanian guy who could not afford to rent an apartment, and now he is living in my house for four years. I am wholeheartedly happy to help a person who would like to have a normal life, but due to some circumstances, he cannot.

49 According to Maslow's pyramid (hierarchy of needs), the basic psychological needs are access to human survival needs such as food, drink, shelter, warmth etc. (biological requirements) as well as security and safety needs, like belonging to a family and a community.40

Alex achieved a peaceful environment and a life condition he was dreaming about. He quickly regained his lost energy and recovered his mental powers. However, waiting without any action was not possible for Alex. He did not have the character to stay at home the entire day; he needed to be outside, interacting and communicating with other people, especially with his own countrymen.

He successfully improved his network connections with Persian-speaking communities in Switzerland. The Persian Christian community, for instance, invited him to go to their church. Since he had been a political activist against the government in Iran, and later on in Greece, he now found an opportunity to start his activities again in Switzerland. Then he met a few communities who were also involved in political activism against the Iran Islamic Republic regime. Inner mobility on the budget of an asylum seeker in Switzerland is, however, impossible, as they receive 84 CHF a week while an average cost for travelling to Zürich from Basel would be more than 88 CHF which means asylum seekers cannot participate in any activities outside the canton they live in. Immobility could have been another enormous obstacle to the plans Alex had in mind. Mr. Thomas and his family, however, helped him to buy Halbtaxt (half fare card) and taught him how to use the online SBB application. Alex was subsequently able to travel between the main cities in Switzerland to participate in church meetings, testimonies, protests, demonstrations etc.

Finding (invisible) networks in a foreign country for foreigners, in particular asylum seekers and refugees, especially when they do not know the host country's official language, is a tremendous challenge. Nevertheless, if people persist and make regular efforts, they can find their expected social networks by word of mouth. Through the church meetings, participating actively in social life, being an active citizen in public spaces, Alex met a person who introduced him to all the communities working against the regime in Iran. In Zürich and Bern, Alex sporadically read news concerning the protests and demonstrations taking place against the Islamic regime in Iran on social media. However, he has never found nor does he have any connection with them on social media. After joining the community, Alex was added to their Telegram and Facebook groups (both medias are absolutely common among Iranian people in Iran and also abroad). Via these groups, they have instant access to all the activities, discussions and debates going on in Switzerland and even in Europe.

Participating in some sessions in the Persian church encouraged Alex to register for their classes and take the courses officially. Since he did not have any significant problem (they were teaching in Persian, also for registration, they did not expect any specific type of residence permit) that it was easy to become accepted. Before that, however, Alex attempted to register at a Bible school, but for many reasons, he could not manage to do so since the tuition fee was unaffordable; a high level of German was required; and the legal statute stature or a certain type of residence permit was also required. However, after about four months of constant effort and failure, he was able to register successfully for a unique course to learn about the Bible. The course, though, not only taught the Bible but also prepared participants to learn, teach and expand the Christian faith in society but in particular among Persian-speaking people around the world. The courses were mostly online, or he needed to participate in person once a week

40 https://www.simplypsychology.org/maslow.html

50 in Zürich. He spent the rest of his time in Basel. To avoid wasting his time, he participated as a volunteer member to help those centers, organizations, NGOs etc. that distribute food and clothes to asylum seekers and refugees. Alex knew them through his experiences during the time he was living in Notschlafstelle, and he had to spend the entire day in those places during the week. Alex spent his time at Mama Africa, Theodorskirche and Elizabethankirche supporting by giving aid to the asylum seekers in different ways: cooking and preparing the food for breakfast, lunch and dinner; helping to clean the place before and after serving the meal; helping to organize different events like sport and other activities etc.

The Evangelical Reformed Church Basel-Stadt is a broad organization in which pastors, church staff and volunteers undertake various tasks as humanitarian activities. Moreover, for years, Evangelical Reformists have been to supporting asylum seekers and refugees in Basel-Stadt in various ways. Theodorskirche is located in Klein-Basel where the majority of refugees and asylum seekers live. The church forms part of the reformed parish of Kleinbasel. This is an official programme which is also recognized by Basler-Socialhilfe. In collaboration with pastors, staff, asylum seekers and volunteers, Theodorskirche holds cultural, social and spiritual events for refugees, asylum seekers and homeless people (adults and children). Davide Maniscalco, an activist in Theodorskirche, has run numerus beneficial program for more than 25 years.

Davide Maniscalco: My responsibility is to coordinate everything about meals and socio-cultural activities in Theodorskirche for adults and also children. We cook together and share the food with everyone every Wednesdays. I am also running a theatre group and bring asylum seekers and different groups of society to play a role together every Friday. By the first look, it seems we are feeding people and making a platform for children to play, while, more in-depth focus illuminates that our work is to bring ordinary people from the host society to meet those who have been rejected from social life. Mostly after serving the meals, we have a biography session and participants, mainly asylum seekers and refugees try to define how they have changed and made differences to change their life.

The team in Theodorskirche hosts people from all religions, not only Christians. In the beginning, people who were notably depressed, hopeless and frustrated came to Theodorskirche to hopefully make some changes in their life. However, over time, participants and volunteers became friends with Davide and the rest of the team. The plan is to introduce these volunteers to society, church members, friends and social networks that might be able to help them in some way, such as finding a room, a free space or a family to host them. Finding accommodation might be manageable not via a legal process but through an informal social network since there are many official regulations which may not allow people to accommodate asylum seekers or refugees. Another significant effort is to teach asylum seekers and refugees German or provide occasions for learning the language, since one of the key features of integration is learning the language of the host society.

There are some other tasks which Davide and the members of and activists at the Theodorskirche are not really experienced in, though. For example, finding a job for those people who are in need of a job is another purpose that they are pursuing. However, this is a challenging task and necessitates much time and effort. Despite making tremendous efforts, they mostly cannot manage to find any jobs for any of the refugees or asylum seekers even doing housekeeping, dishwashing, farming and agricultural activities. In particular, when it comes to formal contracts, employers refuse to accept anyone from these social groups.

51

Davide Maniscalco: The rejected asylum seekers and refugees are living in the shadow. This is a kind of frozen status which I think it is a crazy situation. I can understand it, and that is why I have kept this way to help them for more than 25 years. Mostly, however, we cannot do anything special for them except give them a sense of human dignity to let them feel, we deeply fathom out they are human as well. Indeed, we are an island of hope in the ocean of frustration and hopelessness for them.

Alex and his friends, who met each other in different camps earlier, also participated in the Theodorskirche's activities. They were actively involved in preparing food for other people and were trying to learn German on Wednesday afternoons in the church with a group of young people. In addition to praying, eating and talking together once per week, they also performed in a theatre as a member of a group. Theodorskirche is not the only church Alex and many of his friends joined permanently for the specific activities. For instance, Elizabethankirche is another focal point which presents a variety of activities for different social groups.

