On some methodological issues concerning anti-Dublin politics.

In this paper, we discuss our experiences in writing a report on the social situation of asylum-seekers and status-holders in Bulgaria vis-a-vis the socio-political context in Bulgaria. We raise issues of methodological importance and argue that the current form of knowledge production in the field of European asylum politics creates dichotomic spaces. In this article we contemplate on our experiences in writing the report "Trapped in Europe's Quagmire" that engages with the situation of asylum-seekers and status-holders in Bulgaria (Hristova et al. 2014). 1 The report was written for bordermonitoring.eu, a research association which challenges European border 1 We are thankful to Stiftung:do, Germany and BMU, Switzerland for giving us the oppor- tunity to conduct independent research and present our findings in a report published online and accessible for the general public and specialists interested in forced migration. We are thankful to those organizations most of all because we were granted full liberty in conducting and writing the report. However, we could not escape being trapped in the quagmire of the perceived idea of what an ideal country report should look like. That meant having a preconceived image of a situation of systemic deficiencies and often being forced to turn a blind eye to problems of much more systemic nature than the one traditionally expected and recognized by various actors.