Experiences of lining up in front of the government’s offices: do immigrants’ emotions influence bureaucratic decisions? Alberto MARTÍN PÉREZ [email protected] Institute of Public Goods and Policies, High Council for Scientific Research, Spain (Instituto de Políticas y Bienes Públicos, CSIC) Abstract This paper is based on a research on immigrants' daily experiences of lining up in front of the government's offices in order to obtain their papers. It will analyse a particular aspect of their experiences made by different emotions connected one another: first, a feeling of anguish, then transformed into humiliation. Second, the search of a positive aspect in waiting. Third, an attitude of claim, then of resignation. Finally, a feeling of freedom or liberation. We have observed the functioning of the queues that cause these emotions. These queues seem to be the result of specific bureaucratic decisions. But, do the emotions arisen while waiting provide any feedback to bureaucracy? In other words, this paper will analyse how these emotions affect bureaucratic decision-making. It will focus on the emotions linked to these decisions and on those that do not have any influence over the authorities. We will then examine the particular aspects that change in bureaucracy through the influence of certain emotions in the interaction between immigrants, civil servants and the whole bureaucratic institution: while anguish, humiliation and resignation show the subordinate position of immigrants in this relationship, emotions linked to claims and liberation may force the authorities to change certain aspects of the organization of access to public services. However, we will confirm that the influence of these emotions in bureaucratic decision-making remains extremely weak.

Introduction Hundreds of immigrants queuing up everyday in front of the government's offices: a recurring image from the media reflecting a common reality in immigrants' access to the public services in charge of their residence permits in many European countries. We observed systematically for more than a year (2004 and 2005) the functioning of these waiting lines in the city of Madrid (Spain). They show up as a set of actors and interactions producing and revealing norms and roles. They also reveal institutional mechanisms of power and sociability displaying a peculiar social organisation, autonomous in many occasions, but basically referred to the access to public services. 1

In this paper we will focus on a particular aspect of these queues: the lived social experience of the waiting line. We will specially concentrate on the emotions arisen while waiting. Thus, immigrants' experiences appear in the shape of multiple linked emotions mainly exposing the provisional status of immigrants with respect to the government and the host society. So that, the diverse emotions connected to daily life in waiting lines are linked to the relation between immigrants and public services. We will then identify a chain of emotions: first, a feeling of anguish later transformed into humiliation. Second, the search of a positive aspect in waiting. Third, an attitude of claim becoming shortly after resignation. Finally, a feeling of freedom or liberation. These emotions, arisen while waiting, seem to be closely linked to specific bureaucratic decisions. Anguish is related to uncertainty concerning the government's decision on paper allocation to immigrants. Humiliation is experienced during an unacceptable waiting time. Resignation is a common attitude in people who do not have another choice but wait in front of the offices. Liberation and the search of a positive aspect in lining up stand for a kind of dream: having papers in hand represent in some way immigrants' freedom of movement, at least within the host country. In this sense, queues symbolise both the government's power which decides on immigrants' 'legal' or 'illegal' future and the sphere of an immigrant sociability reflecting the collective search of a better life. We will finally focus on two questions: do all these linked emotions provide any feedback to bureaucracy? Do they really affect bureaucratic decision-making? We will analyse two groups of emotions: those linked to decision-making and those that do not have any influence over the authorities. We will therefore examine the influence of certain emotions in the interaction between immigrants, civil servants and the whole bureaucratic institution: while anguish, humiliation and resignation show the subordinate position of immigrants in this relationship, emotions linked to claims and liberation may force the authorities to change certain aspects of the organization of access to public services. The main question is then to confirm the force or the weakness of the influence exerted by these emotions: because of the strength of power relations where immigrants fill the lowest position, the pressure on the authorities, in this particular case, will remain extremely weak.

