Citizenship has emerged as an important topic of research on migration and migrant integration since the 1980s. Before this there was little connection between migration research and the legal literature on nationality law or political theories and sociological analyses of citizenship in a broader sense. This mutual disinterest is not difficult to understand. On the one hand, in traditional overseas countries of immigration, immigrants’ access to citizenship and eventual naturalisation was taken for granted as a step in a broader process of assimilation.

On the other hand, in Europe the largest immigration contingents had emerged from the recruitment of guestworkers who had been invited to stay only temporarily and were never perceived as future citizens. Both expectations were eventually undermined when the dynamics of the migration process interacted with political developments towards a more inclusive conception of citizenship.

Various developments have blurred the previously bright line separating aliens from citizens. In this report the authors trace the main steps in these developments, summarise the state of research and emphasise controversies between competing interpretations.

The report does not, however, aim at a comprehensive and distanced overview. It reflects approaches that have guided past research carried out by members of the IMISCOE cluster on citizenship, legal status and political participation and it points towards a future research agenda to which the cluster hopes to contribute.

This title is published within the IMISCOE publication programme as part of the Working Papers. These Working Papers are the products of ongoing work by IMISCOE members that are not (yet) ready for publication within the IMISCOE-AUP Book series. They may range from State of the Art Reports (SoAR) on worldwide research within a particular domain to more specific products of ongoing work. The Working Papers are evaluated by the editorial committee for quality and completeness before being published on the website.

Peer-reviewed publications can be found in the IMISCOE_AUP Book Series developed in co-operation with the Amsterdam University Press (AUP). One of these publications is based on the nine IMISCOE State of the Arts (of which this working paper is one): The dynamics of migration and settlement in Europe. A State of the Art. IMISCOE Joint Studies. Amsterdam: AUP, Rinus Penninx, Maria Berger and Karen Kraal (eds) (2006).

This report is the collaborative effort of the members of the research clusters and brings together their expertise in this specific field.

The IMISCOE Working Papers are part of IMISCOE which is an EU funded Network of Excellence in the Sixth Framework Programme

IMISCOE Network of Excellence
Karen Kraal (Communication Officer), tel. +31 (0)20 525 3659

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Rainer Bauböck, EIF

research

Urban Policy

Social inclusion & integration