Co-citizens: The Contribution we can’t Refuse

This Paper invites to look at the inclusion of newcomers in hosting communities through the lens of the joint commitment theory proposed by Margaret Gilbert. The authors argues that, for what concerns citizenship, the joint activity at issue is the creation and exchange of social goods and, more specifically, the distribution of social goods according to the principle of equality. Participants in the practices of creation and exchange of social goods have, then, the standing to demand equal distribution of social goods of one another, simply by virtue of their participation in the relative practices of creation and exchange of social goods. The Paper maps out situations in which citizenship rights of formal members (EU citizens) and rights of non-members (third country nationals) are so much alike and interdependent that they cannot be told apart. The author argues that, in such cases, formal members and non-members are equally involved in a common enterprise and the notion of citizenship is the best way to account for the rights and obligations arising from this form of joint commitment.