Irregular migrants complicate the boundaries of citizenship and stretch the parameters of political belonging. Comprised of refugees, asylum seekers, "illegal" labor migrants, and stateless persons, this group of migrants occupies new sovereign spaces that generate new subjectivities. Investigating the role of irregular migrants in the transformation of citizenship, Anne McNevin argues that irregular status is an immanent (rather than aberrant) condition of global capitalism, formed by the fast-tracked processes of globalization. McNevin casts irregular migrants as more than mere victims of sovereign power, shuttled from one location to the next. Incorporating examples from the United States, Australia, and France, she shows how migrants reject their position as "illegal" outsiders and make claims on the communities in which they live and work. For these migrants, outsider status operates as both a mode of subjectification and as a site of active resistance, forcing observers to rethink the enactment of citizenship. McNevin connects irregular migrant activism to the complex rescaling of the neoliberal state. States increasingly prioritize transnational market relations that disrupt the spatial context for citizenship. At the same time, states police their borders in ways that reinvigorate territorial identities. Mapping the broad dynamics of political belonging in a neoliberal era, McNevin provides invaluable insight into the social and spatial transformation of citizenship, sovereignty, and power.

In contrast to most other countries, both Germany and Israel have descent-based concepts of nationhood and have granted members of their nation (ethnic Germans and Jews) who wish to immigrate automatic access to their respective citizenship privileges. Therefore these two countries lend themselves well to comparative analysis of the integration process of immigrant groups, who are formally part of the collective "self" but increasingly transformed into "others." The book examines the integration of these 'privileged' immigrants in relation to the experiences of other minority groups (e.g. labor migrants, Palestinians). This volume offers rich empirical and theoretical material involving historical developments, demographic changes, sociological problems, anthropological insights, and political implications. Focusing on the three dimensions of citizenship: sovereignty and control, the allocation of social and political rights, and questions of national self-understanding, the essays bring to light the elements that are distinctive for either society but also point to similarities that owe as much to nation-specific characteristics as to evolving patterns of global migration.

The book discusses citizenship in the contemporary world; as a concept, as an ideal, as a policy and as a goal to be achieved from the perspective of different academic disciplines.

Birthright citizenship has a deep and contentious history in the United States, one often hard to square in a country that prides itself on being "a nation of immigrants." Even as the question of citizenship for children of immigrants was seemingly settled by the Fourteenth Amendment, vitriolic debate has continued for well over a century, especially in relation to U.S. race relations. Most recently, a provocative and decidedly more offensive term than birthright citizenship has emerged: "anchor babies." With this book, Leo R. Chavez explores the question of birthright citizenship, and of citizenship in the United States writ broadly, as he counters the often hyperbolic claims surrounding these so-called anchor babies. Chavez considers how the term is used as a political dog whistle, how changes in the legal definition of citizenship have affected the children of immigrants over time, and, ultimately, how U.S.-born citizens still experience trauma if they live in families with undocumented immigrants. By examining this pejorative term in its political, historical, and social contexts, Chavez calls upon us to exorcise it from public discourse and work toward building a more inclusive nation.

This book provides a critique of the way in which European citizenship is imagined and practiced. Setting their analysis in its full historical context, the authors challenge preconceived ideas about European citizenship on the basis of a detailed reconstruction of political, social and economic practice. In particular, they show the extent to which the elimination of formal internal borders within Europe has come hand in glove with the emergence of new socio-economic boundaries and the hardening of external borders. The book concludes with a number of concrete proposals to forge a genuinely post-national form of membership.

Making a new case for separating citizenship from nationality, this book comparatively examines a key selection of nation-states in terms of their definitions of nationality and citizenship, and the ways in which the association of some with the European Union has transformed these definitions. In a combination of case studies from Europe and the Middle East, this book’s comparative framework addresses the question of citizenship and ethnic conflict from the foundation of the nation-state, to the current challenges raised by globalization. This edited volume examines six different countries and looks at the way that ethnic or religious identity lies at the core of the national community, ultimately determining the state’s definition and treatment of its citizens. The selected contributors to this new volume investigate this common ambiguity in the construction of nations, and look at the contrasting ways in which the issues of citizenship and identity are handled by different nation-states. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars studying in the areas of citizenship and the nation-state, ethnic conflict, globalization and Middle Eastern and European Politics.

Indigenous people in Latin America have mobilized in unprecedented ways - demanding recognition, equal protection, and subnational autonomy. These are remarkable developments in a region where ethnic cleavages were once universally described as weak. Recently, however, indigenous activists and elected officials have increasingly shaped national political deliberations. Deborah Yashar explains the contemporary and uneven emergence of Latin American indigenous movements - addressing both why indigenous identities have become politically salient in the contemporary period and why they have translated into significant political organizations in some places and not others. She argues that ethnic politics can best be explained through a comparative historical approach that analyzes three factors: changing citizenship regimes, social networks, and political associational space. Her argument provides insight into the fragility and unevenness of Latin America's third wave democracies and has broader implications for the ways in which we theorize the relationship between citizenship, states, identity, and social action.

A comparative study of how citizens define their civic duty in response to current threats to advanced democracies.

Over the last ten years citizenship has become an area of interdisciplinary research and teaching in its own right. This book highlights that globalization poses new challenges for established understandings and practices of citizenship, and that intellectual work is required to fashion models of citizenship better suited to present problems and realities. In particular, this volume emphasizes the pluralization of identities and communities within states brought about by such forces as mass immigration, global communication, substate regionalism and more generally the fragmentation of modern notions of nation. The challenge is to devise forms of democracy and political identity adequate to these 'globalized' conditions. Ideally suited to anyone interested in globalization, cultural diversity and citizenship.

Interest in citizenship has never been higher. But what does it mean to be a citizen in a modern, complex community? Richard Bellamy approaches the subject of citizenship from a political perspective and, in clear and accessible language, addresses the complexities behind this highly topical issue.