Migration and Citizenship

Abstract

The movement of people across borders challenges old political boundaries and the notions of membership. Migration thus provides a central context in which citizenship can be approached from new perspectives. It draws the attention to the margins of citizenship, which increases understanding of how citizenship is shaped and contested. The questions regarding naturalization and access to citizenship have become topical in new ways: who are entitled to citizenship and on what conditions and what is the relevance of the formal status of citizenship for other aspects of citizenship. The dynamics between migration and citizenship opens space for re-interpreting the relation between citizenship and community: if citizenship means membership in a community, where is that community, what is it like and who are included and excluded. In the context of migration, this panel discusses access, rights, categorisations constructed around citizenship, citizenship tests as well as exclusions made through the concept of citizenship.