Abstract
The presence of immigrants and their activities challenge traditional notions of citizenship centred on the conflation of national and state membership. Four dimensions of citizenship— defined here as membership in a socio-political community—are identified: legal status, rights, identity, and participation. Discussion centres on the constraints and determinants of naturalization, the extent to which rights are linked to personhood rather than membership in a nation-state, and the challenge to state identity and cohesion produced by multiculturalism. It is suggested that future research should consider citizenship as participation. This dimension highlights how immigrants’ transnational activities challenge traditional views of citizenship. We cannot, however, dismiss the importance of the state. The concept of participation is therefore also important since it focuses attention on dynamic interactions between the individual and the nation-state.
Résumé
La présence des immigrants et leurs activités remettent en question les notions traditionnelles de citoyenneté selon lesquelles les individus appartiennent à un État qui correspond à une nation. La citoyenneté, définie ici comme étant l’appartenance à une communauté sociopolitique, comporte quatre dimensions: le statut légal, les droits, l’identité et la participation. Le débat est surtout axé sur les contraintes et les déterminants de la naturalisation, sur la relation entre les droits et le citoyen en tant qu’individu plutôt que membre d’un État-nation, et sur la menace que représente le multiculturalisme pour l’identité et la cohésion de l’État. Selon l’auteur, la dimension de participation sera une piste importante à suivre à l’avenir. Dans le cas des immigrants dont les activités sont transnationales, cette dimension montre les limites des idées traditionnelles de citoyenneté. Nous ne pouvons toutefois pas ignorer l’importance de l’État. Là encore, le concept de participation met en relief les interactions dynamiques entre l’individu et l’État-nation.
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Jerome Black and Yasemin Soysal helped generate a number of ideas developed here. I would also like to thank two anonymous reviewrs from this journal for their comments and suggestions.
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Bloemraad, I. Citizenship and immigration a current review. Int. Migration & Integration 1, 9–37 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12134-000-1006-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12134-000-1006-4