Citizenship in Question: Evidentiary Birthright and Statelessness - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0822362805 ISBN 13: 9780822362807

Publisher: Duke University Press Books, 2017

Synopsis

Citizenship is often assumed to be a clear-cut issue—either one has it or one does not. However, as the contributors to Citizenship in Question demonstrate, citizenship is not self-evident; it emerges from often obscure written records and is interpreted through ambiguous and dynamic laws. In case studies that analyze the legal barriers to citizenship rights in over twenty countries, the contributors explore how states use evidentiary requirements to create and police citizenship, often based on fictions of racial, ethnic, class, and religious differences. Whether examining the United States’ deportation of its own citizens, the selective use of DNA tests and secret results in Thailand, or laws that have stripped entire populations of citizenship, the contributors emphasize the political, psychological, and personal impact of citizenship policies. Citizenship in Question incites scholars to revisit long-standing political theories and debates about nationality, free movement, and immigration premised on the assumption of clear demarcations between citizens and noncitizens.
 Contributors. Alfred Babo, Jacqueline Bhabha, Jacqueline Field, Amanda Flaim, Sara L. Friedman, Daniel Kanstroom, Benjamin N. Lawrance, Beatrice McKenzie, Polly J. Price, Rachel E. Rosenbloom, Kim Rubenstein, Kamal Sadiq, Jacqueline Stevens, Margaret D. Stock

About this title

About the Author

Benjamin N. Lawrance is Hon. Barber B. Conable Jr. Endowed Professor of International Studies and Professor of History and Anthropology at Rochester Institute of Technology and the author of Amistad's Orphans: An Atlantic Story of Children, Slavery, and Smuggling.

Jacqueline Stevens is Professor of Political Science and founding director of the Deportation Research Clinic in the Buffett Institute for Global Studies at Northwestern University and the author of States without Nations: Citizenship for Mortals.

Review

"This is one of those books that you wish you could get everyone to read. ... For classes that focus on questions of global migration, political belonging and exclusion, and the powers of the State, this book is a useful resource. Rich in historical facts that help explain how we have reached a point where citizenship often overshadows humanity, Citizenship in Question will be a valuable addition for a required reading list or a personal library. Essential."
  (M. Lecea Choice 2017-08-01)

"[A] remarkable contribution that both adds to scholarship on citizenship and challenges some of the inherent assumptions that underpin citizenship studies. ... This sophisticated and wide-ranging volume is essential reading for not only those interested in citizenship, bureaucracy and the state, but also for a wider, non-academic audience." (Kalathmika Natarajan London School of Economics Review of Books 2017-07-27)

“The case studies in this volume present a significant human rights challenge. . . . Citizenship allocations may seem as neatly drawn as lines on the map of the world. As this volume demonstrates, there are many contexts in which they are hardly that.” (Peter J. Spiro Perspectives on Politics 2018-06-01)

"Powerful. . . . The contributing authors show through numerous examples how citizenship is not self-evident, nor can it be inferred from documents alone, which is another fundamental paradox to citizenship." (Sue-Je Lee Gage Political and Legal Anthropology Review 2019-01-29)

Edition details

• Publisher: Duke University Press Books
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 0822362805
• ISBN 13: 9780822362807
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 312
• Editor: Lawrance Benjamin N., Stevens Jacqueline