When their identity cards came, Elmira and her mother found out they had not been granted asylum. They were given nothing more than an opportunity for “paid residence.” The authorities had decided that their returning to their own country presented no “immediate threat to their safety.” There was no appeal. “I waited for years for them to listen to us,” Elmira’s mother said. “And finally I figured out they weren’t interested in listening. They were interested in what they could get from us. Cheap labor on the gray market, for nothing in return.”
