The Transnational Soul: Citizenship(s) in a Global Age

• In Event: 579 - Regular Session. Citizenship and Identities in the Globalized World

Abstract

Are liberal democratic political regimes more likely to grant dual or multiple citizenships than their non-democratic counterparts? This study plans to address this question with two objectives: 1) to study the spread and adoption of dual and multiple citizenships utilizing the discourses employed in these processes; 2) to identify the relationship, if any, between a government’s level of democracy and their willingness to grant dual or multiple citizenship status. In recent history, citizenship has been distinctly tied exclusively to one’s legal “belonging” to a single nation-state. It was often a status that assumed individuals would provide some sort of civic or military service in exchange for a legally protected status as citizen. However, as national borders have become increasingly porous, allowing capital and information to cross with relative ease, the idea of what it means to be a citizen seems to be shifting away from its territorial basis, and rates of dual and multiple citizens appear to be increasing. Focusing on the understudied area of how nation-states adopt new forms of non-territorial citizenship, a qualitative content analysis was performed on national legal documents outlining varying countries' allowance, or blocking, of its citizens acquiring additional citizenships. While this study is in progress, preliminary research suggests that liberal democracies are more likely to allow multiple citizenships than their non-democratic counterparts.

Author

• D.J. Wolover, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee