Immigrant Citizenship Research Articles

“There’s No Connection Plugging Me Into This System”: Citizenship as Non‐Participation and Voicelessness

The small and remote island community, the Faroe Islands, has experienced a vast increase in immigration recently. In the space of a decade, immigration has risen from 1.5% of the population to 5.5%. The island community, previously ethnically and culturally homogenous, is now facing growing diversity. The Faroese context is characterised by its small size and a micro‐administration that is ill‐equipped for the complexities of immigration. Previous research has found that underlying the Faroese language and identity is a pervasive ideology of who is considered to “authentically belong.” Furthermore, the small population is strongly connected through multiple relations, and navigating formal and informal life depends on social/family networks. In this small island community context, this article examines immigrant citizenship experiences, drawing on qualitative data collated between 2016 and 2023. Citizenship is here understood as everyday relational and spatial experiences at various levels of society. From the analysis, two central values of citizenship emerged as key to entangled citizenship experiences: (non)participation and (mis)recognition. The analysis finds that Faroese society, both formally and informally, is highly inaccessible to immigrants, rendering them voiceless and marginalised. Furthermore, immigrants experience misrecognition for the resources they bring and find themselves on the margins of the labour market and society in general.

Wong Kim Ark’s children: immigrant citizenship under Chinese exclusion

ABSTRACT This paper argues that the pairings of citizenship and immigration, territory and mobility – pairings often considered distinct to or even opposite of one another – are critically interconnected. These links are particularly visible in the experiences of Chinese-born children of U.S.-born fathers. These children secured jus sanguinis birthright citizenship from their fathers, fathers who secured jus soli birthright citizenship under the Wong Kim Ark decision. They were ‘immigrant citizens’ who were allowed to immigrate to the United States only because they were U.S. citizens. Wong Kim Ark’s children, along with other Chinese Americans under exclusion, upend the assumed teleology of immigration preceding citizenship and the association of citizenship with territorial presence. Although they were targeted by U.S. immigration authorities, Chinese immigrant citizens fought for their right to migrate between China and the United States. In the process, they exposed some of the ways in which presumed distinctions between citizenship and alienage were blurred during Chinese exclusion, as well as the ways in which citizenship is legally constructed.

Was the 2020 Presidential Election Nerve-Wracking?: Changes in Mental Health Among College Dreamers.

U.S. presidential elections can be stressful for many Americans; however, there is little research as to how elections might influence mental health of undocumented immigrants specifically. The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election had the potential to dramatically influence immigration policies with the Democratic candidate promising a pathway toward citizenship for undocumented immigrants who arrived in the U.S. as minors (i.e., dreamers), and the incumbent Republican candidate threatening to terminate the DACA program. Using an online survey method, this exploratory longitudinal study examined whether dreamers' mental health changed following the U.S. presidential election, while also examining risk factors associated with their mental health. We employed GAD-7 and PHQ-9 questionnaires as preclinical screens for anxiety and depression. We found that the mean anxiety and depression scores decreased significantly following the election, i.e., when the democratic candidate was declared the winner. Risk factors for mental health problems also differed before and after the election. Risk factors for depression before the election included being female, Hispanic white, having a low self-reported status on the subjective social ladder, and having high perceived discrimination; risk factors for depression after the election included coming to the U.S. at an older age and high perceived discrimination. Risk factors for anxiety before the election included being female, having more siblings, both parents working, and high perceived discrimination. Risk factors for anxiety after the election included low self-reported status on the subjective social ladder, being a freshman, and high perceived discrimination. Preliminary results suggest that mental health of dreamers improved after the election. In addition, while risk factors differed before and after the election, perceived everyday discrimination remained a consistent risk factor for mental health issues.

Manifold Threats to White Identity and Their Political Effects on White Partisans

We investigate how threats to White identity operate among White Democrats and Republicans. We evaluate four identity threats that prior work has underexplored: distinctiveness threat (loss of unique ingroup attributes), power threat (perceiving outgroup collusion), morality threat (impugning an ingroup’s integrity), and meritocratic threat (questioning an ingroup’s advantages). We pinpoint which threats catalyze White identity among specific partisans—and with what political consequences. Leveraging a pre-registered experiment with 2,000 White Democrats and 2,000 White Republicans, we find most identity threats significantly catalyze White identity among all partisans at comparable intensity (d = .20). However, among White Democrats, a heightened sense of racial identity generates more downstream opposition to pro-outgroup policies (e.g., pathway to immigrant citizenship) and greater support for pro-ingroup policies (i.e., legacy college admissions) than among White Republicans. These indirect effects are highly robust and underscore White identity’s viability as a key mechanism behind contemporary partisan politics.