Elizabethankirche is well known for its transcultural activities not only in Basel-Stadt but also in the Basel region. Hence, this church has one of the biggest social networks and greatest interaction with cultural activists in the region. There is no restriction or segregation in terms of race, color of the skin, gender or nationality for accepting participants and the church has an excellent reputation for supporting refugees, those who are seeking asylum and rejected asylum seekers. A significant number of volunteers are supporting refugees in Elizabethankirche by offering different courses and activities such as practicing German, cooking, doing sports, yoga, dance, laughing sessions and many other social activities.

Alex: The time we were together in Elizabethankirche counted as one the funniest time we all had in Basel. Their connections with numerous activists in Basel was the main reason to have multicultural programs and join in a common exercise with people from all over the world. Cooking for different events (both for lunch and dinner) was taking place in the church, while sports and other exercises were mostly taking place at the gym, especially during autumn and winter. There were some exceptions, like the times we were going for a run altogether. In this case, we always came together in a park or central plazas in the city to begin our outdoor exercise; Schützenmatt Park, Kannenfeld Park, Marktplatz were the main sites of our practice. We also sometimes began our run through the Rhine.

Participating in so many socio-cultural activities as a volunteer in Basel, as well as engaging with political demonstrations and protests in other cities in Switzerland which were mostly far from Basel (mainly in Geneva, St. Gallen, Zürich and Bern), made Alex feel exhausted. He had made a full schedule for himself, and after no more than two months, he realized he did not have any time for himself. He needed to pay attention to the need for time management in his life and create a new plan for the future to benefit his time. Mr. Thomas and his family also supported him with the tuition fee for a German course at one of the best language schools in Basel.

Alex: Every Friday, I had to go to Socialhilfe to sign a letter to prove my presence in Basel- Stadt. Once, after signing the letter, I ask for having a conversation with my social

52 assistant. Luckily, she did not refuse and we started to talk for a few minutes. I let her know all the changes that had happened in my life during that short period. I just asked her for a work permit, even permission for social work. She responded: “Tut mir leid!” Afterwards, I understood, Socialhilfe will not ever help me anymore. I have worked since I was eight years old and cannot be an inactive member of the society. I just needed an accommodation which they did not help with that and a job to have a minimum level of life. I do not expect luxurious life since I have escaped to rescue my life. I am aware of the fact that I should not break this society's rules, but it is hard for me to ask for money from the family I am living with the. I do not like to receive Nothilfe (social help) from Socialhilfe. I have to work, no matter which type of job it would be, I must financially balance my life.

Alex realized that his only option was patience. So he decided to concentrate on just a few significant tasks and no more. He chose Christianity and faith, political activities, the German course and sport (only twice week) and decided to postpone the rest of the activities for a while. In the cold season there was not so much to do in public spaces, and he preferred to spend more of his leisure time at home.

Mr. Thomas said the following to Alex while they were eating dinner: Alex, I have great news for you! Mr. Erisman, an old friend of mine who is a farmer and lives in a village near Basel, called me today after a long time. He asked me if I know a young man who is able to help him for a while in his farm. Rats are destroying his farm by damaging the roots of trees. He needs somebody to help to save the trees and his farm. He was asking me if I know a person who needs a place to stay, he can offer a room in his farmhouse instead of work. He is a kind, but his children had no interest to live in the countryside nor to follow their family tradition. They are now living in the United States and have no more contact with their father. In their mind, Mr. Erisman is a Bünzli,41 and they do not have much in common to share with their father. I cannot understand why the new generation became a rebel and behaving rogue at us. By the way, he is an old but precise and still punctual man, and the excellent point is that I can ask him to pay for this job to you. Then you can still stay with us. Your duty is to work on land for the entire day and whole the wintertime. I also thought you need to work because we will not be able to financially support you for a longer period. What do you think?

Alex was aware that Mr. Thomas had already done so much for him, and he should never forget how kind Mr. Thomas and his family had been to host him for the last few months. However, he knew that it would not be a job with a contract or with any official permission, which might cost him a lot. He understood that Mr. Thomas had already given pre-confirmation to his friend. He also knew that all the things he could do would not be better than working in forest and farming. Mr. Thomas called his friend and made an appointment for the next morning and gave the address to Alex.

41 "Bünzli"; a Swiss citizen, who proud of his heritage and traditions and only lives in the small country of Switzerland. The Bünzli likes to eat the food he knows already, he is quite sceptical of stuff, which he has never eaten. He likes his food, and also his life, like it has been, when he was still young. He also learned when he still was a child, that a man needs to work, laziness is from the devil and punctuality and order are the keys in life. The rest of the world would not be interesting for him. Everybody needs their own freedom to do the things like he himself pleases. Everybody needs to solve their problems on their own, too. That is also why the Bünzli hates it, when others (cosmopolitans, the EU, even the Swiss government in Bern) lecture him on his own rights and duties.

53 Mr. Erismann to Alex: You supposed to be here at seven o'clock but know the time is 07:01':35″. If you are going to work like that, you must not be here.

Mr. Erisman's farm was located on the top of a hill, and it took more than 22 minutes to walk from the train station to the farm. Alex had planned to arrive twenty minutes early, but he took the wrong train in Liestal. So he could not arrive on time and punctuality matters in the Swiss system no matter whether it is a farm, village or city. But Alex knew there is no way behind, so he sincerely apologized for being one minute and thirty-five seconds late. Mr. Erisman explained Alex's duties to him and clarified his working hours. By order of Mr. Erisman, the working hours began at 7 a.m., and his duties must end at 5 p.m. He did not agree to a legal contract with Alex nor guarantee any insurance during working hours. Alex had no other possibilities; he had to accept everything.

Alex: I was receiving 50 CHF for ten hours working on the farm during wintertime, mostly under the rain. But sometimes there is no other choice, and you have to accept the challenge to survive.

Alex received 50 CHF per day of which he had to pay 10 CHF for the train ticket. According to Mr. Erisman's plan, rat hunting (the whole work in the farm) was supposed to be finished within 100 days; however, thanks to Alex's persistence, it was successfully completed in only 83 days. Nevertheless, he could not actively participate in the Christian faith course and tried to participate in the testimonies via online access. All his political activities were also postponed for almost three months since he could not manage to travel in Switzerland and engage in demonstrations and protests. He did manage to continue with the German course twice a week.

By finishing the work, and removing the rats from the farm, he managed to afford a lawyer's consultation fee for his application. By saving the expected amount of money, he could ask one the best lawyers to assist him with his application. After reading his case, the lawyer recommended that he wait for a year and then only appeal.

Alex: As a human being and like everyone else, I also needed to calm down for a short time to recover my mental energy. I needed a short break!

Since Mr. Thomas and his family were used to communicating with Alex during the last few months, they decided to take him on an annual family trip they always took at the end of February. Since that was the first time he could ski on a slope, he was very excited. He had never had an opportunity to experience the beauty of the fascinating Swiss landscapes. It was a time for him to relax and enjoy his life like everyone else. Nevertheless, 2020 was not a typical year for the world, especially at the beginning.

