In recent years Sweden has experienced recurrent criticism for neglecting to protect the human rights of undocumented migrants within its borders. This paper explores this alleged neglect by focusing on three different subjects and dimensions of rights, namely everyone’s right to health, children’s right to education, and women’s right to freedom from violence. Key to the contribution of the paper is an outline of how the human rights of undocumented migrants could be implemented in Swedish legislation. The central problem at issue is the often implicit yet strong tension or disconnect between human rights and citizenship. Consequently, the paper examines the universality implied in human rights discourse and normativity on the one hand, and the power of states to control their borders and sustain regimes of citizenship within them on the other. Using Hannah Arendt’s concept of the right to have rights and Seyla Benhabibs approach to fair membership and democratic iterations, the paper probes the possibilities for undocumented migrants to be both included in the Swedish polity and enjoy the respect for their human rights as granted by different conventions.The paper discusses examples of how the human rights of undocumented migrants in Sweden are violated in different ways. Migrants are denied healthcare because of high costs and unclear legislation. Undocumented children’s right to education gets restricted because of their fear to get caught by the police. Abused women with irregular status who are in need of protection often avoid to seek help due to the threat of deportation. The paper reaches the conclusion that the “openness position” as proposed by political actors arguing for porous borders and claiming that universalistic human rights should override national legislation, is compatible with the theoretical reasoning of the text. Laws of firewalls are of special importance to the legal argument of the paper. By establishing safe zones undocumented migrants would be guaranteed access to healthcare, education and protection from violence. Finally, democratic iterations as a precondition for regularization is discussed and equal rights for citizens and the undocumented are considered to offer paths for migrants to both inclusion and increased levels of safety and respect.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:uu-412199 |
| Date | January 2020 |
| Creators | Löfving, Klara |
| Publisher | Uppsala universitet, Teologiska institutionen |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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