Immigration and Citizenship

Susan Sterett

Immigration concerns the movement of people across national borders; citizenship concerns who legally belongs to a state. People legally assimilate through citizenship, which excludes and includes. Citizenship is distinct from being a subject of a monarchy in that it implies participating in government. The ideal type of citizenship has been that it is “egalitarian, sacred, national, democratic, unique and socially consequential” (Brubaker 1997: 132). States typically receive people who settle as asylum seekers or refugees, family members of those already settled, labor migrants, or retirees with sufficient resources. The legal regulation of people movement and national membership leads to disputes, and courts, administrative tribunals, and case level officials work out much of the politics of inclusion and exclusion. The places those disputes are addressed include both local and transnational arenas. The number of officials in charge of enforcing borders has expanded as state officials enlist nonstate actors to exclude or ...

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