During the first quarter of 2020, a virus spread and attacked the world. Coronavirus reshaped the mobility of everyday life. Switzerland, as a part of the European continent, was no exception. Like many other nations around the world, Switzerland had to ban the mobility of people to deal with the infection rate. Hospitalization was prioritized for older people, and in cases where young people tested positive, they had to quarantine at home. Since the number of infected cases per capita in Switzerland was high, the Swiss parliament announced a national

54 lockdown to deal with the epidemic. As a consequence, almost all public events were banned, cathedrals and churches were closed, as well as universities and schools, and no more demonstrations or protests were allowed. Indeed, all the networks Alex had created earlier, all the places he had found that welcomed him and all the activities he was able to participate in were prohibited and he could no longer participate.

Alex: Mr. Thomas is a very good man and a true believer. He loves his job and feels faithful when he is helping refugees and asylum seekers. Even during the time, the Swiss parliament announced the national lockdown, he was working in his office. He feels like a missionary and tends to do his tasks regularly as before. In his belief, Jesus will protect him against everything. While this behaviour might be dangerous for those people who have contact with him in particular for those people who lived with him. I limited my contact in person and tried to not go out except for a personal run in the morning. Despite that was a strange time, was a chance to concentrate on my studies; Christianity and faith and Deutsch. I successfully managed to run an online church for Persian-speaking people who needed spiritual moments during the quarantine. With an invitation our church members, as well as more friends of mine, participated in the online church. As a church servant, I managed to do my responsibility in the right way, which made me happy to keep my connection with God as well as other Christians. I was sure we would all pass the corona time altogether.

Only a few days after the lockdown, he made an appointment with his lawyer and asked his opinion about appealing once again. The lawyer agreed to appeal for a third time. Then he officially submitted his appeal to the SEM. In cases where an asylum seeker makes an appeal after receiving two negative responses, they have to present a new reason for stay in the country or have to try and prove the previous reason again. Alex did the latter, and he was assured that his documents were adequate to be accepted by the court this time.

Alex was right! Only a few days after his appeal request, he received a letter from the SEM which explained his returning order had been cancelled and the negative response to his application was removed. His received an N permit which means his asylum-seeking application was being processing. Basically, N is a type of permit for those who have applied for asylum in Switzerland and whose application is being processed. During the proceedings, they are primarily authorized to be resident in Switzerland. Under specific conditions, they can also be employed in Switzerland.

After receiving an N permit, Alex was called for an interview once again, and his interview took place after 25 days. He is still waiting for the court's decision. As Alex claimed, however, there are no differences between the N permit he received and his previous negative response.

But not everybody is as active as Alex in their asylum-seeking process. Gabriel, for instance, is a friend of Alex whom he met in the federal camp. Gabriel also had to leave Iran because of political issues. He had many friends in the United States who had studied at university with him and they were in contact. He called them from Turkey, and his friends managed to use their network to make a fake passport for Gabriel to travel to Los Angeles. One of them also had a Turkish friend at Ataturk airport in Istanbul. Gabriel was supposed to travel as a Spanish citizen, and the person organized safe conditions for his entry to the plane. The flight, however, had a stop in Zürich. They did not know anybody in Zürich airport, and Gabriel could not pass the security gate.

55

The security guards in Zürich airport distinguished his fake identity and banned him from entering the plane. He was transferred to the police station and had to give his fingerprints in Switzerland despite not intending to apply for asylum in Switzerland, but he had no option. According to the Dublin regulations and European countries’ agreement with Switzerland, asylum seekers under conditions such as Gabriel will be returned to Switzerland if they are arrested in any other European country. His asylum-seeking request was processed, and after about three months, he received two negative responses from the SEM. Inevitably, eviction from the camp and transferring his application to Socialhilfe were the next steps. Like other rejected asylum seekers, he is supposed to spend his days on the street and sleep in Notschlafstelle at nights.

Gabriel: I graduated from the university in two and a half years and after graduation, began my job quickly. I was working as a civil engineer for more than fifteen years, and I was an experienced expert in my own career. Sometimes there is no more choice, and unintentionally you are being forced to do somethings which impacts all your life. That is not easy to see the vanishment of all you have made through your life gradually, only in one night. Even thinking about that through your memory can disrupt your nervous system. That is not easy to handle it. Forcibly, I had to participate in a protest which its consequence struggled me with my current situation. I had only twenty-four hours to leave my country; otherwise, I would have been arrested, and nobody knows what would have happened for me. But I never wanted to be here, ever. I do not have a single friend nor family here. I should have been imprisoned in this country, unable to move forward to the place I wanted to be.

Alex attempted to help him find a family to accommodate him at least for a short time. However, he also knew that it might be unrealistic to manage it quickly. Since Alex had experienced the same situation earlier, he knew how a person can feel in such circumstances. Alex talked to Mr. Thomas and explained Gabriel’s circumstances; however, Mr. Thomas did would not accede his request.

Mr. Thomas to Alex: Alex! It's better not to cross the limits! You mustn't abuse my kindness and attention, that's enough!

Gabriel was an introvert, a workaholic who spent most of his life since he was a teenager in the construction industry. His mind had solid direction, without much flexibility. For his type of mindset, being an inactive member of society was contradictory with his fundamental ontology. Participating in the church meetings all the time and too many social interactions seemed purposeless in his mind. He was also aware that by doing political activities against the regime in his country, he would lose his chance of going back to his country. Moreover, he regarded demonstrators and their activities as naive. Therefore, he never participated in any demonstrations or protests.

Gabriel had fallen into a trap, and he could not move beyond it. His inability to speak German and English was another reason which caused to make the situation stablehis static situation and meant he was unable to communicate with people. Meanwhile, he received news that his mother had died and he was not even able to attend her funeral. Three days later, he attempted

56 suicide, but his attempt was unsuccessful. Alex heard about it and he was upset and concerned. He decided to take action to help Gabriel no matter what it cost him.

Alex quickly arranged a meeting and, after a long discussion, he managed to persuade the church community to accommodate Gabriel with a family immediately. To cure some of his pain, Alex suggested Gabriel come to Christianity. Alex baptized him personally during the most challenging time in his life. After baptizing him, a family who heard about Gabriel agreed to provide him with a room in their house.

Gabriel: I wish nothing except having an opportunity to come back home, right now. Undoubtedly, however, I will be executed as soon as I return. It is better to suicide rather than be executed; I cannot cope with being executed. There is no way for me to go forward nor for coming back. On the one hand, is execution and on the other hand, is to stay in permanent limbo in which everything is frozen. Imagine, the worst thing happens to your family, and you cannot accompany them; what kind of life it is? They imagine we came here just for fun, or to make a luxurious lifestyle for ourselves. They imagine we did not have food to eat, and we just escape because of the famine or like we are beggars. Despite all the capabilities I have, nobody can believe me in this society, and everybody behaves with me as a worthless citizen who is unable to do any beneficial task for society. Me, the one who was managing the projects with more than hundreds of facility and construction workers for more than fifteen years. Now, I have to wait for Fridays to go to Socialhilfe to receive Nothilfe to not die of hunger. Is there something worse than this lifestyle?

Gabriel never learnt any foreign languages in his country. To him, participating in one of the biggest communities of Persian people outside Iran might have been an appropriate solution to come back to life again, quickly. Gabriel also mentioned another regret in our last conversation.

Gabriel: Coming to Switzerland was not the correct movement, that just complicated everything. I should have not come across the Swiss borders under any circumstances. Not just me, nobody should come ever. Nevertheless, it would have been another chance if I also tried to leave Switzerland and made an attempt to flee to America from France or Spain or anywhere else. I should have not accepted to wait for the state because the patience of the state is endless.

The circumstances in which Benjamin's life is frozen are not significantly different from the other asylum seekers in Basel-Stadt except that he attempted to seek asylum in an English- speaking nation in Europe (England). Benjamin is originally from Iran and left his country at the end of spring 2019. After arriving in Turkey, he managed to negotiate with a group of smugglers to help him to go to England. The smugglers accepted the deal, and Benjamin gave them two-thirds of the money. They disappeared somewhere between Switzerland and Germany and Benjamin as well as his friends who were travelling with him transferred to Switzerland.

As he had not assigned any fingerprints in other European nations, he had to assign his fingerprints in Switzerland. He is neither highly skilled nor highly educated; however, he has a realistic mindset and is aware of his capabilities as well as his limitations. He would be

57 satisfied with having a job in a restaurant but being a rejected asylum seeker does not permit him to work in any restaurant. He also had to live in Notschlafstelle for a while, but he soon realized he would not be able to cope with this prolonged temporariness.

Benjamin: I know the Swiss asylum law has many restrictions, and I would like to respect the laws. But there is a difference between being restricted and being ridiculous. They are behaving with us in a way as if, Switzerland is the only nation in the world which is not valid. I have so many other friends who are seeking asylum in Germany, Netherlands, England and even Canada. They all have a much better life than the one we have in this country. I do not belong to the upper class of society, that is true! And this society is not the right place for the lower class, that is also true! But we are simply a human being. You know, human! There are more reasonable laws and regulations to protect pets in Switzerland than refugees. According to Swiss law, pets must not stay out of home, but refugees should spend their time on the streets! Just imagine the amount of worthlessness!

Benjamin is a communicative person, but the language is an enormous obstacle in a foreign country. He knows Alex because they met before in a camp. Once when Alex was helping an NGO to prepare food for refugees they met again, and Benjamin asked Alex for support. He needed a Swiss person to help him cross the border to France. Alex told him about the Dublin case, but despite being aware of Dublin regulations in Europe, Benjamin had decided to go to England. Alex asked him to wait for a short time until he could arrange a meeting for him.

Finally, a Swiss person heard his words and helped to take him to France in his own car. The person also provided Benjamin with money and bought him a train ticket from Belfort to Paris. He then began another journey to England. After two weeks, Benjamin safely arrived in London. He was happy that he could manage to start a new asylum-seeking procedure in a city near London. The time passed quickly but not in the way he was hoping.

After waiting for two months, he returned to Switzerland again. In line with Dublin regulations, he returned to Switzerland at the time the country was preparing its cantons for the pandemic lockdown. There was no exceptional asylum application during the time for England and to avoid the chances of infection, they booked three seats and Benjamin sat in the middle. After coming back to Switzerland, he has been sent to the canton where his case had proceeded, Basel-Stadt.

Benjamin: What was I supposed to do? Should I have stayed without even an attempt to get rid of that? Should I have only prayed without moving forward for my life? Or was I supposed to wait for the SEM response to let me know I should return to my country! They imagine we are all doing this for fun and having an adventure!

Prior to the coronavirus lockdown, Benjamin had been transferred to Camp 50 where he and the other asylum seekers were living in groups of four to a room. After lockdown, however, he was transferred to Notschlafstelle. He still sleeps at that emergency center during the night and receives weekly emergency aid as before from Socialhilfe.

58 Alex to me during our last conversation42: Shahin! Probably you may claim I am the luckiest person among all who have been seeking asylum in Switzerland or at least among those refugees you met in different camps in Europe like Moria. But it needs to be considered; I have not left whatever I had to spend my leisure time in Switzerland. Despite my attempts to integrate into this society by finding friends, families, groups and social contacts being successful; separation, suspension and segregation issues are fundamental and still on the table. But; if I work; I will not have to accept emergency aid; I will pay my tax, even a higher amount than other society's members, no matter which kind of job I get; I will not disturb the ideal society's regulations to survive. If I receive accommodation; I will not occupy the urban spaces for days and nights, which also damages the image of the city and people's perception of the city. If I am treated as a normal person; I will never play avant-garde actions in/against the system; I will never need any therapy to cure the consequences of my depression, frustration, anger, etc.

I am actually aware of the asylum seekers and my rights, but I am not daring to ask for my rights since I do not have any identity in this country. Somebody’s dog has higher monthly expenses than I have; has higher rights than a rejected asylum seeker has, and has higher value than I have.

Shahin, I relied on you and you were aware of whatever happened to me over the last eighteen months, you need to ask why is that so? You should ask why is so in academia and in society. Remember, you and your research should be our voice.

Eventually, the SEM accepted Alex’s statements and approved his claims. Nevertheless, there is no notable change in his application after more than a year and he has just sorted out everything again and appealed. He has wasted more than eighteen months on the streets and in public spaces doing unnecessary tasks. He could have been passed many tasks through the integration process explicitly. In other words, his integration process could have been accelerated rather than his asylum process. Alternatively, he could have spent the last eighteen months in a country other than Switzerland.

42 Through this conversation, Alex and I were reviewing all the activities I could probably narrate for the thesis. Since I attempted to respectfully avoid any possibilities to make difficulty for his application.

59

Chapter. 6 Critiques and Policy Revision Recommendations

60 Critiques and Policy Revision Recommendations

Ott notes that asylum seekers in hiding are often the only offense that can be blamed for their irregular residence status. Otherwise, they basically did not cause any problems for the authorities: like all sans-papiers, they lived completely inconspicuously, earned their living with odd jobs and caused hardly any costs to the public sector (Alexander Ott, Head of the Aliens Police, City of Bern). 43

I am not the first neither the only person who had a pessimistic view on Swiss asylum regime. Nevertheless, a few of studies were relevant and had potential to discuss as complement in this section of my research. Not so many research criticized difficulties ahead of the rejected asylum seekers, and among those only a few presented realistic, practical recommendations to improve the present situation. I have classified the criticisms and recommendations from two different studies; Eidg. Migrationskommission (EKM) studies (2019: a & b), and Häberlein study’s (2020) into a few sections as follow; emergency aids regime, anonymous lifestyle, civil society organizations and services, accommodations, employment, the role of bottom-up activities, communities and NGOs, church organizations and other humanitarian associations, refugee activists in society and last but not least, recommendations.

