Sanctuary Practices in Scandinavian Transnational Cities: The Case of Public Libraries

Abstract

The article explores sanctuary practices within public institutions by examining instances where public libraries in Denmark (Copenhagen), Norway (Oslo) and Sweden (Malmö) open up their services for persons who lack residence permits on state territory (so-called irregular migrants). Public libraries in this study are understood to be public spheres where the right to information and the freedom of expression are safeguarded. Such spheres, where rights are provided are primarily open to citizens or other people with authorised residence. Hence, when public libraries offer their services to irregular migrants, this is a demonstration of how public institutions representing the sovereign may engage in contestations of deportation regimes produced by the sovereign. Such 'enactments of sanctuary', we argue, open up new meanings of Arendt's notion of 'the right to have rights'. Through an in-depth case study in Malmö, Sweden, the article suggests that a new role is emerging for local institutions as providers of 'transnational' rights decoupled from any territorial basis. Rather than being linked to nationhood, the institutional role in democracies may be constitutive of rights in the present context: the right to equal access to information and freedom of expression. An equally progressive development can be found in Norway; however, this is not the case in Denmark which could be understood as a reflection of Denmark's more restrictive approach to immigration in general.

Free to Move Along: On the Urbanisation of Cross-border Mobility Controls - A Case of Roma 'EU migrants' in Malmö, Sweden

“…Before I conclude this first part of the chapter, I would like to also consider how the figure of the 'vulnerable EU citizen' troubles sanctuary policies and their associated categories of migrant irregularity. As stated earlier, the ambiguity of the categories of residency found in the Social Services Act presents an opening for variously irregularised subjects to claim social rights at the local level (Lundberg & Dahlquist, 2018;Nordling, 2012Nordling, , 2017. In fact, the City of Malmö was one of the first municipalities in Sweden to implement policies that explicitly address the situation of irregular migrants.…”

“…At the same time, the City of Malmö is also known for having had relatively inclusive policies towards undocumented migrants living in the city. For example, the municipality was one of the first in the country to formulate local policy guidelines on social assistance and services to this group (Lundberg & Dahlquist, 2018;Nordling, 2012Nordling, , 2017.…”

“…Notably, the City of Malmö has taken some steps towards implementing sanctuary ordinances. The public library has opened up to undocumented residents (Lundberg & Dahlquist, 2018). In 2014, the city also adopted guidelines that affirm the right of 95 undocumented migrants to seek means-tested social assistance (Nordling, 2012(Nordling, , 2017 Whether exclusionary or inclusionary, the practices of sub-national and urban mobility control are difficult to comprehend within the established categories and frameworks of migration scholarship.…”

“…A key example of this would be the sanctuary cities movements, which mobilise for the extension of rights and protections to refugees and undocumented migrants. As previously mentioned, there is an active migrant justice and sanctuary cities movement in Malmö that has managed, in the past, to secure certain provisional and partial rights to means-tested social assistance for undocumented migrants (see also Lundberg & Dahlquist, 2018;Nordling, 2012Nordling, , 2017. 82 Isin's argument rests on the distinction between the 'actual' and the 'virtual' found in the work of both Gilles Deleuze and Jacques Derrida.…”

The Politics of undocumented migrant childhoods: agency, rights, vulnerability

“…. A variety of aspects concerning the irregular situation have been analysed in more detail in the past decade, such as issues of activism and resistance (Keshavarz, 2016;Nordling et al, 2017;Spång & Lundberg, 2019;Söderman, 2019); children and families (Ascher & Wahlström Smith, 2016;Wahlström Smith, 2018; education (Lind & Persdotter, 2017;Strange & Lundberg, 2014); gender (Sager, 2011(Sager, , 2016; geography (Holgersson, 2011); health (Andersson et al, 2018;Björngren Cuadra, 2012;Lundberg & Spång, 2017;Lundberg & Söderman, 2015;Sigvardsdotter, 2012); labour (Selberg, 2014;Öberg, 2015); policy (Nielsen, 2016); rights (Andersson & Nilsson, 2011;Noll, 2010;Sager, 2018); sanctuary practices (Lundberg & Dahlquist, 2018;Lundberg & Strange, 2016); social work (Björngren Cuadra, 2015;Holmlund, 2020;Nordling, 2017) and young people (Djampour, 2018;Stretmo, 2014).…”