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

本项目研究《爱尔兰宪法第27条修正案》对生活在爱尔兰的难民和寻求庇护妇女的影响。在2004年6月的全民公决中，有79%的选民赞成（DEHLG 2005），爱尔兰成为少数几个废除出生公民权（出生地法）的欧洲国家之一。因此，爱尔兰公民身份不再凭借出生在爱尔兰而获得，而是现在仅限于血统权利（jus sanguinis）或归化。难民和寻求庇护的妇女出现在关于修正案的辩论的中心，因为政府指责她们在怀孕后期来到爱尔兰，以利用爱尔兰的福利和欧盟护照。鉴于这些事件，该项目采用民族志和档案方法来了解爱尔兰公民身份边界的社会和法律斗争对生活在爱尔兰的难民和寻求庇护的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庭日常生活的影响，2)确定关于妇女的话语结构，这些话语结构使修正案得以传播，3)辨别女性对这些意义的争论和谈判方式。在现代民族国家努力应对全球化对人类的影响之际，爱尔兰废除“属地法”或许标志着对自由民主公民权传统观念的重大反思。鉴于此，该研究阐明了种族、亲属关系和性别问题都与社会如何重新评估构成成员的因素有关，这些边界是如何协商、监管或争议的，以及这些关于意义的斗争是如何在社会法律话语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.