The Eidg. Migrationskommission (EKM) studies (2019: a & b), for instance, is an appropriate example to review since the study portrays the paths rejected asylum seekers are taking. Moreover, the EKM studies describe numerous possibilities ahead of those asylum seekers who have left the asylum system. Together with Häberlein study’s (2020), their critiques and recommendations helped me to integrate my mind after such a long discussion. The majority analysis and recommendations in the EKM study are inclusive for the entire country and Swiss asylum regime, while Häberlein study’s (2020) focuses on Basel region (Basel-Stadt as well as Basel-Landschaft).

1. General critique and recommendations for the Switzerland

The study by EKM (2019: a & b) illustrates what happens to those whose asylum application is rejected by the SEM and have to leave Switzerland's asylum system; different alternatives are ahead of them and the paths they will take. The options they have can be classified into three major groups;

1. Those who have to leave Switzerland – to return to the country of origin, a third country or a Dublin country; with or without control; with or without return assistance. 2. Those who stay in Switzerland – survive on emergency aid, waiting and afterwards making a hardship application; anonymity or without any identification papers; as part of a family project like marriage or living with a person who accepts them as their child. 3. Those who immerse in other countries – making a new asylum application in other countries under a new identity; living clandestinely (EKM44, 2019b: 5)

According to Article 12 of the Federal Constitution, those who receive emergency aid should have a “dignified existence”. For that reason, they should be accommodated by the responsible

43 (EKM, 2019b: 29) 44 Personen, die aus dem Asylsystem ausscheiden, 2019: (EKM, 2019: b) Profile, (Aus-)Wege, Perspektiven, Ein Kurzbericht der Eidgenössischen Migrationskommission EKM, Dezember, basierend auf einer Studie von KEK-Beratung GmbH

61 canton and also receive regular financial support in addition to basic medical care. A general problem in collective accommodation is the lack of privacy (EKM, 2019b: 16-17).

Those who receive emergency aid have to be present for checking by Socialhilfe in their canton to receive their weekly payment. If they miss that, payment can be refused. The amount normally is not sufficient and does not cover travel costs which limits their mobility and the use of public transportation. This can also impact on creating, continuing or expanding their social network (EKM, 2019b: 17).

Emergency aid regime – What is next? While the emergency aid regime is intentionally structured in an awkward way in order to persuade asylum seekers to leave Switzerland, experts claim that this is in contrast to the reality. In the experts’ opinions, the restriction level of rules should be reduced. In addition, cases of hardship should be assessed for those who have been living in Switzerland for a few years. The procedure should be logically restructured especially for the individual cases whose lives have been drastically affected (EKM, 2019a: 6).

The negative aspects of emergency aid at the present time overshadow its benefits for the rejected asylum seekers. Not only survival should be paid attention, but also human dignity should be considered with regard to their lives and living conditions: children, families and vulnerable people should be the center of attention while young and healthy men should not be forgotten. “Many of those receiving emergency aid live in Switzerland without being offended, but hardly have the chance to live their lives in a humane manner” (Häberlein, 2020: 27).

The current situation concerning work restrictions should not be allowed to continue since it does not solve any problems while adding complications to the situation. The potential and skills of those people who receive emergency aid should not be forgotten just because their life has been blocked in that situation. Access to integration opportunities should also be provided to the rejected asylum seekers and they should be given a chance to integrate into the Swiss labor market. Then, the demand for long-term emergency aid would also be reduced. Work is at the heart of the Swiss economy, hence work integration should be considered in the hardship application as well. Moreover, the system for regularizing asylum seekers should be done even quicker through “humanitarian or collective” regulations. In fact, providing a dignified life with an appropriate future perspective should be considered for them, as the cost of emergency aid could accordingly be reduced or even spent on their integration process (Häberlein, 2020: 28).

How to step out of the shadow of anonymity? A small number of the sans-papiers living in Switzerland have previously gone through an asylum procedure. In order to survive anonymously in Switzerland, you usually need good knowledge of the circumstances, contact with a network of compatriots who are legally present and employers who are willing to employ people who are irregularly present. Sans-papiers can be found wherever there is a low-wage sector in local jobs: in agriculture and construction, in small businesses and in households (including housekeeping). The experts questioned agree that the exploitative conditions under which sans-papiers often work in Switzerland should not be accepted. Sans-papiers who have been present in the country for a long time – including those who have gone through an asylum procedure – should be given the opportunity to regularize their stay in Switzerland under certain conditions (EKM, 2019a: 6).

The EKM recommendations:

62 1. Temporary admission could be granted from the beginning to those who cannot leave Switzerland for technical or health reasons, because few asylum seekers can be classified into this group. 2. Indeed, issuing a hardship permit should be flexible and systematically possible for individual cases, especially those who have been well integrated. Then it would be more beneficial to utilize this experience so as not to repeat it. There is no need to create conditions in which asylum seekers have to forcibly leave the asylum system and live in that situation for ages in Switzerland. And then only recognize them as a hardship case. 3. The emergency aid system keeps the recipients in a paradoxical situation, “regular illegality”, which presents a dichotomy between support and repression. Despite being supported by subsidies to survive, they do not have access to any training or language courses, nor any other integration possibilities. Hence, the circle of dependency will never end and they will not be able to build their future in Switzerland or in any other European country. In addition, the lack of prospects, fear of deportation and invariable pressure of everyday life have an impact on them psychologically and even physically. Instead, a logical channel should be established for them in which they receive regular advice on how get out of their precarious situation. Moreover, the recommendations should not necessarily be solely limited to return assistance. 4. Access to employment can be successfully guaranteed by completing an apprenticeship, for instance as part of an employment program. An apprenticeship as a physical activity could preserve the mental health of persons who receive a negative asylum decision and give a sense of adequacy and balance in his/her social life. Even if they return afterwards to their own country or to another country it still would be beneficial to learn a profession. In hardship cases where a temporary admission order is issued, the apprenticeship could also assist asylum seekers with further integration (EKM, 2019a: 7-9).

2. Particular critique and recommendations for Basel-Stadt

A report published by Jana Häberlein (2020)45, is about the situation of emergency aid recipients in the Basel region. The research concentrates only on part of a broad spectrum of formal conditions pertaining to rejected asylum seekers in the Basel region. The main intention of this report is to pose a few fundamental questions about the reality of the targeted group’s life seen through an analytical lens which considers the law and regulations, and try to answer those questions and make recommendations. The main theme in Häberlein’s report is oriented to the following topics: rejected asylum seekers’ accommodation in the Basel region, various opportunities ahead of exchange with civil society actors or the local population, possibilities and conditions for completing an apprenticeship or further training course through employment etc. (Häberlein, 2020: 5-6).

Accommodation in Basel-Stadt The regulations of Basel-Stadt concerning the accommodation of asylum seekers differ from the other cantons in Switzerland.

