Increased immigrant movement from conflict stricken areas to the liberal west, has led to challenges involving increasing multicultural group claims on the liberal democratic state, leading to the destabilization of its foundation. The conflict lay in the opposing world views culturally, ethnically and religiously that the new citizens have, seeing the “group” first and foremost whereas the individual in western democracy has always been seen as the principal rights recipient. The purpose of this study has been to examine the challenges multicultural group claims from immigrants have had on the liberal democratic state on a theoretical level and what possible approaches that should be used to resolve this challenge from the standpoint of the liberal democratic state. To answer this on a theoretical level the study uses a qualitative text analysis of three acclaimed political philosophers on the subject, the communitarian Charles Taylor, the egalitarian liberal philosopher Brian Barry and the liberal philosopher Will Kymlicka whom takes a middle ground on the subject of multicultural group rights.   The results show us that though the three philosophers have different outlooks on the grounds of their opinion on group rights and claims, in the case of immigrants they agree to a large extent. They agree that, whilst the liberal democratic state and the immigrants both wish for complete integration as citizens, the liberal democratic state will treat immigrants the same as the majority, as individual rights recipients. All this whilst making required efforts for the simplification of the integration process. That is why acceptance of certain multicultural rights regarding food, culture, traditions and language in the “private” sphere as well as certain exceptions in the “official” sphere can be accepted, as long as they adhere to the liberal democratic framework of free association, whilst normative multicultural group claims cannot.  So we find that a communitarian philosophy which encourages multicultural group claims actually does agree that the liberal democratic state’s current approach in the case of immigrants is enough.

In the wake of a steady flow of child migrants attempting to cross borders and states’ efforts to restrict immigration, various public controversies have arisen about the rights of asylum-seeking children. The ‘moral gap’ between the outcome of democratically enacted laws and the aim of controlling immigration, on the one hand, and public calls to protect the universal rights of asylum seeking children, on the other, have created a political challenge for Western democracies. This thesis sets out to examine two particular settings in which norms about the rights of asylum-seeking children and immigration control have been established and contested over the years: the Swedish Migration Court of Appeal and Sweden’s largest morning paper, Dagens Nyheter. It combines empirically oriented analysis with theoretical enquiry, and it brings the issue of the rights of asylumseeking children into dialogue with the contemporary political-philosophical debate about membership, rights and borders. / I kölvattnet av en stadig ström av barn som migrerar över statsgränser har medial rapportering, protester och offentliga diskussioner aktualiserat frågor om asylsökande barns rättigheter. Det ”moraliska glappet” mellan tillämpningen av demokratiskt stiftade lagar i syfte att reglera invandringen,å ena sidan, och offentliga krav på att skydda universella rättigheter för asylsökande barn, å andra sidan, har växt fram som en samtida utmaning för demokratiska stater att hantera. I denna avhandling undersöks två specifika arenor där normer om asylsökande barns rättigheter och immigrationskontroll har etablerats och ifrågasatts under de senaste åren; den svenska Migrationsöverdomstolen och Sveriges största morgontidning, Dagens Nyheter. Avhandlingen kombinerar empiriska analyser med teoretiska undersökningar om asylsökande barns rättigheter i dialog med en samtida politisk filosofisk diskussion om medlemskap, rättigheter och gränser.