Shifting Landscapes of Citizenship

Abstract

What it is to be a citizen is not a simple matter. For an individual to be a citizen is for that person to belong in a particular way to a community, be it a ‘city’ (as in the origins of the term), a nation state or some other broad grouping such as the European Union (EU). That an individual is a citizen of a community is a matter of law. However, the relationship also carries cultural connotations. Being a citizen implies that an individual shares certain beliefs with, and behaves as a member of, the community. The beginning of the twenty-first century has seen a number of nation states impose — or refine — tests to ensure that citizens to whom they grant the formal legal status have appropriate cultural attributes. Not only have the classical countries of immigration, such as Australia, Canada and the United States, strengthened or reintroduced stringent tests for migrants to become citizens, but the countries of Western Europe have, for the first time, also turned to testing regimes. Since the beginning of the century, the Netherlands and Germany have imposed tests of cultural knowledge for new citizens; the Netherlands has developed a civic integration regime which prospective migrants take before arrival; and the United Kingdom has revised its requirements of cultural knowledge and toughened its stance on visas and migration (Chapter 6). In a time of globalisation, it is remarkable that so many nations are insisting on nationally based cultural attributes for would-be citizens.