45 Jana Häberlein, 2020: Abgewiesene Asylsuchende in der Nothilfe: wie weiter? Ein Bericht zur Situation von Nothilfebezüger*innen in der Region Basel

63 Since there is no collective accommodation for rejected asylum seekers, families ought to be accommodated in apartments and the rest should be housed in an emergency shelter. The situation for families and vulnerable people seems better; families with children can stay in an apartment (properties belonging to the social welfare system); those people “with serious psychological, social or somatic problems” who are classified as vulnerable people, are accommodated in a dormitory with psychosocial care. There are not many of these cases. However, unaccompanied underage asylum seekers should be accommodated in one or two assisted living groups. If it becomes essential in an emergency situation, civil defense systems provide temporary accommodation (Häberlein, 2020: 9).

Accommodating families in apartments means that even families with a negative asylum decision have a certain type of “normal” life; children can go to school in a place near where they live and are not much different from their peers, and the family can integrate better into their urban life (Häberlein, 2020: 9).

Apart from the emergency dormitories for men, there is less transparency among the other places where the rest are living. Indeed, the places for collective accommodation have not, as in other cantons, been specified. Some mention the accommodation in the Dreispitz area; However, this is an initial reception center, and the accommodation is for temporarily admitted persons. This lack of clarity may also have been due to the question asked about the places and accommodation (in the sense of collective accommodation) where rejected asylum seekers live (Häberlein, 2020: 9-10). According to my interviews; a few of the asylum seekers who were living for a while in Dreispitz asylum centre (camp) had attained an F or N type of permit after applying twice for an appeal. However, their asylum processes proceeded successfully during the 140 days.

Emergency dormitories Apart from families and vulnerable groups, other rejected asylum seekers normally spend the night in an emergency shelter in Basel-Stadt. For about two years there was a separate emergency shelter for women on Rosentalstrasse. The decision to accommodate single rejected asylum seekers in the emergency dormitory is done in line with federal requirements to differentiate lawfully present asylum seekers whose applications are in process, or temporarily admitted recognized refugees, from the rejected ones. The reason is that the emergency aid regime has to offer noticeably fewer benefits than asylum social assistance. In Basel-Stadt, rejected asylum seekers receive 12 francs of emergency aid per day which is notably more than in other cantons in Switzerland like Bern, Zurich or even Basel-Landschaft. Inevitably, these should be clear cut elsewhere in the emergency aid regime process. This happens with the accommodation at the emergency dormitory (Häberlein, 2020: 10)

The emergency dormitory provides 75 men with overnight accommodation divided into four or six-person rooms. There is a shared bath and shower in the corridor. A snack machine is available for catering as cooking and preparing food on the premises is not allowed. Financially and practically, this may count as a major disadvantage. The center is only open between 8 p.m. and 8 a.m. A maximum of one piece of luggage per person is allowed to be left at the place during the day but there is no access during the day. That is the reason that Basel pays a larger amount to rejected asylum seekers than other cantons (Häberlein, 2020: 10).

In addition to the emergency dormitories for men there is another shelter for women (opened since September 2018) that accommodates 28 women. Prior to that, the women’s dormitory was located at night on the upper floors of the male emergency dormitory. The women’s center

64 has two-bed rooms but it has increased the sense of satisfaction among women since they have more privacy and feel safer from harassment. This division has also led to less conflict in both centers. The rejection of female asylum seekers rarely happens in practice since single women are often part of a family so they can live in an asylum apartment. Nevertheless, in cases where it happens, they can be accommodated in the emergency dormitory if they are not ill (Häberlein, 2020: 10).

Many rejected asylum seekers are in agreement that the emergency shelter is not an appropriate place and does not represent a reasonable choice for living. Different civil society agencies have reported the current situation in emergency shelters for men and rejected asylum seekers often look for other options rather than stay there. The reason lies in the fact that rejected asylum seekers do not intend to spend even one night with those who consume alcohol or other substances (Häberlein, 2020: 10). Living in an emergency shelter has numerous serious difficulties for rejected asylum seekers. They have to leave their belongings there and leave the place every morning and they do not know where to go (Häberlein, 2020: 11).

The emergency shelter is paid for by means of cost credits, so the money for the costs is not paid to the rejected asylum seekers. This means that social welfare saves these costs for a place in the emergency sleeping place if they can independently find a place to sleep where they are less exposed to stress. This is often the sofa of a solidarity friend from the same region of origin, according to a member of the NGO. In order not to strain this form of support too much, many rejected asylum seekers changed their quarters again and again (Häberlein, 2020: 10).

The Swiss labor market The Swiss labor market has been segmented into many sectors, hence low-skilled workers are also needed as well as the highly qualified. Almost 10 to 30 percent of the rejected asylum seekers who have gone into hiding (from the category of sans-papiers who live in Switzerland) are gainfully employed. Integration into the Swiss labor market will happen quickly for low- skilled workers, since there is a demand for them in the Swiss economy46 (Häberlein, 2020: 18). If rejected asylum seekers were allowed to work that would be a win-win situation since their salaries would cover their living costs (instead of the state’s responsibility); as well as sending remittances to their families in their home country (which would also prevent further migration to Switzerland). The emergency aid does not cover the cost of living in Switzerland and does not provide a decent life (Häberlein, 2020: 18). It would be reasonable, profitable and logical to allow them to work.

The cantonal office for integration, trade and work, the social welfare office and other offices should issue work permits for long-term rejected asylum seekers. Second, a residence and work permit should be made possible through a hardship application. And third, special permits should be granted (Häberlein, 2020: 19).

Many of the rejected asylum seekers cannot return to their country of origin. If they have long- term relatives in Switzerland, their living costs can be considerably lower, they will have future prospects and even the whole cost of the asylum regime could be decreased if the work ban were relaxed. Instead of keeping young people in hopeless, life-obstructing conditions when they cannot leave Switzerland, training them would be a solution to their integration (Häberlein, 2020: 17-18).

46 Says Alexander Ott, head of the Aliens Police of the City of Bern in the report.

65

Have a meaningful occupation Several interlocutors from civil society organizations emphasized that there are rejected asylum seekers who are intelligent and creative who are looking for solutions in order not to be idle. Some, according to one representative, however, slip into crime because they have few other options and are tempted to do so. The lack of prospects experienced when living under emergency aid and the forced inactivity sometimes lead to aggression and disrespect among the residents of asylum shelters (Häberlein, 2020: 19).

The role of bottom-up activities, which are associated with and are performed by numerus communities, NGOs, church organizations and other humanitarian and refugee activists in society, has been pivotal during the last year in filling the gap between asylum seekers, society, associations and organizations. Indeed, during the last few years, many collaborations have taken place and now the city offers much more to asylum seekers and refugees, including participatory and group activities such as language courses, sports in public and semi-public spaces, gardening, cooking and eating, as well as providing access to employment opportunities. In this regard, aid agencies, churches, organizations, associations and private individuals have also initiated many opportunities for asylum seekers. “Sur le pont”, for instance, which has been established recently, organizes countless social activities such as regular sports activities, joint cooking evenings among other things. Sur le pont is trying to hold gatherings that bring asylum seekers and the rest of society together (Häberlein, 2020: 20). They offer a vast range of activities through which asylum seekers can join different groups, participate in social activities and expand their social networks. In the sports category there is swimming for beginners, volleyball, games, sports and fun, soccer, ice skating and sport special – hip hop. In terms of cultural activities, music and dance with cook and eat are the most popular ones, while playing games and discussions are also common. In Sur le pont, there are also other types of social activities like swapping clothes, and dinner and hairdressing in a salon, which are popular among different groups.47

The Solinetz Basel is another example of these associations. This uses a different method that includes a practical integration exercise by offering language courses to rejected asylum seekers. Another especially crucial activity which has already been run by Solinetz is providing educational opportunities and also financial support for rejected asylum seekers in the Basel region to participate in advanced training courses such those offered by the Swiss Red Cross (Häberlein, 2020: 20).

