Karin Åberg
Affiliated to Research
School of Public Health and Community MedicineAbout Karin Åberg
Karin Åberg is a Doctor of Laws (LL.D.) in International Law. Her research focuses on transnational migration law, with particular emphasis on how legal practice is shaped through the interaction between EU law, international law, human rights law, and domestic legal systems.
In her dissertation, The Benevolent Border: Humanitarianism and Absurdity in European Migration Law (2025), she examines how humanitarian measures are integrated into a fundamentally securitised migration regime, and how such measures are often distorted or neutralised in practice. By developing absurdity as a theoretical lens, her work highlights the contradictions and power structures that characterise contemporary migration law.
Åberg’s research combines doctrinal legal analysis with empirical methods, including ethnography and case law studies, and is theoretically grounded in critical approaches. Her publications address issues such as credibility assessments in LGB asylum claims, the categorisation of vulnerability at EU borders, and the political rights of irregular migrants.
She is also involved in interdisciplinary research, including The Boundaries Longitudinal Study at the Sahlgrenska Academy, a ten-year interdisciplinary project which explores the intersection of migration law and medical practice. In addition, she leads a research project on evidentiary challenges in family reunification cases involving same-sex couples.
Alongside her research, Åberg teaches at the advanced level in legal theory and migration law.
Research areas
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Migration raw
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Human rights
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International law
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Legal theory
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EU law
Teaching areas
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Migration law
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International law
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Legal theory
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Social law