Multiple linked emotions The lived social experience of the waiting line is made by diverse emotions. Their connections 2

reflect, at least partially, immigrants' experiences of their social condition. That is, the lived experience of a provisional status, basically as non-citizens and workers in unqualified jobs. Four modalities of adjustment appear while waiting: some queuers suffer waiting lines as a humiliation, while some others accept their waiting conditions with resignation. Sometimes, other immigrants adopt a clear attitude of claim. Finally, some other queuers turn over the negative sense of their experiences to some positive aspects of their presence in front of the government's offices. This daily experience is so made by subordinations, resistances and adaptations. An individual can be placed in just one of these positions, but the most frequent attitude is to link, in many different ways, all of them. Thus, while waiting immigrants usually experience all these emotions at the same time. For example, resignation defining the acceptance of anguish and humiliation can be followed by attitudes of claim – trying to refuse the stigma of “the immigrant who queue” – or by an adaptation to the positive aspects of the delay1. The period of time between two main events is the framework in which these emotions are displayed. The first event is the fact of learning about the obligation to follow the necessary steps before obtaining a residence permit and so going to the government's offices. The second one is the fact of finally having in hand one's immigrant identity card2. Even if each individual has a different vision on what happens during that time, the daily experience of the waiting line is basically made by the following 'ideal' chain of emotions. The first link in the chain is anguish. It is based both in the obligation to obtain one's paper through legally-based administrative procedures and the perspective of the time to be spent in the waiting line. Then, immigrants tend to experience humiliation. It is mainly caused by the fact of being compelled to wait outside the government's offices. Some waiters usually remember many other displeasing experiences in front of the home country's governmental buildings. Most of these hard memories also deal with waiting lines. That is specially the case of Romanians, Bulgarians, Ukrainians and other Eastern Europeans when evoking the life in the old communist regimes where “there were queues everywhere” (interview with Gabriela, Romania3). But this is not the only expression of humiliation: while waiting in front of the Spanish government's offices, immigrants from other countries – Latin Americans, Moroccans, Central Africans – mainly remember the disastrous functioning of public services and public administration in their 1

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For this kind of multiple adjustments in other contexts, see Michael Pollak's study on the different types of individual adjustment to the concentration camp (Pollak, 1990: 293-301). On immigrant's emotions an bureaucratic logics of action, see also Åsa Wettergren (2005) and Flam et al. (2007). In order to protect their privacy, all the names of our interviewees are fictional.

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home countries. But this comparison between home and host countries explains at the same time the next linked emotion. Thus, the people who wait outside the immigration offices usually think that “this was worse there [in the home country]” (interview with Milton, Ecuador). So that, waiting in front of the Spanish offices should not be as humiliating as most queuers say. Humiliation is so turned into a search of positive aspects in waiting. Therefore, immigrants try to mentally find reasons through which the waiting experience can be transformed into a positive practice4. They do so by emphasizing the practical importance of sociability within the waiting lines: the positive experience is then based on the practical exchange – exchange of information, mutual aid or even emotional exchange – enacted everyday in the queues. At the same time, an attitude of claim emerges, specially for immigrants who already have lived the same waiting experience. They are usually quite sensitive concerning impositions they practically cannot bear any more. In contrast to them, newcomers to the queues – for instance, immigrants regularized at the time of our fieldwork – do not show this dissenting attitude so clearly. However, these claims rarely succeed. Therefore, after having noticed that there is no choice but accept, at least provisionally, the painful situation in the waiting line, one has to tolerate waiting conditions with resignation: “And what else can we do?” (interview with Milton, Ecuador). The challenge is then to assume these disgusting waiting conditions as a necessary step of paper allocation. Finally, after having waited for hours, a new emotion appears. We will call it liberation. The end of the procedures, leaving the office with one's immigrant identity card in hand, is the time for expressing pleasure. But this liberation is not that obvious: in most cases, one year later, once the residence permit expired, a whole new procedure must start again. The same steps must be then followed. We have specially observed the exit of the offices in order to scope out the most typical expressions of this emotion. Joy and emotional expressions usually lead immigrants to realize that this provisionally comforting emotion is not the last link of the chain, but becomes a brand new one. So, new procedures should be acted very soon and, finally, anguish and humiliation would be faced once again5.

4 5

See also Hachimi Alaoui (2007: 171-184). In this sense, see Serge Paugam (1991: 58-62).

