• Collective rights mobilisation
• Social rights and solidarity infrastructures
• Legal aid
• Children’s rights

Since 2022, I have been a Professor in Sociology of Law at Lund University. My research focuses on local rights mobilisation and solidarity infrastructures in a contemporary context shaped by migration, heightened border controls, and economic austerity in welfare provision. I have a particular interest in voluntary legal aid and children’s rights within a Nordic context.

I work with critical participatory methods often in collaboration with civil society organisations. 

My academic background is interdisciplinary, rooted in my doctoral studies in Ethnicity and Migration at Linköping University. Prior to that, I completed the Law Programme and a master’s degree in public international law at the Raoul Wallenberg Institute, Lund University. I hold the title of Associate Professor (Docent) in Human Rights.

I have conducted research over the last 15 years on lived experiences of asylum regulations, with a special focus on the problem of people becoming legally stranded in Sweden, as well as the lack of respect for the right to asylum and children’s rights and legal uncertainties in the migration bureaucracy.

Current Research

The dynamic life of Child Rights in three legal cultures. A comparative analysis of child custody cases

In collaboration with my colleagues Monica Lindbekk, Rustam Urinboyev, and Anna Sonander, I am conducting a project to explore how child rights are utilized in custody cases. We aim to answer the following questions: On which premises and references do professionals that are to secure child rights base their arguments - legislation, precedent, religious norms, children’s and parents’ views, human rights instruments, etc.? What similarities and differences can be identified in Egypr, Sweden and Uzbekistan, and how can these be understood from a comparative approach? What are the implications for child rights in the justice system more generally? We analyze court cases, documentation of court proceedings, and interviews with judges and other professionals. The comparative approach allows for an in-depth analysis by juxtaposing each case with the others. The CRC is an international human rights treaty that allows for discretion. Professional groups significantly influence the practical meaning of child rights, impacting the conditions for children in legal systems.

Public employees’ mobilization against the Informers Act. (PEMA)

Together with Jacob Lind, researcher

The Swedish government has recently proposed a number of restrictive policy changes regarding migration and migrants’ human rights. However, no issue has met as much criticism as the proposed duty for welfare professionals to report irregular migrants to the police – what we refer to as The Informers Act. This project aims to understand why and how professionals mobilise against the proposed Act. Through a survey and individual and group interviews, we analyse their arguments, strategies and practices in the collective mobilization work. A public inquiry presented in November 2024 is analysed in this project. The project argues that welfare professionals are crucial not only for implementing migrants’ human rights, but their criticism against The Informers Act indicates that their collective contestations in themselves, together with the rights claims of irregular migrants, create a necessary foundation for migrants’ human rights to begin with. Our mixed method and theoretical approach will enable us to discuss not just the implications of welfare professionals’ contestations for the future of migrants’ rights, but also the status of human rights in Sweden overall.

Regulating Social Housing

In collaboration with Sara Stendahl (PI, Gothenburg University), I am exploring how legal regulation can contribute to a social housing policy that creates good housing conditions for all. The aim is to present a thematic compilation of previous research on legal regulation significant to the social dimensions of housing. Legal-oriented studies refer to research focusing on the law, legal constructions, and the application of law or the legal system. Comparative studies are included to enable comparative and international perspectives. The systematic review is implemented in four distinct phases: planning, implementation, review, and reporting. The project group involves two professors (public law and welfare law) and a librarian. The project concludes in 2024 with a forward-looking workshop where various societal actors invested in creating a sustainable housing policy are invited to discuss how previous knowledge can be used to meet the challenge of ensuring access to good housing for all.

Recently finished research

I was one of the initiators and the research leader of the Asylum Commission, a transboundary collaboration of researchers, professionals, and volunteers, including people who sought protection and experienced the asylum bureaucracy. We have reviewed displacement in the field of migration regulations in Sweden in recent years.

With support from LU Innovation, I conducted an action-oriented research project on Legal advice and information focusing on what I refer to as right literacy, in 2023-24: Legal Literacy for a Right to Have Rights. They addressed the growing need for support in accessing rights in Sweden. The project included collective information activities and legal advice at physical locations. We developed a model for legal information and advice and produced public education activities. A long-term goal is for students in sociology of law, social work, human rights, and law, to manage an email and website in a legal clinic.

I have also led a governmental inquiry about practical impediments to enforcement and presented legal proposals that should prevent people from becoming legally stranded (SOU 2017:84).