Access to Citizenship

European Trends and Comparative Approaches

Maarten Vink ICS-UL

ENCONTRO COM A CIÊNCIA 2009

Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, 29 e 30 de Julho de 2009

Project

• Research Question: what explains the different ways in which states attribute citizenship?

• Relevance: access to citizenship is of essential importance for political incorporation of immigrants

• Analysis: citizenship laws in 30 developed democracies from 1985 to 2009

• Method: comparative configurational analysis (CCA)

Limits to Comparative Research

• Different state-building processes

– Consolidated vs. fragile states

• Different citizenship traditions

– Ius soli vs. ius sanguinis

• Different migration experiences

– Emigration vs. immigration

• Different political contexts

– E.g. left-wing vs. populist parties

Trends 1: Discursive changes

• Instrumentalization– Since 1980s– Citizenship policies as ‘integration’ policies– Elite-driven

• Politicization– Since 1990s– Citizenship policies as ‘identity’ policies– Society-driven

Trends 2: Substantive changes

1. Equal treatment men / women (ius sanguinis)

2. Inclusion 2nd and/or 3rd generation (ius soli)

3. Acceptance of multiple citizenship

4. Introduction of ´integration´ conditions

5. Deprivation of citizenship (fraud / crime)

6. European Union membership

Vink, M., ed. (2010). Migration and Citizenship Attribution: Politics and Policies in Western Europe. Special issue of Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 36(4).

3. Increasing acceptance of multiple citizenship

increasing occurrence of multiple citizenship due to migration and mixed marriages

question: why do some states recognize multiple citizenship as a reality, while others do not?

Explanations

• Legal tradition (Weil, 2001)– Common vs. Civil law?

• Colonialism (Howard, 2006)– Former colonial power (1945)?

• Left-wing governments (Joppke, 2005)– No. of years largest gov. party is left 1990-2003

• Presence of populist parties (Howard, 2006)– Max. electoral support 1990-2003

Comparative Configurational Analysis

Charles Ragin1987. The Comparative Method2000. Fuzzy-set social science

Calibration:- Crisp-set (0/1) - Fuzzy-set (0-1)

No ´independent´ variablesNo linear regression Necessary and sufficient conditions (or combinations)

Citizenship Configurations (2009)

Conclusions

• No single European model

• Citizenship attribution in flux

• Citizenship policies explained by:– legal tradition

• common law vs. civil law

– colonial experience– ideological factors

• absence / presence of strong populist parties(rather than absence / presence of strong leftwing parties)

• Online observatory• 33+ countries• Comprehensive

comparative grid– Laws / Case law– Country reports– Comparative tables– Statistics

• Launch Fall 2009 • Funded by EC

eudo-citizenship.eu