Recommendations for Basel-Stadt

As the history of migration in Switzerland teaches us, migrants’ exclusion does not make sense especially for those who have lived in Switzerland for a long time and are not able to return to their country of origin. Instead, this should be replaced with the requirements for rapid integration such as learning the language, training and participation in the labor market (Häberlein, 2020: 28).

All the strategies reviewed here in this section by Häberlein (2020) are classified as “pragmatic- situational interim solutions and fundamental changes” which are approaches of different scopes. Häberlein (2020) finally recommends that three courses of actions in a strategic process

47 https://www.surlepont.ch/index.html

66 should be implemented in the Basel region based on the allocated budget (Häberlein, 2020: 28).

Recommendations based on psychological perspectives (Häberlein, 2020: 29): - Predictable, safe and stabilized living conditions, since rejected asylum seekers in Basel-Stadt are turned out of their emergency dormitory during the day and can only return there at night. - Opportunities for a social life. Rejected asylum seekers should be allowed to participate in necessary social processes (education, employment, leisure, internships, language courses, etc.) which allow them to feel that they belong to the society, that there is no extreme control over their lives and that they have not been excluded from the new society.

Immediate measures, and short- to medium-term solutions (Häberlein, 2020: 29): - The state should be responsible for providing psychiatric and psychological treatment as well as attending to all healthcare-related issues; access to German, computer and other courses, instead of the civil society actors and the solidarity organizations. - Illogical, unnecessary expectations should be banned; persons who are not allowed to work may end up in the jail for committing criminal offenses. - Providing an identity card (like a city card) that identifies the rejected asylum seeker as “registered”. - Permission should be given for education at all levels: further training and professional training should not be limited to exceptional cases. - Rejected asylum seekers should have the right to employment and the obstacles to this should be removed. - People surviving on emergency aid who are not able to leave Switzerland for technical or health reasons should be given temporary admission.

67

Chapter. 7 Conclusion

68 Conclusion

The present research matters because it illuminates how most rejected asylum seekers experience precarious living conditions in Switzerland, produced intentionally by the state's complex which I call that Swiss asylum regime. I prove the existence of a gap within the Swiss asylum regime as a part of the Swiss planning system, using a broad range of academic literature on; asylum, illegality and politics of the space; migrants, the space of waiting and temporariness; asylum seekers, citizenship, and right to the city; refugees, the notion of informality and production of urban informality. I also reveal inefficiencies in the present system which has numerous social, political and spatial consequences such as the production of urban informality, injustice citizenship, marginalization, and banishment. These are portrayed using narratives developed through the lens of asylum seekers. The present research is of significance for academia, especially to migration studies, as it describes the issue within the Swiss liberal context from the perspective of different disciplines.

The present research is significant in terms of policy and practice since it shows the failure of the Swiss asylum regime as a part of Swiss governance and its planning system by presenting an image of an invisible urban issue produced by the state mechanism. Diving into the heart of social science allowed me to illuminate the lived experience of rejected asylum seekers in Switzerland, to illuminate how the urban everyday at the brown edge of Swiss planning system appears. The Swiss asylum system should think about the outcomes of the established laws which have consequences for spatial issues in Swiss cities, one of them being the production of urban informality in urban spaces. Inevitably, policy revision or even a paradigm shift is necessary, not only in theory but also in practice. Based on the outcomes of the present research, I would recommend alternative solutions for the mentioned urban issues which are beneficial for both the state and asylum seekers.

Even if, due to restrictions (e.g. bureaucratic process), allocating a certain (e.g. a specific type) of permit would not be possible, the current situation can be slightly improve by:

- Accommodating the rejected asylum seekers in a better place, which has been equipped with basic facilities where they are not forced to be outside the entire day. They can; stay in their place; prepare their own food; therefore, they can have a better (healthier and safer) life. - The place can also be allocated to them with an agreement that social work would be done for a certain amount of time per day/week/month. - By accommodating them in a decent place, they will not associate the place where they live with negative connotations (physical, emotional, psychological trauma). - The activities and the tasks they had previously done as a social work during the time they were in the federal, cantonal accommodation or other camps can be repeated as a part of their daily basis. - By allocating a certain (e.g. a specific type) of permit they can start their integration process sooner and create a normal life like the other refugees or other citizens.

Personally, after this long journey, I cannot believe that what has been discussed is true. I cannot believe that what has been written and discussed here, takes place in one of the most developed societies in the world. One that is also a world-renowned role model for other nations. I cannot believe this is the reality of the Swiss asylum system, a part of Swiss planning system, where people are treated poorly and marginalized. It makes me think, in what kind of

69 city and in what kind of world are we living? To finish this thesis, I have taken a quote from Nietzsche to summarise and conclude my research into one sentence.

