Clara Sandelind

A number of recent articles have sought to carve out space for more feasible and action-guiding political theories of migration. These accounts have focused on policy-makers as target agents. I suggest an alternative approach that targets migrant and refugee-led social movements who can generate social and political goods that are crucial in non-ideal conditions. These include situated social critique, embodied non-oppressive alternatives and community-building. Making these goods salient renders three desiderata for normative theorising. Movement-oriented theories need to be intelligible to such movements, they need to provide a framework for transformative worldmaking and they need to attend to affective relations created in and by social movements. Engaging with migrant and refugee social movements, I suggest that a movement-oriented theory of migration renders ‘no borders’ more action-guiding by focusing on how border regimes sustain a hierarchical international order that makes some people more vulnerable to displacement and its associated harms.

New open access paper out in @bjpir.bsky.social

journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Det är bara för sorgligt.

A number of recent articles have sought to carve out space for more feasible and action-guiding political theories of migration. These accounts have focused on policy-makers as target agents. I suggest an alternative approach that targets migrant and refugee-led social movements who can generate social and political goods that are crucial in non-ideal conditions. These include situated social critique, embodied non-oppressive alternatives and community-building. Making these goods salient renders three desiderata for normative theorising. Movement-oriented theories need to be intelligible to such movements, they need to provide a framework for transformative worldmaking and they need to attend to affective relations created in and by social movements. Engaging with migrant and refugee social movements, I suggest that a movement-oriented theory of migration renders ‘no borders’ more action-guiding by focusing on how border regimes sustain a hierarchical international order that makes some people more vulnerable to displacement and its associated harms.

New open access paper out in @bjpir.bsky.social

journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Spain plans to give 500,000 undocumented migrants legal status The process will be available to foreign nationals without a criminal record who can prove they lived in Spain for five months prior to 31 December 2025.

We're seeing a dramatic increase in immigration enforcement in the UK. While it may not have same attention as ICE raids in UK, it still sees families ripped apart and vulnerable people detained. Spain shows regularisation for undocumented migrants is a better option.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Holocaust Memorial Day: Learning from the Universal and the Particular There are universal and particular lessons from the Holocaust. We must understand both.

Holocaust Memorial Day: Learning from the Universal and the Particular
open.substack.com/pub/clarasan...

Spain approves decree to regularise half a million undocumented migrants Move affecting those who have been in Spain five months or more runs counter to anti-migration policies across Europe

We need more of this in Europe. www.theguardian.com/world/2026/j...

Holocaust Memorial Day: Learning from the Universal and the Particular There are universal and particular lessons from the Holocaust. We must understand both.

Holocaust Memorial Day: Learning from the Universal and the Particular
open.substack.com/pub/clarasan...

Svenska värderingar Berättelsen om det goda och upplysta Sverige förvrider verkligheten av en grym migrationspolitik

Tittar in här för att meddela att jag skrivit min första substack. Om hur berättelsen om de svenska värderingarna förvrider verkligheten om den grymma migrationspolitiken.

open.substack.com/pub/clarasan...

The impact of the asylum system on mental health and memory < Social Responsibility A new report from experts at the University of Manchester and Durham University reveals how the UK asylum system may be contributing to memory problems among people seeking asylum—making it harder…

🧠 A new report from @sandelind.bsky.social of @uompols.bsky.social & Dr Katherine Puddifoot of @durham-university.bsky.social shows how trauma from the UK asylum system can distort memory leading to unfair outcomes.
Read more:

We have long-warned of the harms of large-scale accommodation sites.

The Government knows that they are cruel, unsafe and unsuitable.

This plan is chasing headlines. It puts closing hotels before people.

This move will undoubtedly cause harm and distress to people seeking safety here.

2/2

Standing against targeted harassment of Professor Michael Ben-Gad 21 October 2025 We, the undersigned, are deeply concerned by a targeted harassment campaign against Michael Ben-Gad, Professor of Economics at City St George’s, University of London, led by a group ca...

Professor Michael Ben-Gad at City St George’s, University of London, has been subject to a vicious harassment campaign because he, an Israeli citizen, studied, taught and worked in Israel, and served in the IDF (as all Jewish Israelis must). Please read and sign this.
docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Solidarity with Michael Ben-Gad.

LEO SOKOLOW ROMIN: Min pappa är israelvän – min mamma israelkritiker Bilden av Israel är rekorddårlig – bland legitim kritik delas inlägg som ekar Hamas slagord. Leo Sokolow Romin skriver om hur det är att vara judisk och sekulär i Sverige i dag.

