General perspectives on membership: citizenship, migration and the end of liberalism

Abstract

All countries in the world face the challenge of managing migration and mobility. The dilemmas of migration management are especially acute in liberal democracies where economic pressures push governments to be open to migration, while political, legal and security concerns argue for greater closure—what I have called a liberal paradox. The ‘liberal’ order is defined by a rights-markets dynamic, where migrants and refugees have been able to acquire basic civil and human rights. Citizenship, on the other hand, remains a sovereign prerogative of the nation-state, with the partial exception of the European Union. The Covid-19 pandemic threatens the liberal order, changing the trade-offs involved in managing migration and mobility, as states move to close their borders, to stop mobility in its tracks, to tighten migration and citizenship policies, and to roll back the rights of migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers. Could this be the ‘end of liberalism?’