Does residence imply local voting rights? The current debates about Residence Citizenship of new migrants in New York

Abstract

How should foreign residents - the others-be politically incorporated, at local level, when they settle in receiving countries? Foreign residents have several ways to participate in local politics through immigrant or neighborhood organizations, for instance. But do they have the power to elect local political representatives? In the United States, local political membership of foreign residents through the vote is possible, even though rare, which is not the case of other traditional Western countries of immigration. Advocates of the residence citizenship concept, which refers to some aspects of the original definition of citizenship of pre-emergent nation-states, introduce a distinction between national and local elections, by granting local voting rights to foreign residents without asking them to naturalize. According to this proposition, nationality and citizenship are separated, concerning local elections, by underlying residence duration as a major criterion to validate voting rights. In this paper, I seek to analyze the debates that are taking place in New York City. Opponents of local voting rights for foreign residents think that there is a risk of losing the value of American citizenship by getting around loyalty oaths, whereas supporters of residence citizenship consider that it is a relevant means to include all residents in local democracy.