Rightlessness as a Dislocatory Moment — On Irregular Migrants the Duality of the National Welfare State and Human Rights as a Resource for Contestation

This paper investigates the ‘discovery’ of irregular migrant as a dislocatory moment where the constitutive tension between inclusionary and exclusionary dimensions of the welfare state is brought to the fore. It starts from the assumption that the concept of citizenship can be used illustrate the duality of the ideals and practices of the welfare state. Internally, citizenship is conceived to be an egalitarian ideal. Externally, however, citizenship signals the demarcation of a bounded community. Thus, the social dimension of citizenship is limited to a certain community where principles of solidarity are taken to apply. This paper explores the tensions that arise from the linking of rights and citizenship and how this order is contested. Drawing on insights from the Swedish debate about irregular migrants I develop an account of how notions of human rights can be mobilized to destabilize traditional notions of citizenship and bring about a change in the citizenship regime. More precisely, by contesting the logic that rights are attributed to members of a demarcated community of recognized residents. Hence, notions of human rights can be mobilized to undermine the link between social rights and citizenship upon which the national welfare state is premised.