En skarp och fin artikel av Leo Sokolow Romin.

I'm happy to disagree with people, but when they use their power to put other people in danger I'm not sure I've gotta love them anymore in the name of civility.

Emma Watson on Rowling - she seems incapable of understanding the difference between intellectual disagreement and a person using their position of power to strip the rights of an already marginalised group.

fair enough

Thanks, that's interesting. It's slightly jarring how often 'migrant' is used when it is not necessary to convey that the people in question are seeking to migrate.

See, these questions read so much more humanising because people are referred to as people.

Interesting results, but what would happen if you changed 'migrants' to 'people'?

Läs gärna den policy-rapport jag och en kollega skrivit om den psykiska stress som asylsystemet innebär och hur det kan påverka minnet. Vi fokuserar på Storbritannien men det är lika relevant i Sverige.

www.manchester.ac.uk/about/news/n...

Aron Verständig: “Olämpligt av Bajit att stå värd för IDF-soldat” | Alkompis - Artiklar på svenska Skarp kritik mot organisation som bjöd in IDF-soldat på föreläsning

Aron Verständig säger det som behöver sägas - tiden för demonstrationen verkar vara illa vald. Platsen för eventet likaså. Politikernas språkbruk - oacceptabelt.

alkompis.se/sv/aron-vers...

Undrar om det ingår i vår kulturkanon att kalla judar som står med skyltar "alla barn är lika värda" för odjur och säga att de inte hör hemma i Sverige, så som vår utrikesminister gjort, eller om det räknas som bristande vandel? #sakervialdrigkommerfåsvarpå #denhycklanderegeringen

Ni förstår vart jag vill komma. Att bara upprepa frasen "Israel har en rätt att existera" är liksom helt meningslöst. Det betyder ingenting. Det löser noll av frågorna som står på spel.

Och de har verkligen ingen rätt till vilket territorium de vill. Många anser att grupper som vill vara politiskt självständiga har en rätt att vara det om de uppfyller vissa kriterier och om det finns ett lämpligt territorium.

Ett av mina forskningsområden är kollektivt självbestämmande och staters rättigheter över territorium. Det finns stora skillnader mellan vad politiska teoretiker har att säga om detta, men ingen tycker att stater har en villkorslös rätt att existera.

Question from me: "I warmly welcome the Leader of the House to his new role and associate myself with the support across the House for my hon. Friend the Member for Washington and Gateshead South (Mrs Hodgson). Members have raised many times the unacceptable level of threats that we face. Increasingly, abuse and threats are being driven and whipped up by one platform in particular, X, previously known as Twitter, which has become a sewer of antisemitism, racism, misogyny and dangerous conspiracy theories. Its owner has specifically targeted Members of this House. With a new director of communications in No. 10 and a refreshed Front Bench, may we have a debate in Government time on whether it is appropriate for that platform to continue to be used for official Government communications?"

Answer from Sir Alan Campbell, Leader of the House: "What my hon. Friend says about X is truly shocking. We are very much in favour of free speech, but we are also against incitement to violence. We have delivered the Online Safety Act 2025 to seek to strike the balance between user protection and freedom of speech. On the matter of the Government’s use of X, it is right that the public are kept up to date with information and a number of people still use X, although of course many are moving to other platforms. I am sure that the Government will take that into account in our deliberations in future, and we also keep our wider social media practices under review."

It melts my head that X is still used for official Government communications, and, catching up on today's news and the fact we have a foreign billionaire inciting violence on our streets, it's clearer than ever that this should end.

I raised this in Parliament last week 👇

Yes, Charlie Kirk called for President Biden to be imprisoned and put to death, but he was so well-groomed when he said it so ...

Har Liberalerna sagt någonting om jämställdhet senaste 10 åren som inte är relaterat till hederskultur?

DEBATT: Flyktingkrisen 2015 var ingen kris för oss Det är hög tid att revidera bilden av 2015 års stora mottagande av människor på flykt som en kris eller katastrof för Sverige. Låt oss få känna en stolthet över den insats vi samlat gjorde och ville g...

”…vi har kortat tiderna för etablering på arbetsmarknaden som tidigare var 7–9 år till nuvarande 3–4 år. Av de stora antal ensamkommande barn Sverige tog emot…hade av de som var kvar i landet år 2023 hela 8 av 10 ett jobb.”
2015 har lett till en kris för den demokratiska anständigheten, inget annat.

people pretend that debate signals and defends a commitment to high minded politics. what it elevates instead is performative dishonesty as a basic mode of politics

www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...