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Emotions reflecting a subordinate position Anguish Anguish is a characteristic emotion arisen before the entry of immigrants in the categories of queuers and waiters. In fact, anguish qualifies almost all the steps to be made before obtaining a residence permit. That is why anguish appear quite long before getting to the offices. For some immigrants, this happens when the date of expiry of the previous residence permit approaches. For newly regularised immigrants in 2005, it appeared when the opening of the regularisation process was announced, even unofficially. Anguish is visibly expressed at three different moments. The first one is linked to all the steps to be followed, concerning both administrative matters and the fact itself of having to go to the offices in a particular date. The second one depends both on the time to be spent in the queues and on the waiting conditions foreseen. The third moment is in fact a stable condition inherent in immigrants' lives: the continuous social experience of a provisional status tallies with an almost permanent anguish caused by the constant preparation required by paper allocation. The first moment can be then defined as the 'previous anguish'. It is usually expressed this way: “When you see approaching the date of expiry of the permit... well... I don't know, you get excited... You and the others around you” (interview with Nicoleta, Romania) “Well, the stress... for everything, just for the fact of coming here... the date, if I can go or not, how to do at work...” (interview with Anita, Colombia) “Think of all this, line up, spend your time here, this bothered me, all this stuff to be planned...” (interview with Mónica, Ecuador) The second moment can be denominated as 'anguish in the queue'. The perspective of a very long waiting time reinforces such feeling: “Yes, time, time... because you see how long the queue is, you see it doesn't move, but you try to think... well, maybe this is going to be quick, you try to calculate, but not, this is not like this, I don't know...” (interview with Catalin, Romania) While lining up, immigrants usually consider themselves as victims of some injustice. This happens specially when conflicts arise within the queue. Anguish is so identified with the permanent tension provoked by the fact itself of being waiting in such conflictual conditions. Moreover, this reveals the weakness of immigrants in the relations interacted in front of the offices: 5

“You see, here, it depends, but here you can't stay like that, calm, you queue and you wait. Here, every time, there are problems, fights, people shouting... I am really anguished because of this, I assure you!” (interview with Mónica, Ecuador) “Well, here, OK, there are people, you see, who stay calm, they stay calm, but most of us feel tension. When there is a problem, I don't know, everybody wants to know what happens... We all feel tension, every time... well... going there or being here, knowing what's happening” (interview with Alicia, Peru) Finally, a feeling of 'permanent anguish' can be clearly identified. On the one hand, this anguish is related to the fact of periodically having to renew one's residence permit: “I will be better with my papers, that's for sure, but I will have to be aware, because I won't have these papers forever!” (interview with Anita, Colombia) On the other hand, this 'permanent anguish' is strictly connected with the fact of not being citizens of the host country: “Of course, with these papers I am going to be calmer, but I don't know if I am going to calm down completely. There are plenty of concern for us, for foreigners... That's what I can say...” (interview with Hugo, Ecuador) Anguish is so a crucial feature of immigrants' social condition. It is continuously enacted by immigrants when confronted to the obligation of remaining 'legal' within the host country. So that, this periodical and compulsory requirement transforms anguish into a permanent emotion imbued with painful feelings. Humiliation Becoming aware of the subjection of queuers to injustice is the main basis of humiliation. It depends on the conciousness that the long, conflictual and difficult waiting conditions essentially reflect inequality between foreigners and citizens. Humiliation is so evoked with respect to the treatment inflicted on immigrants within the queues. It specially make them remember similar unpleasant waiting conditions in front of the government's offices in their home countries. Some call up political and civil servant corruption in their countries of origin. Some others remember other specific experiences such as the same long, conflictual an painful waiting lines in the old communist countries of Eastern Europe. Humiliation caused by inequality of treatment can be expressed this way: “The queue is just for foreigners... that's clear, isn't it? So, it's like... you are a foreigner, you must queue up, that's it... It's like a label, like cattle, well, I 6

