The Rohingya of Myanmar: theoretical significance of the minority status

The Rohingya of Myanmar have been experiencing a range of human rights violations including state-sponsored genocide and ethnic cleansing. Many argue that the genesis of the crisis lies in the denial of their legal status and granting citizenship would offer a solution. This article argues that apart from such legal dynamics, significant theoretical aspects of this crisis require analysis. From a theoretical perspective, the Rohingya’s identity as a minority is important as it leads to their persecution. This article demonstrates that their minority identity has been (re)constructed over time. Four factors such as (i) development of Burmese nationalism; (ii) politicisation of identity for Burmese majority; (iii) taking away of the citizenship of Rohingya; and (iv) ethnic divisions in Myanmar society have played significant roles in (re)constructing their identity as a minority. They give rise to a type of citizenship in Myanmar, which fails to include the religious minority within its ambit.     

Citizenship as cultural: Towards a theory of cultural citizenship

Traditional notions of citizenship have focused on formal membership, including access to rights, in a national community. More recent scholarship has expanded this definition beyond citizenship as a legal status to focus on struggles for societal inclusion of and justice for marginalized populations, citizenship as both a social and symbolic boundary of exclusion, and post‐colonial and post‐national citizenship. In this article, I review conceptions of citizenship that involve more than legal rights. After reviewing this scholarship, I discuss the theoretical framework of cultural citizenship – a move to center the cultural underpinnings of modern citizenship in analyses of citizenship as a boundary of inclusion and exclusion. I use the example of France as one site to locate the connections between citizenship and culture and the cultural underpinnings and implications of citizenship more broadly.     

Legal pluralism and the Shari'a: a comparison of Greece and Turkey

The creation of a national and unified legal system was an important aspect of the rise of the modern state and national citizenship. However, this interpretation of legal rationalization has been challenged by sociologists of law such as Eugene Ehrlich (1862–1922) who claimed that this juridical theory of state‐centred law masked the presence of customary laws outside this formal system. In critical theories of the law, legal pluralism is proposed against the idea of legal sovereignty or legal centralism. In this article we explore the implications of the growth of the Shari'a as an example of legal pluralism. We take Turkey and Greece as two interesting but different examples of legal pluralism and consider the implications of these case studies for debates about liberalism, multiculturalism and citizenship in multi‐faith societies.     

From student to citizen: a survey of students from the People's Republic of China (PRC) in Australia

This article is a survey of students from the People's Republic of China (PRC) who arrived in Australia after 1986 and were still there in 1992. Students from the PRC began to enter Australia in 1972 when China and Australia established diplomatic relations. The numbers were insignificant until 1986 when Australia launched its education export policy.
The article provides statistics and analysis on the motivation of these students, their education and family backgrounds and their present conditions and aspirations. The article also addresses issues such as Australia's education export and imigration policies, the dilemma between political and economic refugees in terms of human rights and the impact of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre on PRC students in Australia at the time.
The survey results suggest that the majority of the former PRC students have settled successfully in Australia, though not without considerable difficulties and emotional cost. The question of distinction between political and economic refugees is acknowledged as a very thorny one, and it is suggested that immigration policy based on national interest, and clearly stated, would be more convincing, less hypocritical and therefore in the long run more effective.     

Identity,security and the nation: understanding the South Korean response to North Korean defectors

From the Cold War era of the ‘veteran heroes’ to the present view of escaped North Koreans in terms more akin to ‘refugees’ and sometimes even just ‘migrants’, perceptions of North Korean defectors in South Korea have changed as swiftly as the number and origins of Northerners entering the South have expanded. At the same time, government policy for these ethnic ‘brethren’ has evolved considerably, particularly as South Korea has seen fundamental shifts in its independent identity, with important repercussions for the way its citizens view themselves as a collective. This article explores some of the key influences behind changes to policy and perceptions regarding North Korean people in South Korea over the period from 1997 to 2012, by applying international relations theory on national identity and its role in policy formation and change through the need to secure different parameters within that identity.     

