ABSTRACT
In this chapter, I focus on the norms which govern irregular migrants’ access to welfare services and explore how these reflect wider societal values regarding the legitimate and illegitimate, and not only legal and illegal. I analyse how different and competing conceptualisations of irregular migrants in public policies and discourses construct irregular migrants as more or less worthy of compassion and care, focusing specifically on how irregular migrants are conceptualised in public texts (e.g. laws and regulations, background material for the laws and regulations (e.g. Official Norwegian Reports (NOU), consultation papers and guidelines), government press releases and public statements by government representatives, Parliamentarian initiatives and debates, etc.). I also examine what conceptions of the nation are installed in practices of care for the politically excluded. By addressing the moral bordering and ordering of various lives, I show how the exceptionalism surrounding the care for irregular migrants is not only legal in form and effect but also represents a broader departure from the norms of equality and universalism that have traditionally been considered core values shaping Norwegian welfare policies in general.