exaggerate maybe, but for me, that's humiliation” (interview with Belkasem, Morocco) And also the following expressive way, after a long conversation on immigrants' lives and waiting conditions between two Colombian women while lining up, in July 2005, in order to get their immigrant identity cards: “¡Qué humillación nos hacen pasar!”, which means “what a humiliation they make us suffer!”. As we said, there is a special case of suffering humiliation. The comparison Eastern Europeans make between current queues in front of the Spanish immigration offices and the waiting lines in their home countries before the downfall of communist regimes. Let us see an example: “I think that for the permits it is the only place where there are queues... I ask myself this question... because, OK, in Romania, before, at the time of Ceaucescu, there were a lot of queues. We were used to them, we saw a queue and just sat down because... well, no matter if they were selling this or that, now or later, we needed it anyway... This was twelve years ago... And, I tell you this, here I hadn't seen the same queues as in Romania and I wonder if... “no, no”, if I look closer, no, the queues... the only place where there are queues it's at the immigration offices... I don't know... not anywhere else, for sure” (interview with Helena, Romania) Resignation However, even if they can, as we will see later, most immigrants wait without claiming. They almost never react to conflicts in the queue and between immigrants, policemen and other civil servants. In fact, they usually respect strictly the organisation of access to the office. So that, they accept, or at least tolerate, the subordinate social condition reflected by their presence in the waiting lines in front of the immigration offices. Even if they also adopt a claiming position when interviewed, immigrants almost never do anything in particular about their claims. They admit that there is no need for them to complain, because the danger to be assumed could be extremely hard to accept. For instance, they could eventually run the risk of failing in renewing their residence permits. Once confronted to this situation, mostly interpreted by the means of lack of fairness or lack of justice, costs and profits are taken into account before experiencing resignation. On the one hand, obtaining one's papers seems to be an extraordinary profit. On the other hand, costs of claims could be extremely hard and painful. So that, immigrants tend to state that no claim, no matter how rightful or lawful it can be, deserves any supplementary effort before having in hand one's papers. In other words, 7

they admit that they must just wait in line, no matter how long it takes, and accept waiting conditions with resignation. The main expression of resignation is formulated this way: “And what else can we do?” (interview with Milton, Ecuador). Milton's reflection shows precisely the calculation of costs and profits of claims defining resignation. The comparison between the cost of complaining and the profit of a calm waiting time is so defined: “We all need our papers... Well, without papers we don't go anywhere... That is why we have to wait here, yo don't have to do anything bad... Papers, the identity card, that's everything for us. If we don't have it, we can't go on, so... we have to wait as much as necessary, follow all the steps and that's all, without any problem... We talk about our papers, that's the most important thing” (interview with Milton, Ecuador) Most immigrants we interviewed hold the same discourse. They are aware of the fact that there is almost no possibility for them to complain, neither to change the rules concerning the access to the immigration offices where they wait nor to denounce waiters' emotions such as anguish and humiliation. There seems to be no reason to introduce more additional uncertainty in immigrants' lives, specially because the only basis of their 'legal' presence in the host country is their residence permits. Queuing and waiting with resignation is then the only possibility to guarantee successful access to the offices: “But we can do nothing... You spend all your time in obtaining your papers and that is the most important thing” (interview with Anna, Bulgaria) “No, no... you must just stay calm and not react... Our papers, that's the most important thing... You don't need to do any stupid thing, you know?” (interview with Evelyn, Ecuador) “There's no need to complain. You must just follow all the steps, have your identity card in hand and that's all... you have to avoid problems” (interview with Alicia, Peru) “Here, it's about our future that we are talking about... there's no need to make noise like other people do. In the end, if they complain, that's worse for them” (interview with Olga, Ukraine) “But that's the way, you know? In order to have your papers, you have to do this, there's no other possibility, you know? You, do you know any other possibility?” (interview with Catalin, Romania) 8