A Rigth to Learn, A Right to Belong: Education's Impact on Immigrant Citizenship in Brazil

The Law 13.445, from May 24, 2017, postulated Brazilian migration policy and presents equal opportunities for the nation’s citizens and migrants. The article 4, X, establishes the right to public education, prohibiting discrimination based on nationality or migratory status. According to the Federal Constitution (1988), education has three purposes: fostering the complete development of the individual, preparing them for active citizenship, and equipping them with skills for employment. This article aims to explore how these three purposes consist in providing quality education for immigrants, thereby strengthening their citizenship in Brazil. The methodology involved conducting a bibliographic review of relevant literature and analyzing relevant legislation.

Jannis Panagiotidis. The Unchosen Ones: Diaspora, Nation, and Migration in Israel and Germany.

Jannis Panagiotidis’s ambitious comparative study, The Unchosen Ones: Diaspora, Nation, and Migration in Israel and Germany, highlights what was common and what was distinctive in policies of the Federal Republic of Germany and Israel that privileged access to citizenship for certain immigrants belonging to the dominant ethnic or, in the case of Israel, religious group. Panagiotidis focuses especially on rejections of individual applications for treatment as Aussiedler (resettler) or oleh (someone who goes up, to Israel) that forced policy makers and gatekeepers in each country to clarify their priorities. “It was the unchosen ones who defined the chosen ones” (4). Both states justified their privileging of members of the dominant ethnic or religious group on the basis of past and current persecution. During and after the Second World War, ethnic Germans suffered both from popular hatreds created by Nazi rule and official policies of ethnic cleansing, which led to the expulsion of millions of ethnic Germans from their homes in Poland and Czechoslovakia. The West German Basic Law of May 1949, the constitution of the Federal Republic, established the right of expellees and refugees of German Volkszugehörigkeit (belongingness to the German people) to be considered German citizens once they arrived in West Germany. The 1953 law that implemented this clause extended the meaning of the term “expellee” to include all ethnic Germans living in the Soviet Union, Soviet bloc countries, and Yugoslavia even after the end of official expulsions. This continuing access to West German citizenship was “a consequence of the assumption that conditions in the old homeland [of the “expellee”] under foreign and communist rule had become unbearable” (42).

Citizenship and monogamy in Canada: the case of the Shafia family murders

ABSTRACT The Canadian state continues to colonize kinship through political and media discourses of polygamy. Drawing on discussions of the Shafia family murders during House of Commons debates about the Zero Tolerance for Barbaric Cultural Practices Act, I analyze how the Shafia family became a talking point about how polygamy is an inherently violent form of kinship that is tethered to ‘barbaric’ immigrant (Muslim) families. The Shafia family was used to buttress imaginings of hetero/homonormative Canadian families as nonviolent and non-patriarchal, while polygamous families (often connected to Eastern family formations) are linked to gender-based violence. These discussions of polygamy serve anti-immigration agendas under the guise of gender equality. Such discourses are grounded in settler-colonial histories, where fragmenting non-normative families was key to destroying Indigenous kinship and accessing land and resources. Settler-colonial histories of colonizing kinship carve out the hetero/homonormative family as a necessary element of proper Canadian citizenship for immigrants.

Has Pandemic Threat Stoked Xenophobia? How COVID-19 Influences California Voters' Attitudes toward Diversity and Immigration.

Sociological theory and historical precedent suggest that pandemics engender scapegoating of outgroups, but fail to specify how the ethnoracial boundaries defining outgroups are drawn. Using a survey experiment that primed half of the respondents (California registered voters) with questions about COVID‐19 during April 2020, we ask how the pandemic influenced attitudes toward immigration, diversity and affect toward Asian Americans. In the aggregate, the COVID prime did not affect attitudes toward immigrants, but did reduce support for policies opening a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants and reduced appreciation of California’s diversity. Respondents reported rarely feeling anger or fear toward Asian Americans, and rates were unaffected by the COVID prime. A non‐experimental comparison between attitudes toward immigrants in September 2019 and April 2020 found a positive change, driven by change among Asian‐American and Latino respondents. The results provide selective support for the proposition that pandemics engender xenophobia. At least in April 2020 in California, increased bias crimes against Asian Americans more likely reflected politicians’ authorization of scapegoating than broad‐based racial antagonism.

Immigration and Multicultural Citizenship in Europe: Insights from the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities

Abstract Multicultural citizenship, a set of group-differentiated rights for minority cultural groups, is now a common feature of most domestic legal systems in Europe. The conventional view, widely reflected in practice, suggests that ‘strong’ rights of this sort should be restricted to so-called ‘historical’ minorities. However, the increasingly long-standing presence of distinct cultural groups of immigrant origin raises the question of whether, and to what extent, the latter should also be granted stronger forms of multicultural citizenship. This article addresses this question by reference to the Council of Europe’s Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities, a central pillar of the international minority rights regime in Europe. The article analyses the application of the treaty to immigrant-origin groups in the Czech Republic and the United Kingdom, showing that the scope of protection afforded to such groups is stronger than previously assumed, though less far-reaching as compared to their ‘historical’ counterparts.

