Citizenship Acquisition And National Belonging

What does it take to become a citizen of a particular nation? Is it justified to restrict membership of a society, and if so, on what grounds? This book explores a series of pressing, controversial issues surrounding the acquisition of citizenship, in theory and practice.

Interest in citizenship has never been higher. But what does it mean to be a citizen in a modern, complex community? Richard Bellamy approaches the subject of citizenship from a political perspective and, in clear and accessible language, addresses the complexities behind this highly topical issue.

This book challenges mainstream arguments about the de-ethnicization of citizenship in Europe, offering a critical discussion of normative justifications for ethno-cultural citizenship and an original elaboration of principles of membership suitable for contemporary liberal democratic states.

This book explores migration experiences of African families across two generations in Britain, France and South Africa. Global processes of African migration are investigated, and the lived experiences of African migrants are explored in areas such as citizenship, belonging, intergenerational transmission, work and social mobility.

This book challenges mainstream arguments about the de-ethnicization of citizenship in Europe, offering a critical discussion of normative justifications for ethno-cultural citizenship and an original elaboration of principles of membership suitable for contemporary liberal democratic states.

Do states have the right to prevent potential immigrants from crossing their borders, or should people have the freedom to migrate and settle wherever they wish? Christopher Heath Wellman and Phillip Cole develop and defend opposing answers to this timely and important question. Appealing to the right to freedom of association, Wellman contends that legitimate states have broad discretion to exclude potential immigrants, even those who desperately seek to enter. Against this, Cole argues that the commitment to the moral equality of all human beings - which legitimate states can be expected to hold - means national borders must be open: equal respect requires equal access, both to territory and membership; and that the idea of open borders is less radical than it seems when we consider how many territorial and community boundaries have this open nature. In addition to engaging with each other's arguments, Wellman and Cole address a range of central questions and prominent positions on this topic. The authors therefore provide a critical overview of the major contributions to the ethics of migration, as well as developing original, provocative positions of their own.

Based on rich oral histories, this is an engaging study of citizenship construction and practice in Liberia, Africa's first black republic.