Trying to force the authorities Claims Even if the probability of a successful claim is clearly weak, immigrants sometimes adopt this position while queuing. We can then identify two kinds of claims. First, an active, visible and audible one, materialised in expressions such as fighting, quarrelling, arguing or shouting, both against policemen or civil servants and other immigrants. These are actions which look for a response to a perceived injustice. They are usually observed as a desperate reaction to the anguish caused by some particular waiting conditions. Second, there is a verbal claiming. This is the position adopted by most immigrants who, queuing and waiting calmly, verbally express their anguish, suffering or feelings of humiliation to the others in their conversations during their waiting time. This usually happens within the group of queuers, when somebody criticise a particular aspect of the waiting conditions and other immigrants join the conversation. This discussion mainly deals with perceived injustices, concern about waiting time and waiting conditions, decisions made by policemen and civil servants perceived as incongruous and unreasonable, decisions that immigrants collectively decide not to respect, unacceptable compulsory bureaucratic procedures and even racism and other disdainful attitudes towards immigrants. But this verbal expression appears as well in the interviews with journalists – they frequent these queues when immigration becomes breaking news – and with sociologists, as in this case. We will concentrate on these last interviews: “This is unacceptable, this is unbearable... Your are here, since I don't know when and you can do nothing, and they treat us very badly. There, when you get in, if at least they where nice, but not, inside it's the same... You see, you queue up, without sleeping and then they almost throw you your card without saying anything, even hello” (interview with Eduardo, Bolivia) “And what do you think? Do you think people are happy being here? That's disgusting, disgusting. These queues, what they do, this is note fair” (interview with Belkasem, Morocco) “Listen, all the things that happen here, it's a shame, it's a shame... Policemen who are... well... I don't want to swear, but everybody feel tension, we wait here, they just let in very few people each time, and then, they don't come back until half an our 9

later... How do you want me to feel about this?” (interview with Hicham, Morocco) Claims are not just looking for evidence about painful waiting conditions. They also seek responses and accurate solutions to immigrants' problems such as the existence itself of the waiting lines in front of the immigration offices: “How to change this? Well... I don't know. Maybe they should hire more civil servants and they should work harder as well because, you know, when you get in and you are in front of the official and you see he stands up and leave when your turn arrive... That's annoying! And you stay there... as an idiot, because, I don't know, he's going to rest or something... when there are a lot of people in the queue! So, more civil servants, that's it” (interview with Eduardo, Bolivia) “Well, the solution... that's obvious, you know, like for Spanish citizens, they should let us get our residence permits in every police station, so each one of us would then go to his neighbourhood's station and there wouldn't be such queues, that's for sure” (interview with Belkasem, Morocco)

Accepting waiting conditions The search of positive aspects Immigrants state that there are also positive aspects in waiting. This depends basically on the reinterpretation of emotions originally understood as negative, like anguish and humiliation. So that, queuers look for additional explanations trying to justify the circumstances in which they have to wait. In some sense, these positive aspects are finally found because they seem to be the only adaptation possibilities for immigrants in waiting lines. We could also say that they have to accept the negative consequences of their presence in front of the government's offices before valuing other practices interpreted as positive6: “Finally, it is not so bad to be here... there's always a saving grace, isn't it?” (interview with Andrés, Ecuador) In immigrants' discourses, this 'saving grace' is essentially represented by the comparison between public administration in the host and in the home countries. If someone says that “there, this is worse” (interview with Milton, Ecuador), this also means that “here, this is better” (interview with Félix, Ecuador). At least, establishing this comparison, most of our interviewees 6

See also the case, studied by Dominique Schnapper, of the transformation of the negative experience of longterm unemployment into a positive one (Schnapper, 1981: 162-189 and 1999: 103-104).