Response to Padilla Peralta, Dan-el. Citizenship’s Insular Cases, from Ancient Greece and Rome to Puerto Rico. Humanities 2019, 8, 134

Dan-el Padilla Peralta’s exquisite exploration of citizenship and displacement across two millennia draws on sources from ancient Greece and Rome as well as modern empires, including the U.S., and proposes two creative heuristic devices—the “insular scheme” and “radical inclusion”—that enable us to better understand both the marginalizing experience and the animating possibilities of immigrant citizenship. In my response to his piece, I assess the relevance of these ideas to the history of Puerto Ricans in relation to the United States. Puerto Ricans, caught in the “insular scheme” of U.S. citizenship since American citizenship was imposed on them in 1917, are the most obvious exemplars of “differentiated citizens” in the nation and have struggled in multiple ways with the question of inclusion as citizens. I examine the ways that Puerto Ricans have used the language of recognition as a way to explain the aspiration of equitable citizenship, a vision of belonging in the nation that sounds much like Padilla Peralta’s “radical inclusion.”

Uses of history as a cultural process: integration, citizenship and the boundary-making in contemporary France

ABSTRACT This article investigates the relationship between history and the boundary-making process studied by cultural sociologists. Drawing on recent works on boundary-making in immigration societies, it argues that a more configurational conception of history is necessary in order to complement the view of history as institutional legacy, which is commonly held in the scholarship on immigrant integration and citizenship. Based on the study of the debates that started in the mid-1980s about immigrant integration in France and the reconstruction of a French political tradition of republican citizenship, and on a dispute that took place between 2004 and 2005 about the legacy of French colonialism, the article shows the role played by the configuration of the past (or historical repertoires) in the construction of the category of ‘Muslims’ as the least valuable member of the French society.

City Government Activists and the Rights of Undocumented Immigrants: Fostering Urban Citizenship within the Confines of US Federalism

AbstractWith the US federal government more aggressive in its efforts to find, detain, and deport undocumented immigrants, certain government officials in American cities have promoted urban citizenship for undocumented immigrants in their jurisdictions. Often acting on demands from community organisations, these activist city officials have developed policies and practices that include undocumented immigrants in public service provision, formal rights protections, and democratic participation modes. Drawing on scholarship on urban citizenship, urban politics, and multi‐level governance, this article analyses how we can understand these officials’ actions in a system where the federal government has monopoly power over immigration and citizenship matters. Based on the recent experiences of New York City and San Francisco, this article shows that government activists in these cities have promoted urban citizenship for undocumented immigrants by pushing against the confines of US federalism while also reaffirming traditional understandings of national citizenship, thus practicing disruption and conformity simultaneously.

The architecture of national boundary regimes: mapping immigration and citizenship policies in 23 democracies 1980\u20132010

In this article, I introduce a typology that maps the regulation of two fundamental boundaries of modern nation-states regarding immigration: territorial boundaries and membership boundaries. Based on a theory of the structural logics underlying Immigration Regime Openness (IRO) and Citizenship Regime Inclusiveness (CRI), I make four observations on the two-dimensional policy space determined by the relative porousness of these two boundaries. First, a Categorical Principal Component Analysis (CATPCA) using a combination of original and existing panel data across 23 liberal democracies from 1980 to 2010 confirms that IRO and CRI are internally consistent and statistically distinct dimensions. Immigration policies therefore appear more coherent than often assumed. Second, the distribution of cases over the four ideal-typical policy configurations from 1980 to 2010 shows that more and more cases combine relatively liberal immigration policies with relatively liberal citizenship policies. Behind this finding are, third, overall liberalizing trajectories in both policies as well as a pattern of convergence in immigration policies. The liberalisation of immigration policies is most notable until 1996 and the level of openness fluctuates thereafter. Regarding citizenship, I provide evidence for a much-cited restrictive turn during the 2000s. In addition, I show that there has already been a restrictive turn in citizenship during the 1990s. Fourth, instead of the trade-off anticipated by much of the literature, I find an increasingly positive correlation between IRO and CRI. The new typology, its underlying theory, and the subsequent findings significantly advance our understanding of the most fundamental boundaries of modern nation-states.

