CRISS Lecturer contributes to public debate on EU referendum
Tue, 17 May 2016 13:01:00 BST
On 16 March 2016, The Mancunion Live and the University of Manchester Politics Society hosted a debate entitled:The EU referendum: An academic perspective in collaboration with Manchester Students for Europe and the Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence at Manchester. CRISS was represented at the debate by Dr Clara Sandelind (Lecturer in Politics) whose research interests include national identities and the politics of migration; she spoke on the impact of immigration and British sovereignty on the referendum.
Dr Sandelind [pictured above] argued that the concept of parliamentary sovereignty is so deep-rooted in the UK, such that even if EU membership means more control over matters that affect the life of British people, it is viewed as suspect as it moves some decision-making away from the British parliament. She also argued that the people who feel a general sense of loss of power, which often has economic roots, are sceptical of the EU for this reason, and also of immigration, which in a sense symbolises a loss of control over borders and over identity. In this way, the EU gets the blame for something that really is an issue of strengthening local and national democracy, as well as creating economic opportunities domestically.