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seemed to feel more confident. Let us see some examples on time, corruption and efficiency: “I told you... here, this is very slow, that's true... But, there... well... in Bulgaria... that's really worse... I already told you” (interview with Anna, Bulgaria) “There, the problem is corruption. Officials are corrupted... You can't do anything without money. Here at least, there is more control” (interview with Hicham, Morocco) “There, for public services, you prepare your money and you go there. If you don't do this, you've nothing to do. No matter if you do have the most important paper... no, no, here... here people... everything is more correct, more honest... It's true, it's much better here” (interview with Gladys, Colombia) Another comparison is made with respect to 'illegal' immigrants. Thinking about them, queuers' social condition seems to be relatively perceived as less unfortunate. In some sense, waiting in front of the immigration office could be then interpreted as a privilege: “People complain but, in the end... this is worse for those who don't have papers, isn't it? Here we are something like... privileged if you compare us to those who don't have papers” (interview with Hicham, Morocco) Immigrants appreciate as well the quality of sociability within the queues. This transforms their experience into a more acceptable one. Immigrants reason again in terms of symmetry between justice and injustice7. So that, despite anguish and humiliation, they admit there is something they like about waiting: being in touch with other immigrants, sharing with them a lot of information both on administrative matters and on daily life, or even meeting people from different countries and cultures: “If there's something I like here, is the fact of giving information to other people... and, of course, receiving this information for yourself... Information about papers, about residence permits...” (interview with Alicia, Peru) “That's the best, meeting people from everywhere... from every country, different cultures, all these things... people saying things... I don't know, I think this diversity of nationalities, cultures, is extraordinary” (interview with Hugo, Ecuador) Liberation After quitting the offices with their residence permits in hand, we have observed immigrants' 7

See also François Dubet's study on the social experience of workers at work. Workers tend to reason as well in the terms of the same symmetry between positive and negative aspects of their experience (Dubet, 2006: 396-397).

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visible and audible reactions. Some keep their identity cards inside their bags and leave the place without expressing any discernible feeling. However, the most frequent is to perceive joyful emotions. They reflect a feeling of liberation: exiting the Police station, after very long steps and after a quite long waiting period, the immigrant identity card represent in the end immigrants' rights recognition. This is an occasion of relief, and even the time of an exceptional celebration. Some express these joyful emotions by evident gestures: leaping up, crying or inviting people around them to have a drink at the nearest bar. Some others show emotional recognition, kissing their husbands, wives or friends. Some share a last moment of sociability with a friend, for example, looking at each other's cards and laughing at each other's photos. Liberation is based on the fact on having successfully achieved one's relationship with public services and having one's papers in hand. However, immigrants usually realise that this joy is again provisional, because their residence permits have a date of expiry and then, they would have to be renewed sooner or later. Liberation becomes so a provisional emotion interpreted in positive terms. 'Provisional liberation' is then the opposite of 'permanent anguish': liberation appears as the last link of the chain and, at the same time, the first one in new multiple chained emotions. All the gestures of liberation are followed by explicit words reinforcing such emotion. Let us see some examples: “And now, let's have a whisky!”: a young man and a young woman from Ecuador, looking at each other's card, decide to go have a drink (Tuesday, July 28th, 2005). “I've my card and you've yours!”: two Eastern European women, visibly excited, hug each other and shout (Monday, October 31st, 2005). “At last I will go back to Ecuador!”: a woman from Ecuador exiting the office, tells this to three men who were waiting for her outside (Saturday, November 19th, 2005). But liberation quickly becomes provisional. Let us see two examples: “Look, in less than nine months”: Two Latin-Americans, looking at their brand new identity cards focus on the date of expiry. One of them says: “Look, the date of expiry is April... In less than nine months we will have to restart all these procedure!”. The other replies: “You are right... we should start thinking about this!” (Tuesday, July 19th, 2005). “You should pay attention...”: one of the men waiting outside for the Ecuadorian woman tells her: “Before you travel back, you have to look at your residence permit's date of expiry, because you will have to renew it in less than a year”. She 12

listens carefully to this piece of advice, but still smiles without stopping (Saturday, November 19th, 2005).

