ERC grants millions to research on the human rights of undocumented migrants
“My hypothesis is that the welfare professions are somewhat of the last outpost for defending human rights, says Jacob Lind, who completed his doctoral thesis at Malmö University on undocumented children and families and their everyday experiences.”
Researcher Jacob Lind has been awarded a SEK 17 million Starting Grant from the European Research Council. He will investigate how professionals in healthcare, education and social services approach the requirement to report undocumented migrants.
“The study is about how teachers, doctors, social workers and others working in the welfare professions react to policies that put the human rights of migrants at risk,” says Jacob Lind, project researcher at the Department of Global Political Studies (GPS) and the Malmö Institute for Migration Studies (MIM).
Jacob Lind is the first person at Malmö University to be awarded funding from the European Research Council. In Give Rights, as the project is titled, he will compare four countries where mandatory reporting and migrants’ access to rights are, or have recently been, the subject of debate and protest: Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden and the United Kingdom. In Sweden, the Government has had to partially back down from an earlier proposal on mandatory reporting for healthcare and school staff following protests from trade unions, among others.
The right to fulfil human rights
Previous studies have often focused on migrants or others whose human rights have been violated, but Jacob Lind’s approach is instead based on the demands on employees in welfare professions to fulfil the rights of undocumented migrants. Rights such as the right to education, the right to healthcare and the right to housing.
“They are being deprived of the right to fulfil the human rights of a certain group. The European Commission has presented a proposed Return Directive that talks about improving the detection of undocumented migrants. The debate in Sweden has somewhat preceded the discussion that may arise in Europe,” says Jacob Lind.
Five-year project
The project will run for five years, starting in January, and will be conducted through expert interviews, focus groups and a large survey. In addition to Jacob Lind, a doctoral student and two postdocs will be hired, one of whom will be an expert in surveys.
“First, we will build relationships with trade unions and other organisations that we hope will help us distribute the survey.”
Jacob Lind hopes that his example will inspire others at Malmö University to apply for funding from the European Research Council.
“If you have the ambition and the time, resources and support are available from Malmö University,” says Jacob Lind.
English text by Anna Holmwood.
About the ERC grant
The European Research Council (ERC) funds investigator-initiated frontier research across all fields. The Council was established by the EU in 2007.