Supreme Court Upholds DACA Program in 5-4 Decision, but Peril Remains

Supreme Court Upholds DACA Program in 5-4 Decision, but Peril Remains

Mobility in the City

In his novels Cockroach and Carnival, Rawi Hage explores the varied experiences of postcolonial migrants to the northern city. His protagonists are antiheroes, hustlers who reject the demands of good immigrant citizenship. Theorists of urban life applaud the city as a space that is hospitable to encounters with difference; they fail to consider the ways in which processes of bordering and differentiation are part of economies that exploit migrants. This article focuses on Hage’s portrayal of migrant mobility in the city. By bringing together a critique of these theorists of urban experience with Sandro Mezzadra’s arguments about the autonomy of postcolonial migrants, who are subjects and agents despite and because of the determinations of the political field, this article probes the subjection of postcolonial migrants in the city. The “politics of mobility” also determines migrants’ modes of conviviality and labor. Hage’s protagonists survive by maneuvering underground, in the interstices of the city, or in a cab, their space of work and mobility in the city, and using a rich verbal medley to tell its myriad stories. Thus Hage presents counterhegemonic narratives and visions of postcolonial migrants in the city.

Uncertainties of Transnational Belonging: Homeland Nationalism and Cultural Citizenship of Lithuanian Immigrants in the USA

Uncertainties of Transnational Belonging: Homeland Nationalism and Cultural Citizenship of Lithuanian Immigrants in the USA

Conditional Belonging: Evaluating Integration Requirements from a Social Equality Perspective

ABSTRACT In multiple EU Member States, immigrants are subjected to an increasing number of integration requirements in order to gain access to residency and political rights. This article explores the legitimacy of such requirements from the perspective of recent theories of social equality. According to these theories, states must seek to uphold a ‘community of equals’ and to avoid problematic status hierarchies between citizens. I argue that aspects of current integration schemes in EU states jeopardise social equality by indicating symbolic hierarchical variations in the status of non-immigrant citizens and citizens with certain immigrant backgrounds. First, there are integration requirements that convey the message that certain immigrants are unwanted or will never truly belong to the nation. Second, there are integration requirements that suggest that the citizenship of (certain) immigrants must be earned conditionally and is contingent on certain competences and efforts, while native-born citizens of the majority are implicitly perceived as natural possessors of their unconditional citizenship. I argue that these integration requirements are problematic from a social equality perspective. Integration requirements that suggest a status hierarchy between citizens who naturally belong and those who conditionally belong should be rejected.

Variations in Naturalization Premiums by Country of Origin

This study uses the 2013–2017 American Community Survey to explore differences in the returns to obtaining US citizenship for immigrants from the four largest source countries relative to all other immigrants. We find that Chinese, Mexican, and Filipino immigrants face a wage penalty prior to naturalization, while Indian immigrants experience higher wages than other immigrants. Naturalization more than offsets the wage penalty for Chinese and Filipino immigrants and partially offsets the wage penalty for Mexican immigrants. However, naturalized Indian immigrants earn less than non-naturalized Indian immigrants. We find only limited evidence of a naturalization premium for immigrants from other countries.

Immigrant citizenship status in Europe: the role of individual characteristics and national policies

The acquisition of citizenship status in the new country of residence may depend on (1) the individual immigrant’s characteristics, (2) the structural characteristics of both the origin and the destination countries and (3) institutional factors in the destination country including policy factors, specifically the national citizenship policies. Although almost all European countries have shifted from a ‘nationalist’ to a more ‘multiculturalist’ citizenship policy, thus formally liberalising the access to citizenship rights, in Europe the opportunities for obtaining citizenship status in the new country of residence are still quite limited for many immigrants and their descendants. In addition, the conditions under which immigrants become naturalised citizens vary widely between countries. Indeed, there are many differences in policies on the right to citizenship in terms of the residence requirements for naturalisation, citizenship by birth, acceptance of dual citizenship and language requirements. The aim of this paper is to examine, through a logistic regression model with cluster-robust standard errors, the effect of both individual-level characteristics and measures of national citizenship policies on the likelihood of citizenship status amongst young and adult immigrants living in six European countries, i.e. Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal and Spain, using data from the Immigrant Citizens Survey (ICS). The results show a considerable effect of individual characteristics on citizenship status. However, the effect of policy factors is also important. In particular, a lower residence requirement for naturalisation and a more inclusive environment favour immigrants becoming citizens of the new country of residence.

The labyrinth towards citizenship: contradictions in the framing and categorization of immigrants in immigration and integration policies

ABSTRACT Restrictive policies in Europe are accompanied by exclusionary discourses concerning national citizenship for immigrants, depicting them dichotomously as either ‘deserving’ or ‘undeserving’. In our analysis of immigration and integration policies in Belgium, we focus on how these political discourses interact to differentiate between categories of immigrants who are included or excluded to some extent in ways that are more complex than the dichotomy suggests. We conduct framing and category analyses of migration and integration policies to reveal a discursive field consisting of four central frames that generate seven categories of immigrants with varying degrees of deservingness. Instead of a linear path towards citizenship, migrants are trapped in a labyrinth. We reveal four important contradictions in the policy discourse, leading to the conclusion that permanently probationary citizenship status is the highest attainable goal for certain immigrants. Finally, we discuss the implications of this labyrinth for the socioeconomic position of immigrants.