Emotions and bureaucratic decision-making Immigrants' emotions arisen while waiting in front of the government's offices don't seem to strongly influence bureaucratic decisions. In this sense, we have observed two opposite terms: resignation and justification – by searching positive aspects in waiting – against claims. On the one hand, resignation and justification represent attitudes through which immigrants abandon any possibility of lobbying in order to inform about their access to public services, mainly expressed through anguish and humiliation. Doing so, they also give up trying to force the authorities to take decisions on more efficient functioning of the immigration offices. On the other hand, even if some immigrants try to ask for better treatment, only few claims are successful. More specifically, only the claims supported and legitimated by a representative group of immigrants standing in the queues can be partially accepted by policemen and civil servants. However, the impact of the decisions taken at this moment is clearly weak. Firstly, these decisions are basically related to the only functioning of the queues and the access to the offices. And secondly, they rarely deal with the whole bureaucratic institution – that is, with paper allocation to immigrants – and its efficiency. This lack of influence is directly linked to a more general reflection on immigration and citizenship. Emotions such as anguish and humiliation, as well as the acceptance with resignation of immigrants' social condition strongly depend on their daily confrontation with the political logics that guide immigration policies and immigration policy-making. In other words, the multiple linked emotions we have observed are straightly linked to attitudes towards immigrants and immigration in the host society. In this sense, through these emotions, immigrants' relationship with public services appears as a special case with special consequences. For citizens, their relationship with public administration is a fundamental element of their political condition. In this case, rights recognition does not depend on this relationship, but is the main basis of citizenship itself. This has clear consequences: for example, citizens' claims against the authorities appear not just as a possibility, but as a duty. As for the government – at least in democratic countries –, it ought to take into account these claims in some degree, because it is supposed to be responsible of citizens' welfare. For immigrants, the access to public services has a completely different sense. It is a necessary 13

condition before rights recognition. So that, immigrants must remain 'legal', which means that there is an authority which decides on this recognition. This authority fixes compulsory administrative procedures for 'legal' immigrants and for those wanting to become 'legal'. This mainly proves the restrictive sense of immigrants' experience on public administration. Their continuous social experience of a provisional status deals directly with the periodical proof of a 'legal' job as well as with the respect of the administrative obligations imposed by the government. To follow strictly these criteria seems to be the only way of being accepted as a 'legal' foreigner. It is probably the only way of avoiding failure as well, this last carrying more disgraceful consequences than the painful waiting conditions reflected in anguish and humiliation. In this framework characterised by strong power relations, it seems difficult to identify any feedback provided by the government to immigrants' emotions interpreted as negative. In fact, focusing on the waiting lines we studied, they reflect clearly immigrants' position within these power relations. In this sense, at the time of our research, even if the queues in front of the immigration offices were considered as a 'problem' – they appeared regularly on the media –, no decision was taken neither to improve public services in charge of immigrants' residence permits nor to avoid waiting lines outside the offices. Emotions reflect, at least in this particular case, individual positions concerning bureaucracy. They also designate the point of view of bureaucracy, represented in this case both by paper allocation itself and by immigrants' relationship with policemen and civil servants. So that, the study of emotions appears as a good means of revealing decision-making processes, or at least the social basis in which they can be based. As for our case study, immigrants' emotions seem to be the result of bureaucratic decision-making in which their emotions basically show the acceptance with resignation of these decisions, without almost any influence on them. In this sense, the only feedback bureaucracy is forced to provide to this acceptance is just not to change the functioning of its services. In fact, as our interviewees' interpretation on their emotions has proved, immigrants' subordinate position with respect to bureaucracy mainly reveals immigrants' position – a provisional status as non-citizens and workers in unqualified jobs – within the host society.

References Dubet, F. 2006. Injustices. L'expérience des inégalités au travail. Paris: Seuil.

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Flam, H., Beauzamy, B. 2007. Symbolic Violence: on Natives, Migrants and their Emotions. In Migrant Voices: Discourses on Belonging and Exclusion, ed. Delanty G. et al. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press. Hachimi-Alaoui, M. 2007. Les chemins de l'exil. Paris: L'Harmattan. Paugam, S. 1991. La disqualification sociale. Paris: Seuil. Pollak, M. 1990. L'expérience concentrationnaire. Essai sur le maintien de l'identité sociale. Paris: Métailié. Schnapper, D. 1981. L'épreuve du chômage. Paris: Gallimard. Schnapper, D. 1999. La compréhension sociologique. Paris. Seuil. Wettergren, Å. 2005. Bureaucratic reason, migrant emotion. Torun (Poland): Paper to 7th Conference of the European Sociological Association.

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