Orlaith Rice
Supervisor: Eoin Carolan
Thesis title: Migration, Identity, and Constitutional Liberal Democracy in Sweden
Abstract: There are many legal, political, and constitutional narratives emanating from and attributed to Sweden. Sweden’s standalone response to the Covid-19 pandemic captured much media and academic attention and prompted a discussion of the extent to which the strategy was predetermined by constitutional restraints and institutional arrangements. A recent general election has catapulted Sweden into the right-wing populism conversation. Perhaps most dramatically, in less than 10 years, the country has executed a volte-face in its approach to immigration. The incumbent Swedish government have restricting immigration and improving integration as a key element of their mandate. Central to the immigration debate is the notion that non-European migrants cannot or will not assimilate into ‘Swedish’ culture by adopting ‘Swedish’ cultural traits (trust, conformity, consensus) and embracing progressive values (liberty, equality). In his work, Orgad has posed the question: ‘how can culturally distinct mass migration be reconciled [influence rather than reconcile] with liberal democracies seeking to preserve their identity?’. If ethnicity is not the defining feature of a nation state, is it culture? Or is it something else?
International migration and displacement are increasingly important issues for Western nations and supranational institutions to effectively address. Thus, Sweden is well placed as a case study for an analysis of how constitutional liberal democracies respond to high inward migration. In the field of comparative constitutional law, empirical research using qualitative methods is still largely an uncharted avenue. It is hypothesised that qualitative focus group discussions and semi-structured interviews will allow for a depth of insight and lived experience that would not be possible to obtain with a different methodological approach. Legal and constitutional developments do not happen in a vacuum, and they always have a sociological context. Furthermore, the qualitative data will allow this research to move beyond elite narratives of the topics under study.
Biography: Orlaith is a PhD candidate at the Sutherland School of Law, University College Dublin (UCD) and a member of the ERC-funded FIAT project. She holds a BA in Criminology from University College Cork and an MSc in Criminology and Criminal Justice from UCD. Orlaith has experience tutoring various law modules in UCD and is an Assistant Editor of the International Association of Constitutional Law (IACL-AIDC) Blog. Orlaith has been published in The Prison Journal and Criminology & Criminal Justice.