Globalisation and Citizenship and Nationality

Abstract

How well are the legal concepts of citizenship and nationality travelling in a globalised world? This chapter addresses the effects of globalization on people's status and membership within their own territory, and beyond it. Citizenship is a legal, political, and social construct that has domestic and international consequences. I argue that citizenship, in its traditional meaning of participation in and membership of the nation-state, will be fundamentally altered by globalisation and will not continue to travel in the same manner that it has been. The familiar domestic and international consequences of citizenship, such as political voting rights, legal rights, including the right to leave and enter a country, and social welfare rights, will be fundamentally affected by the changes in people's connection to the nation-state. This means that it can't be recognised as a generalisable legal notion, to the extent that it may have been in the past. Moreover, as people identify and become members of more than one community, we will witness an acceptance of multi-citizenship/membership within the nation-state and within the international order. The rise of the world citizen and the changes that have occurred in the nation-state mean that citizenship and nationality will be revised concepts in the 21st century. If they are able to adapt to these changed frameworks, then citizenship and nationally may continue to travel well. This chapter is a combination of two earlier works of the author reproduced in this important book edited by Catherine Dauvergne.

Keywords: citizenship, nationality, globalisation, politics, voting, social welfare, nation-state

JEL Classification: K100, K3