3243 Issues of Citizenship
WG Law and Migration
Room: C4.06
Chair: Iker Barbero | University of the Basque Country
Tobias Eule | University of Bern
Convenient citizenship: an ethnography of naturalisation processes
Abstract
This paper engages with the debate on the role of citizenship today through an analysis of citizenship acquisition. Based on ethnographic research in German migration offices, it holds that naturalisation processes differ greatly from other types of residence permit granting. Whereas applications for the right to remain are often hotly contested and emotional, applications for citizenships are much more unperturbed. The paper will suggest three reasons for this. First, the stakes appear less high to applicants, as being able to stay (at all) is the main source of anxiety for many. Second, many applicants attribute little value to the (political) rights granted through citizenship. Third, applications are often made for decidedly pragmatic reasons. Except for situations when rights seem volatile - such as British citizens after the Brexit vote - citizenship (in Germany) does thus no longer seem to hold great emotional weight.
Eddie Kolla | Georgetown University
Passport Unions and the Present and Future of Citizenship
Abstract
Passports are among the most important and tangible manifestations of citizenship. Historically, it has been the prerogative of states to issue these proofs of nationality and prerequisites for travel, and thus monopolize what one scholar has called “the legitimate means of movement.” The inclusion of biometric information with identity documents only increases the power of the state with regards to vital statistics and people’s ability to move. In recent times, however, there has been a trend away from the power of the state with respect to passports. Supranational organizations, like the Gulf Cooperation Council and African Union, have made initiatives towards passport-free travel for citizens between member states. The European Union has the most famous such arrangements, with its “Free Movement Directive,” which guarantees the rights of free passage, work, and residence for Europeans across the continent, complemented by the Schengen visa harmonization zone. Some have posited that these moves are creating a new form of citizenship—though not without drawbacks, not least the solidification of barriers around the union at the same time as they are eradicated within. Stress, however, is not only apparent at the margins. The refugee crisis stemming from the Syrian Civil War and the successful “Brexit” vote to leave the European Union, based in large measure on opposition to the free movement of people into the United Kingdom, have highlighted the challenges to both a true European passport union and the new ideas of citizenship it could represent. In line with the meeting’s call, to look at individuals’ “construction of the communities to which they belong, whether by the means of their own agency, by establishing relationships of cooperation or by forming organized groups,” this paper aims to investigate the present and future of citizenship through the lens of the modern passport union.
Hideki Tarumoto, Waseda University
A Socio-Legal Analysis of Multiple Citizenship
Abstract
Over the last few decades, the more international migration has been accelerated, the more states have shown increasing tolerance of multiple citizenship. Some of them promote their expatriates to acquire and keep their nationalities positively. However, even recently there emerged some issues on multiple citizenship. In Australia, some politicians were criticised from their holding dual nationalities. In Japan, the leading politician of the Minshin-to Party, Renho, was doubted if she might retain Taiwanese nationality with Japanese nationality. Why do some states make tolerance towards multiple citizenship? Why do other states keep intolerant attitudes? To address this issue, we need adopt not only legal but sociological analysis on multiple citizenship. One of the key is to explore the changing relationship of the identity dimension and the status/rights dimension of citizenship in the age of international migration.
Iker Barbero | University of the Basque Country
Ana Lopez Sala | CSIC-Spain
Activists in the crimmigration debate
Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to raise the role of the criminalization of activists in favor the rights of migrants in the discussion of crimmigration studies. Based on an analysis of the immigration and citizens' security legislation and criminal sanctions, we consider that there has been a legislative evolution used to neutralize the actions of certain activists committed in the denunciation of the violation of fundamental rights.
Deborah De Felice | University of CataniaDeborah De Felice
Legal contexts, citizenship and HT investigation
Abstract
Over 140 000 victims at any one time are involved in Human trafficking (HT) in Western and Central Europe - including a large number of women (61%) and children (20%) (United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime, 2012). The latter may then be identified as victims in countries of transit, for example Italy, or of destination, like France (OSCE, 2011, p.59; UNODC, 2006). National policies of these countries have thus made the fight against HT a priority. How then identify young HT victims within young migrants? The issue of HT of children is part of the reflections on the globalized world, where the reduction of border controls and the great migration in Western countries have encouraged this form of modern slavery. Above all is important to protect and promote the rights of the children victims and also are required collaboration with the local communities to improve life quality and to reduce social conflicts, sharing of responsibility between the actors, integrate and multidisciplinary approach in the relation between local context and national context and between institutions and civil society in both countries. Our research project forms part of the international scientific community’s effort to improve our understanding of specific interview contexts with the main objective to positively influence future professional practices. In this project, the goal is to do a critical comparative study between Italy and France of the ways countries recognize and protect legal relationships of juveniles suspected to be victims of human trafficking. The project proposes analyzing the institutional and cultural background in Italy and in France in the belief that there are constitutive elements of the phenomenon and of the investigation so as to provide an invariable investigation instrument able to incorporate elements from different contexts. This is even more important in a contemporary context characterized by the sociocultural consequences of globalization erode the traditional boundaries of law and legal systems, hybridize legal cultures and create new conditions for legal regulation which gives the shape of fundamental rights and citizenship. The competencies of Sociology of law as an interdisciplinary space open to theoretical and methodological innovation, allow us to develop the analysis broadening the horizon of understanding of some specific aspects of the phenomenon of young HT in response to social, political and legal changes.