Abstract

This research considers the waiting and confinement experienced by young asylum seekers during and after their stay at a temporary shelter in Finland. The data for this research consists of interviews and ethnographic ‘hanging out’ with nine young asylum seekers throughout their asylum process. In order to generate new knowledge about the situated and fluid experiences of young adult asylum seekers’ confinement, this article focuses on four in-depth interviews with two young men, Kokab and Mahammed. They arrived in Finland in 2015, and are, at the time of writing this article, still waiting for their final asylum decisions. The results show, first, that while the time in the temporary shelter resembles physical, punitive confinement, it is also experienced as warm and social time. Second, the article argues that the confinement of young asylum seekers extends beyond the physical confinement, as they are for years confined in forced movement, indefinite waiting and othered as a number in the system.