RL

Lecture 7: Politics, Society, Development and Environment:

Lecture Outline:

  1. Definitions - what is citizenship?

  2. Inclusions & exclusions: Boundary policing

  3. Scale of Citizenship

Definitions:

  • Citizenship: “The rights and duties relating to an individual’s membership of a political community.” (Mitchell, 2009, p.84)

  • Diversity of citizenships?:

    • Citizenship is binary (you have or you don’t have citizenship)

    • But also as a non-binary: it is differentiated, graduated, and variegated

  • T.H. Marshall’s “social citizenship”

    • Civic & legal: Property rights

    • Political: Voting and democratic participation

    • Social: Welfare, housing and healthcare

Differentiated citizenships:

  • Civil rights for men and women

  • Civil rights for African Americans

  • Freedom of sexuality

  • Freedom of expression I.e: Veils and Hijabs etc.

3. Citizenship’s inclusions and exclusions: Boundary Policing

  • Constructing the US-Mexican Border

    • Visually constructed (Borders on a map)

    • Materially constructed (Mexico wall)

  • Border practises & performances

  • Border as embodied

Borders & Sovereignty at India-Bangladesh border:

Reece Jones (2015)

  • Spatial & temporal fluidity of border

  • Spaces of refusal - ‘refusal to abide by the binary framing of state territorial and identity categories’

Everyday Bordering:

  • How can migration status change?

  • What is meant by the term ‘everyday bordering’?

  • What was/is the ‘Windrush scandal’?

  1. Immigration Regimes

  • "Controlling” borders & people who seek to cross them

  • Immigration Regimes e.g. Singapore

    • June 2024: Population: 6 million

    • 3.64 million resident citizens

    • 544,900 permanent residents

    • 1.86 million other people (non-residents) = A country of net immigration

    • Two sources of labour treated very differently:

      • Foreign Talent: More mobility and opportunities

      • Foreign Labour: Temporary entry; and if pregnant then forced to leave

  1. Citizenship & Identity

  • “You’ll have to make an oath of allegiance (or you can make an affirmation if you prefer not to swear by God) and a pledge. This means you’ll promise to respect the rights, freedoms and laws of the UK”. (UK Government, 2025)

Scale of Citizenship

-Spain: Regional/Sub-National Identity

  • Many diferent cultures derived from the different kingdoms that were in Spain:

    • Castilian Spanish 83%

    • Catalan 7%

    • Galician 4%

    • Arabic/English/French/Romanian 1%

  • JUST LIKE: The UK with the North and South Divide, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland etc,

Flexible Citizenship:

  • Citizenship is fluid in an increasingly globalising world.

  • BUT not the same flexibility for everyone

  • Holding multiple passports - accessing different resources & opportunities

Dual Citizenship and Remittances:

  • 2023: estimated global remittances: US$ 822 billion, for example:

    • Tonga: 41.9% GDP

    • Tajikistan 38.4% GDP

    • Samoa 28.2% GDP

    • Nepal 26.3% GDP