The erosion of citizenship

The Marshallian paradigm of social citizenship has been eroded because the social and economic conditions that supported postwar British welfare consensus have been transformed by economic and technological change. This article argues that effective entitlement was based on participation in work, war and reproduction, resulting in three types of social identity: worker-citizens, warrior-citizens and parent-citizens. The casualization of labour and the technological development of war have eroded work and war as routes to active citizenship. Social participation through reproduction remains important, despite massive changes to marriage and family as institutions. In fact the growth of new reproductive technologies have reinforced the normative dominance of marriage as a social relation. These rights of reproduction are described as 'reproductive citizenship'. The article also considers the role of voluntary associations in Third-Way strategies as sources of social cohesion in societies where social capital is in decline, and argues that the voluntary sector is increasingly driven by an economic logic of accumulation. With the erosion of national citizenship, Marshall's three forms of rights (legal, political and social) have been augmented by rights that are global, namely environmental, aboriginal and cultural rights. These are driven by global concerns about the relationship between environment, community and body such that the quest for social security has been replaced by concerns for ontological security.     

Is the Problem of European Citizenship a Problem of Social Citizenship? Social Policy,Federalism, and Democracy in the EU and United States*

The development of supranational (European) social rights, and therefore social citizenship, is undermined by strong, direct relationships between citizens and national welfare states. Social policies contribute to national identities because they entail direct relationships between states and citizens. In well‐developed European welfare states strong relationships between citizens and their member‐states are expected. This may prevent the development of a similar relationship at the European level. The U.S. provides a comparison case, wherein a successful transference of citizenship identity from a lower to higher level has occurred, partly as a result of the building of national‐level social citizenship, at least for certain classes of people. Revolutionary War Pensions provide an example of how social policy influences national identity. The lack of EU‐level social policy precludes the possibility of this type of identity formation. Finally, the interplay of social citizenship and democracy in both cases is explored. T.H. Marshall’s work regarding citizenship as the basis for democracy is used to understand how the inability to create a common social policy in the EU is harmful to democracy.     

Germany at the crossroads: national identity and the challenges of immigration

"In Germany the discussion [of immigration] is taking place between two extreme positions, one that denies Germany is de facto an immigration country...and one that compares Germany with traditional immigration societies like the United States, Canada, or Australia. As will be demonstrated, both arguments are too simplistic.... To illustrate the importance of migration movements for Germany's national fabric, first an overview of the history of pre- and postwar migrations and refugee movements as well as their effects on the domestic situation in Germany are presented. Next, the origins of the contradictory nature of the current asylum, citizenship and naturalization regulations and the need to redefine Germany's legal framework, immigration policy, and national identity after unification are discussed."     

CONSTRUCTING IDENTITIES AT THE MARGINS: Masculinities and Citizenship in the Israeli Army

This article examines the construction of multiple gendered and national identities in the Israeli army. In Israel, hegemonic masculinity is identified with the masculinity of the Jewish combat soldier and is perceived as the emblem of good citizenship. This identity. I argue, assumes a central role in shaping a hierarchal order of gendered and civic identities that reflects and reproduces social stratification and reconstructs differential modes of participation in, and belonging to, the Israeli state.
In-depth interviews with two marginalized groups in the Israeli army—women in "masculine" roles and male soldiers in blue-collar jobs—suggest two discernible practices of identity. While women in "masculine" roles structure their gender and national identities according to the masculinity of the combat soldier, the identity practices of male soldiers in blue-collar jobs challenge this hegemonic masculinity and its close link with citizenship in Israel. However, while both identity practices are empowering for the groups in question, neither undermines the hegemonic order, for the military's practice of "limited inclusion" prohibits the development of a collective consciousness that would challenge the differentiated structure of citizenship.     

Citizenship Beyond Borders: A Cross‐National Study of Dual Citizenship*

As global integration increases, the implications for state boundaries and citizens’ identity grow more significant. Some scholars suggest that the recognition of dual citizenship reveals the extent to which cross‐national immigration requires states to formally recognize a multiplicity of national identities through dual citizenship ( Aleinikoff and Klusmeyer 2002 ; Castles and Davidson 2000 ; Falk 1994 ). We propose that scholars need to additionally consider citizenship identity as a source of national assimilation of the international community and postnational citizenship in world culture ( Brubaker 1992a ; Faist 2004 ; Soysal 1994 ; Turner 2001 ). We use logistic regression to evaluate this argument by examining factors that lead states to enact legislation recognizing dual citizenship. The resulting analysis suggests that the recognition of dual citizenship reflects national, ex‐colonial, and postnational cultural identities rather than the presence of cross‐national immigration.     

