Doctoral Dissertation Research: "We, the People of Eire" : Refugees, Asylum Seekers, and the End of Birthright Citizenship in Ireland

该项目审查了爱尔兰宪法第27修正案对居住在爱尔兰的难民和寻求庇护的妇女的影响。爱尔兰在2004年6月的全民公决中获得了79%的选民支持(DEHLG 2005)，成为少数几个废除出生公民权的欧洲国家之一。因此，爱尔兰公民身份不再是通过在爱尔兰出生而获得的，而是现在仅限于血缘权利(Jus Sanguinis)或入籍。难民和寻求庇护的女性成为围绕修正案的辩论的中心，当时爱尔兰政府指控她们在怀孕后期来到爱尔兰，以享受爱尔兰的福利和欧盟护照。鉴于这些事件，该项目采用人种学和档案学方法，了解爱尔兰公民身份边界上的社会和法律障碍对居住在爱尔兰的难民和寻求庇护妇女的日常生活经历和可能性的影响。主要目标是1)了解修正案对妇女及其家人日常生活的影响，2)确定有关妇女的论述结构，为修正案提供支持，3)辨别妇女对这些含义进行辩论和谈判的方式。爱尔兰废除绝对法，可能标志着现代民族国家在努力应对全球化对人类的影响时，对自由民主公民的传统观念进行了重大反思。有鉴于此，这项研究阐明了种族、亲属关系和性别问题都涉及到社会如何重新评估成员资格的构成，这些界限是如何谈判、监管或争夺的，以及这些关于意义的斗争是如何在社会法律话语的主体的日常生活中经历的。

This project examines the impact of the 27th Amendment to the Constitution of Ireland on refugees and asylum-seeking women living in Ireland. Passed by referendum in June of 2004 with a noteworthy 79 percent of voters in favor (DEHLG 2005), Ireland became one of just a few European nations to abolish birthright citizenship (jus soli). As a result, Irish citizenship is no longer acquired by virtue of birth in Ireland, but is now restricted to blood-right (jus sanguinis) or naturalization. Refugee and asylum-seeking women emerged at the center of the debates over the Amendment when the state accused them of coming to Ireland in the late stages of pregnancy to avail themselves of Irish welfare and an EU passport. Given these events, the project employs ethnographic and archival methods to understand the consequences of social and legal stuggles over the boundaries of Irish citizenship for the everyday life experience and possibilities of refugee and asylum-seeking women living in Ireland.The main objectives are 1) to understand the impact of the amendment in the daily lives of the women and their families, 2) to identify the discursive constructs about the women that gave currency to the Amendment, and 3) to discern the ways in which these meanings are being contested and negotiated by the women. Ireland's abolition of jus soli may mark a major rethinking of traditional notions of liberal democratic citizenship among modern nation-states as they grapple with the human effects of globalization. In light of this, the study illuminates the ways in which issues of race, kinship, and gender are all implicated in how societies re-evaluate what constitutes membership, how these boundaries are negotiated, policed, or contested, and how these struggles over meaning are experienced in the everyday lives of subjects of socio-legal discourse.