Struggles over human rights in local government – the case of access to education for undocumented youth in Malmö, Sweden

Lundberg, Anna; Strange, Michael

doi:10.1080/19460171.2016.1142456

Cited by 6 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…Political debates and struggles around irregular migrants' access to education have recently been attributed an important local dimension but continue to be portrayed as being primarily about human rights (Lundberg & Strange, 2016). Here I am going to show that they are not just struggles over irregular migrants' rights, but also their very possibilities to 'integrate into society' 2 -a process that at least officially still tends to be understood as largely contingent on legal status.…”

Section: Managing Irregularity Through the Provision Of Public Educationmentioning

confidence: 81%

Managing Irregularity Through the Provision of Public Education

Schweitzer

2022

IMISCOE Research Series

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This chapter applies the conceptual and analytical frameworks to the institutional sphere of education and thereby draws systematic comparisons between the two national and local contexts. First, I closely examine the relevant laws and policies enacted at various administrative levels as well as local implementation practices, by drawing on relevant documents and the original accounts of my interview respondents. This allows me to map the various ethical concerns, practical difficulties and organisational conflicts that either migrant irregularity itself, or the internalisation of its control, creates for individuals and the institutions they work for. At the end of the chapter, and with the help of my analytical framework, I summarise the main differences between the two contexts in terms of how they position the various categories of workers in relation to migrant irregularity and its control.

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Section: Managing Irregularity Through the Provision Of Public Educationmentioning

confidence: 81%

Managing Irregularity Through the Provision of Public Education

Schweitzer

2022

IMISCOE Research Series

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“…Scandinavian welfare programmes have intervened in people's private lives to a larger extent than in many other places (Olwig, 2011, p. 180). There are, however, differences between categories of citizens and residents and their relation to the state (Lister, 2007;Lundberg and Strange, 2017). Healthy and employed citizens are left at peace, while those who are directly economically dependent on the state, such as citizens on sick leave or newly arrived refugees on state allocation (that is, with asylum and residency but not yet taxpayers or citizens) tend to face more interventions.…”

Section: Bureaucratisation In Welfare Statesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Living bureaucratisation

Gren

2020

Refugees and the Violence of Welfare Bureaucracies in Northern Europe

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My dream is to study at the university. But when you go to [the caseworkers], they do not listen to your ambitions and dreams. They make you believe that you can tell them what you want. In the end they will write in their plans what they want. You want to study? Okay, you are going to study. They write 'Amir wants to continue his education. Amir wants to study Swedish. Amir is going to take the social integration course. And this basically means that according to this [action] plan, you should show us that you have attended [language] school.' (Amir) This chapter discusses the experiences of young Palestinian men in an introductory programme for refugees in Sweden. The programme was designed to support people who had been accepted for asylum in learning Swedish and introducing them to the labour market (Larsson, 2015; Ennerberg, 2017). Despite the good intentions of policy-makers, my interlocutors, like Amir who is quoted above, often feel that it is a waste of time to follow the programme. The programme is not adjusted to their individual aspirations, and they have few possibilities of deciding what to do with their own lives while being enrolled in it. In this chapter, I argue that their frustrations can be understood primarily as reactions to a bureaucratisation of daily life and to the institutional requirements that limit their sense of agency. Bureaucratisation in this case leads to resistance but also to hopelessness and readjustments of personal ambitions. Many migrants from war-torn and poor countries are well prepared for multiple losses in life and for enduring hardships (Jackson, 2008). Among Palestinians, there is even a frequently used term, sumud, for patience or endurance, which means to keep going despite all (Peteet, 2005, pp. 148ff.). However, migrants are seldom prepared for the bureaucratisation of everyday life that is set in motion in Northern European welfare states when dealing with different institutions and authorities as asylum-seekers or refugees (see also chapter 10). 1 The Swedish street-level bureaucrats are, in general, described as friendly and caring by my interlocutors; still, their practices are, as we will learn, experienced as constraining and excluding.

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“…REVA also led to a loss of legitimacy for state and local authorities, the objective of surveillance compromising their role as providers of essential public goods. Sweden’s implementation of the Schengen agreement and other EU-related policies had enabled police officers to demand papers from individuals on an everyday level on the streets and in the workplaces of Sweden (Lundberg and Strange, 2016). Appeals were made to institutions, organisations, and individuals to change that status quo.…”

Section: Defying the Law – Protection From Deportationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Who provides the conditions for human life? Sanctuary movements in Sweden as both contesting and working with state agencies

Lundberg

Strange

2016

Politics

Self Cite

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This article analyses sanctuary initiatives intended to change the situation of ‘irregularised residents’. Through fieldwork, three main activities are identified: assistance for welfare services, alternatives to inaccessible services, and inventing new ways of organising togetherness in the city. The role of activists in the initiatives links to discussions within Critical Human Rights literature, which emphasise the anti-institutionalist origins of rights. Yet, a complex interplay also plays out through co-current resistance against the state’s migration policing and collaboration with city-level state agencies. Understanding this complex process is important to improving knowledge of both the politics of sanctuary and human rights.

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Struggles over human rights in local government – the case of access to education for undocumented youth in Malmö, Sweden

Cited by 6 publications

References 35 publications

Managing Irregularity Through the Provision of Public Education

Managing Irregularity Through the Provision of Public Education

Living bureaucratisation

Who provides the conditions for human life? Sanctuary movements in Sweden as both contesting and working with state agencies

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