Transnational Citizenship as Status, Identity and Participation: Comparative Assessment

Abstract

This paper assesses the transformations of citizenship in migrant transnationalism. It outlines a six-fold analytical model (see also Jakobson, M.-L., & Kalev, L. (2011). Roots, not participation: Attitudes towards citizenship among ‘Transnationals’. ECPR 6th General Conference (pp. 1–26). Reykjavik: ECPR.; Jakobson et al. 2012), enabling a simultaneous interpretation of citizenship as a status, an identity, and participation both vertically and horizontally. We aim to go further than most other empirical accounts of transnational citizenship or political transnationalism, that usually consider one or two of these aspects, focusing on status (Bloemraad, I. (2004). Who claims dual citizenship? The limits of postnationalism, the possibilities of transnationalism and the persistence of traditional citizenship. International Migration Review, 38(2), 389–426) or participation (Itzigsohn, J. (2000). Immigration and the boundaries of citizenship: The institutions of immigrants’ political transnationalism. International Migration Review, 34(4), 1126–1154), or instead, on identification and status in society (Soysal, Y. (1994). Limits of citizenship: Migrants and postnational membership in Europe. Chicago: Chicago University Press).

Based on empirical accounts of four transnational spaces, transnational citizenship resembles more a dual national citizenship rather than a qualitatively new formation, but demonstrates that the horizontal and vertical loyalties and arenas form a functionally differentiated model of agency in the two nation-state settings. Transnationalisation seems to be reinforcing the erosion rather than constructing a new foundation for civic initiative and affiliation (see also Kivisto, P., & Faist, T. (2007). Citizenship discourse, theory and transnational prospects. Oxford: Blackwell).

This article is a revised and improved version of the paper presented by Mari-Liis Jakobson at the conference “Relationships between Diasporas and Their ‘Homelands’ and Their Impact on the State, National Identities, and Peace & Conflict”, 2.-4. February 2012, Lebanese American University, Beirut.