Cosmopolitanism: The Foundational Ground for a More Inclusive Understanding of Belonging to Protect the Human Rights of North Korean Stateless Women

In this article, I will examine the use of the notion of cosmopolitanism to address the exclusionary nature of citizenship. Citizenship is a contemporary social norm that privileges citizens and discriminates against others, leading to consequent human rights violations experienced by stateless populations. I will use the case study of North Korean stateless women who reside in China and who are victims of human trafficking as an example of stateless people who lack legal guarantees for human rights. By uncovering the way citizenship operates as a social structure that deprives people of their human rights, I will argue for Seyla Benhabib's notion of cosmopolitanism, which pursues a more inclusive notion of belonging and necessitates institutional changes. These include the juridical implementation of improved immigration policy and citizenship law, involving the cooperation of the global society, to recognize the dignity of the stateless and protect their human rights.     

Optional citizenship; articulation of interests and identities in naturalisations

Citizenship should be understood as a bundle of rights rather than as a legal expression of national membership. The citizenship status of immigrants is characterised by their human rights, their rights of external citizenship provided by sending countries, and their rights as resident aliens provided by receiving states. In this perspective naturalisation is only one amongst several options open to migrants to change and improve their legal position. The normative aspect of citizenship implies that general and basic rights should be distributed equally and universally within society. Raising the standard of alien rights, allowing for dual citizenship and conceiving of naturalisation as an individual option rather than as an obligation or as a discretionary decision of the receiving state would contribute to a more equal distribution of rights within societies of immigration. A model for explaining individual decision to naturalise is presented which is based on a combined analysis of interests and identities. The main factors that enter the model are rules applied by state authorities, social positions occupied by immigrants, the cost/benefit balance of rights in the transition to internal citizenship, and affiliations to different communities in the sending and the receiving state. The combination of rules, rights and social positions makes it possible to distinguish an objective value of internal citizenship for immigrants from transaction prices and subjective utilities. The main theoretical argument is that decisions can be influenced both by a perception of rational individual interests and by communal identities.     

Memories, vision and hope: themes in an historical sociology of Britain since the Second World War

Abstract This paper suggests in an exploratory way that an historical sociology of post-war British society should include a concern with changes in sentiment and emotion or in what following Raymond Williams is termed 'structures of feeling'. The main theme discussed is what people from different social backgrounds feel about the changes which have taken place in their lives and in the society around them and in how the future is conceived. Three issues focus this - change in aspects of national identity, in prevailing conceptions of citizenship and belonging, and in feelings towards the welfare state.     

Theorizing and Analyzing Citizenship in Multicultural Societies

I argue that sociologists have directed insufficient attention to the study of citizenship. When citizenship is studied, sociologists tend to concentrate on just one facet: rights. I elaborate four conceptual facets of citizenship. I link two—citizenship as rights and belonging—to theoretical elaborations of multiculturalism. Considering multiculturalism as a state discourse and set of policies, rather than a political or normative theory, I outline linkages between multiculturalism and two additional facets of citizenship: legal status and participation. Over the last 15 years, the idea of multiculturalism has come under withering criticism, especially in Europe, in part because it is claimed that multiculturalism undermines common citizenship. Yet countries with more multicultural policies and a stronger discourse of pluralism and recognition are places where immigrants are more likely to become citizens, more trusting of political institutions, and more attached to the national identity. There is also little evidence that multicultural policies fuel majority backlash, and some modest evidence that such policies enlarge conceptions of inclusive membership. By studying claims‐making and the equality of immigrant‐origin groups, we see that the participatory aspect of citizenship needs to take center stage in future work in political sociology, social theory, social movements, immigration, and race/ethnicity.     

Contextual moderators of the link between national and European identity among European youth

Identification with Europe can constitute an important part of psychological citizenship for European citizens. From a self-categorization perspective, higher-order (e.g. with Europe) and lower order subgroup identities (e.g. with the nation) may interfere with each other if they are seen as incompatible. We were interested in contextual moderators at school and country level of youth’ national identity on identification with Europe. We used multi-level regression analyses based on data from the International Civic and Citizenship Education Study, collected from 14-year old students (n?=?71,282) from 22 European countries. Results showed strong positive effects of national identity at the individual, and classroom-level on European identity. However, main effects of national identity at the individual level were qualified by a number of interactions with contextual-level moderators. The relationship between national and European identity was weaker for adolescents attending classrooms or living in countries with lower average levels of trust in EU institutions. Living in countries with higher gender and income inequalities, less friendly immigration policies, and a communist past lessened the association between national and European identity. Results point to the powerful effects of context in shaping the relationship between national and European identity.     

