This is an invitation for students who are interested in doing research as part of their masters thesis, that would connect to an exciting new project at the department of Global political studies (see more below). The advantage for participating students is the possibility of co-authoring published research reports/working papers and articles as well as providing a valuable addition to your CV and insight to what it is to work within a large research project.
The themes that we are investigating this semester, apart from continuous seminars with a theoretical orientation are
- Media analysis of discourses around undocumented migrants and irregular migration in Sweden and the UK.
- Case law regarding undocumented migrants human rights in the ECtHR.
- Legislations in UK, Sweden and other European countries in the field of undocumented migrants and other non-citizen’s human rights, a comparative approach.
- Policy decisions on city level of governance and state level of governance regarding undocumented migrants.
- International human rights legislation (EU; Council of Europe; UN) in the field of irregular migration.
- Theoretically oriented works on concepts such as Cosmopolitanism; Rights-claiming; Hospitality; Citizenship.
Welcome,
Anna Lundberg, Michael Strange and Mikael Spång. If interested in taking part, please contact anna.lundberg@mah.se, Eligible candidates are acquired to be fluent in English and be able to provide a one page statement making clear their reasons for taking part in the project.
About the project:
In the four-year project we will highlight undocumented migrant children’s claims to be right holders focusing on everyday experiences and agency. Drawing on Hannah Arendt’s observation that rights can be realised only in a political community and Jacque Rancière’s theory that politics of human rights must be rooted in the practices of rights-holders they the project has a strong agency perspective that asks how children themselves claim and utilize rights. We also investigate contradictions between different levels of regulation regarding undocumented children’s human rights.
To reveal how children subjectively experience life as undocumented and negotiate agency in this situation, a child-centred participative research design is adopted. Activities and interviews will be conducted in the city of Manchester, UK and Malmö, Sweden. The PhD student will be spending several months in Manchester. We also investigate international and national regulations in the area as well as policy at city level regarding undocumented children’s rights.
The research will provide knowledge about the situation of undocumented migrant children from the point of human rights. This is of central importance especially with regard to the children since they as under-age and non-citizens lack the traditional opportunities for political action. The project will also provide theoretically important insights of the contested meaning of human rights at different levels. Furthermore, a strong aim is to create conditions for a more tempered public debate in Sweden around highly politicised subjects.