Inclusive Solidarity and Citizenship along Migratory Routes in Europe and the Americas

Inclusive Solidarity and Citizenship along Migratory Routes in Europe and the Americas links non-essentialist concepts of solidarity and citizenship to migration in different empirical contexts. The chapters in this edited volume analyse how civil society initiatives renegotiate societal structures in solidarity with people on the move, noncitizens and racialized individuals, and in doing so advance theorizing and contribute to current debates about citizenship and solidarity.

Focusing on solidarity among members of the so-called ‘majority society’ in Europe and the Americas, this book offers a compendium of chapters that analyses particular practices of solidarity – both material and symbolic – as well as the mindsets, discourses, and broader societal contexts that provide the fundament of these practices. As these empirical cases demonstrate, the main argument of the book is that solidarity is not necessarily based on a pre-established and exclusive community, but that more inclusive solidarities arise through collective practices, the emergence of new subjectivities, and the mediation of differences. Furthermore, the book argues that it is analytically fruitful to associate concepts of citizenship with solidarity by proposing the concept of ‘solidarity citizenship’ in order to bring into view societal modes of relating that are constitutive of collective as well as individual subjectivities.

The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of the journal Citizenship Studies.

Helge Schwiertz is Postdoctoral Researcher at the Chair of Sociology and Social Theory at the University of Hamburg in Germany. His research interests include social and political theory, migration studies, racism, (pro-)migrant organizing, citizenship, solidarity, and radical democracy.

Helen Schwenken is Professor of Migration and Society and Director of the Institute for Migration Research and Intercultural Studies (IMIS) at the University of Osnabrück in Germany. Her research interests include gender and migration, social movement studies, and labour migration.