Anthropology and the theorisation of citizenship

In this paper I argue for the importance of theorising citizenship as an independent axis of social inequality in the contemporary world. As a foil, I take two intertwined tendencies within anthropological writings on migration. First is the historical trend of anthropology as a discipline to theorise against the grain of the nation-state. Second is the tendency within anthropological studies of transnationalism and migration to theorise their subject in terms of Marxian understandings of class and exploitation or in terms of the intersecting dimensions of race, class and gender (but not citizenship). The result of these approaches is to elide the role of national boundaries and citizenship as significant theoretical objects in themselves. To build my approach, I contrast the production of migrant ‘illegality’ in three national contexts: the United States, China and Australia.     

Citizen Alevi in Turkey: Beyond Confirmation and Denial

Abstract Critics of the current national citizenship models argue that, although it rests on claims to be inclusionary and universal, it can never eliminate exclusionary and particularistic practices when challenged by those identities excluded from the historical trajectory of "nation building." Turkish citizenship has been a form of anomalous amalgamation since its conception. On the one hand, the state insisted on the pre-emptive exclusion of religion and various communal cultural identities from politics, while, on other hand, it promoted a particular religious identity primarily as a means of promoting cultural and social solidarity among its citizens. Contemporary Alevi movements, representing the interests of a large minority in Turkey, provide a new source of energy for the revision of concepts of citizenship. Alevis have suffered from prejudice, and their culture has been arrested and excluded from the nation building process. They were not able to integrate into the form of national identity based on the "secular" principles that the republican state has provided as a means of promoting solidarity among citizens. What Alevis seek is a revised citizenship model in terms of a system of rights assuring the condition of neutrality among culturally diverse individuals.     

ACCOUNTING FOR STATE APPROACHES TO ASYLUM SEEKERS IN AUSTRALIA AND MALAYSIA: THE SIGNIFICANCE OF “NATIONAL” IDENTITY AND “EXCLUSIVE” CITIZENSHIP IN THE STRUGGLE AGAINST “IRREGULAR” MOBILITY

This article uses the case studies of Australia and Malaysia to examine how diverse states in the Asia-Pacific region approach asylum seekers in practice and in discourse. Using a social constructionist approach to identity, the article highlights how governments in each country have grappled with “irregular” migration and the challenges it poses for national identity through processes of “othering” and “exclusion.” This comparison shows that the process of excluding asylum seekers on the basis of identity is not a Western phenomenon, but one extending to countries across the region. It is maintained that state discourses around asylum seekers within the two countries are framed in similar arguments centred around the concepts of “irregular” mobility, “national” identity, and “exclusive” citizenship. More specifically, it is demonstrated that both the Malaysian and Australian governments have projected asylum seekers in the public realm primarily as “illegal” through their undocumented mobility, and within this discourse as “threats” to national identity and security and therefore “unworthy” of citizenship privileges through resettlement or local integration. It is argued that each government has used trajectories specific to their own nation-building process to make their arguments more relevant and appealing to their constituents. A key premise of this article holds that an understanding of the rationale underpinning each government's asylum approach will contribute to establishing more open and constructive regional dialogue around the asylum issue.     

French Representations of Citizenship and Immigrants: The Political Dimension of the Civic Link

Representations of, and attitudes towards, foreigners take place within the complex system of values and meaning that constitutes what we call a national identity. In the French case, different conceptions of citizenship give rise to different attitudes towards immigrants. These conceptions, even if they could be related to antagonistic theories of democracy, blend together within the citizens' representations, giving the opportunity to combine advantages from each model, namely cohesion and inclusion. But the mix of citizenship representations occurs successfully only when the political dimension of citizenship is accepted. Where this is not the case, the antagonistic potential of both understanding of citizenship and immigrants develops and endangers the coherence of the civic and political national culture.     

French Representations of Citizenship and Immigrants: The Political Dimension of the Civic Link

Representations of, and attitudes towards, foreigners take place within the complex system of values and meaning that constitutes what we call a national identity. In the French case, different conceptions of citizenship give rise to different attitudes towards immigrants. These conceptions, even if they could be related to antagonistic theories of democracy, blend together within the citizens' representations, giving the opportunity to combine advantages from each model, namely cohesion and inclusion. But the mix of citizenship representations occurs successfully only when the political dimension of citizenship is accepted. Where this is not the case, the antagonistic potential of both understanding of citizenship and immigrants develops and endangers the coherence of the civic and political national culture.