Supranational Citizenship in Regional Integration Organizations: The Interplay between Migration, Rights, Belonging and Regional Identity

Abstract

Despite its apparent singularity, the EU citizenship is not the only case of supranational construction of rights and belonging within a regional organization. Other organizations such as MERCOSUR, CAN, UNASUR or ECOWAS have created a set of rights (free movement, social, political or economic entitlements) that compose a similar configuration of supranational citizenship, thus contributing to narratives regarding the sense of “belonging” to the regional group. This panel examines this diversity of institutional configurations from two perspectives. Firstly, comparative approaches will allow to question the singularity/commonality among these forms of citizenship, thus opening a broader discussion on EU comparability. Secondly, supranational citizenship offers an excellent empirical ground for testing theoretical debates on functionalist and diffusionist approaches to institutional design (i.e. has EU citizenship inspired the creation of other models of supranational citizenship or do these respond to autonomous functional needs?). The panel welcomes papers focusing on the aggregate level (i.e. conceptions of supranational citizenship in regional organizations), disaggregate level (i.e. configurations of specific sets of supranational rights) or the national level (i.e. national implementation of specific rights).