“There are no beautiful surfaces without a terrible depth.” Friedrich Nietzsche

70 References

- Rupert Hodder, 2016, Global South and North: Why Informality Matters. published in New Global Studies Journal, pp. 113-131. - Rivke Jaffe and Martijn Koster, 2019, The myth of formality in the global North: Informality-as-innovation in Dutch Governance, international journal of urban and regional research published by john wiley & sons ltd under license by urban research publications limited, pp. 563–568. - HaeRan Shin and Soyoung Park, 2019, The regime of urban informality in migration: accommodating undocumented Chosŏnjok migrants in their receiving community in Seoul, South Korea, Pacific Affairs: Volume 90, No. 3, p.p. 459-480. - Richard Harris, 2017, Modes of informal urban development: a global phenomenon, Journal of Planning Literature p.p.1-20. - Nicolas Bankers, Melanie Lombard and Diana Mitlin, 2019, Urban informality as a site of critical analysis, The Journal of Development Studies, 2020, Vol. 56, No. 2, 223– 238, https://doi.org/10.1080/00220388.2019.1577384 - Romola Sanyal, 2012, Refugees and the city: an urban discussion, Geography Compass, p.p. 633–644. - Nicholas P. De Genova, 2002, Migrant ‘‘illegality’’ and deportability in everyday life, Annu. Rev. Anthropol, p.p. 31:419-47, doi:10.1146/annurev.anthro.31.040402.085432 - Lucas Oesch, 2019, The politics of temporariness and the materiality of refugee camps, B. Meeus et al. (eds.), Arrival Infrastructures, p.p. 229 – 248. - Robert A. Beauregard, 2012, What theorists do, Urban Geography, 2012, 33, 4, pp. 474–487. http://dx.doi.org/10.2747/0272-3638.33.4.474 - Ananya Roy, 2005, Urban informality: toward an epistemology of planning, Journal of the American Planning Association, p.p. 71:2, 147-158, DOI: 10.1080/01944360508976689 - Ananya Roy, 2009, The 21st-century metropolis: New geographies of theory, 2009 Regional Studies Association DOI: 10.1080/00343400701809665 http://www.regional-studies-assoc.ac.uk - Sophie Oldfield, 2015, Waiting for the state: a politics of housing in South Africa, Environment and Planning, volume 47, p.p. 1100 – 1112 doi:10.1177/0308518X15592309 - Deirdre Conlon, 2011, Waiting: feminist perspectives on the spacings/ timings of migrant (im)mobility, Gender, Place & Culture, p.p. 353-360, DOI:10.1080/0966369X.2011.566320 - Serawit Debele, 2020, Waiting as a site of subject formation: examining collective prayers by Ethiopian asylum seekers in Germany, Critical African Studies, 12:1, p.p. 52-64, DOI: 10.1080/21681392.2019.1697311 - Alison Mountz, 2011, Where asylum-seekers wait: feminist counter-topographies of sites between states, Gender, Place & Culture, 18:3, 381-399, DOI: 10.1080/0966369X.2011.566370 - Jennifer Hyndman and Wenona Giles, 2011, Waiting for what? The feminization of asylum in protracted situations, Gender, Place & Culture, 18:3, p.p. 361-379, DOI: 10.1080/0966369X.2011.566347 - Nishat Awan, Phil Langley, 2013, Mapping migrant territories as topological deformations of space, Space and Culture 16(2): p.p. 229-245, DOI: 10.1177/1206331213475746

71 - Nezar AlSayyad, 2004, Urban informality as a “New” Way of Life, Transnational Perspectives from the Middle East, Latin America, and South Asia. - Personen, die aus dem Asylsystem ausscheiden, 2019: (EKM, 2019: a), Profile, (Aus)Wege, Perspektiven, Recommandations. - Personen, die aus dem Asylsystem ausscheiden, 2019: (EKM, 2019: b), Profile, (Aus)Wege, Perspektiven, Ein Kurzbericht der Eidgenössischen Migrationskommission EKM, Dezember, basierend auf einer Studie von KEK- Beratung GmbH. - Jana Häberlein, 2020: Abgewiesene Asylsuchende in der Nothilfe: wie weiter?, Ein Bericht zur Situation von Nothilfebezüger*innen in der Region Basel. - P. Bochner and Nicholas A. Riggs, 2014, Practicing Narrative Inquiry chapter 11, The Oxford Handbook of, Qualitative Research. p. 195. - David Harvey. 2008. “The right to the city” New Left Review, 53, p.p. 23-40. - Ananya Roy, 2019, Racial banishment, Keywords in Radical Geography: Antipode at 50, https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119558071.ch42 - Henri Lefebvre, 1996, The right to the city, from Writings on Cities. - Henri Lefebvre, 2003, The urban revolution, translated by Robert Bononno, University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis. - Michel Foucault, first published at 1961, Madness and Civilization, the new publication by Routledge 2009, London. - Rebecca Rotter, 2010, Hanging In-between: Experiences of Waiting among Asylum Seekers Living in Glasgow. PhD thesis in Social Anthropology, University of Edinburgh. https://era.ed.ac.uk/bitstream/handle/1842/5839/Rotter2010.pdf?seque - David Harvey, 2014: public lecture : This lecture took place in Fortaleza on November 17th 2014, during a series of talks entitled “The Political Economy Of Urbanization”; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjyLWMSZ2nY - Madness and Civilization, general summary; © 2020 SparkNotes LLC, accessed, 25, October, 2020, https://www.sparknotes.com/philosophy/madnessandciv/summary/ - Foucault, Michel, 1977, Discipline And Punish : the Birth of the Prison. New York :Pantheon Books, 1977. - Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, 1821: Philosophy of Right; https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/hegel/works/pr/philosophy-of-right.pdf - Karl Marx, 1867: Capital. Critique of Political Economy, access online; https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/download/pdf/Capital-Volume-I.pdf - New, accelerated asylum procedures, from March 1st: Federal Department of Justice and Police, access online, 13, August, 2020; https://www.sem.admin.ch/sem/de/home/aktuell/news/2019/ref_2019-02-28.html - Asylum Procedure starting in 2019, diagram, access online, 24, August, 2020; https://www.sem.admin.ch/dam/sem/en/data/asyl/beschleunigung/grafik-asylprozess- e.pdf.download.pdf/grafik-asylprozess-e.pdf - Asylum procedure, navigation, access online 27, July 2020; https://www.sem.admin.ch/sem/en/home/asyl/asylverfahren.html - Asylum Act. The Federal Assembly of the Swiss Confederation, access online, 2nd, September, 2020; https://www.sem.admin.ch/sem/en/home/asyl/asylverfahren.html - The Swiss Refugee Council, access online, 11, September, 2020; https://www.refugeecouncil.ch/ - How well does the new Swiss asylum system work? SWI swissinfo.ch, Online access, 22, July, 2020; https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/explainer-_how-well-does-the-new- swiss-asylum-system-work--/45360318

72 - Refugee Council head criticises ‘hasty’ Swiss asylum procedures, SWI swissinfo.ch, Online access, 22, September, 2020; https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/immigration_refugee-council-head-criticizes--hasty-- swiss-asylum-procedures/45537946 - The asylum procedure, the Swiss Refugee Council, access online, 26, August, 2020; https://www.refugeecouncil.ch/topics/asylum-in-switzerland/the-asylum-procedure - Social care, Swiss Conference for Social Welfare (SKOS), access, 15, November, 2020; https://www.sozialhilfe.bs.ch/ueber-uns/auftrag.html and, https://skos.ch/themen/sozialhilfe#:~:text=%C3%9Cber%20270'000%20Menschen% 20beziehen,der%20Schweiz%20die%20Kantone%20zust%C3%A4ndig - Accommodation, the Swiss Refugee Council, access online, 14, September, 2020; https://www.refugeecouncil.ch/topics/asylum-in-switzerland/accommodation - Asylum Act, of 26 June 1998 (Status as of 1 November 2020), The federal Council; access online, 8th, July, 2020; https://www.admin.ch/opc/en/classified- compilation/19995092/index.html - Care, Support, the social welfare of the Canton of Basel-Stadt, access online, 14, August, 2020; https://www.sozialhilfe.bs.ch/asyl/betreuung.html - Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, Saul McLeod, simplypsychology, access online, 23, July, 2020; https://www.simplypsychology.org/maslow.html - Sur le pont, Association “sur le pont” Basel, , access online, 20, September, 2020; https://www.surlepont.ch/index.html

73

74