Greek citizenship tradition in flux? Investigating contemporary tensions between ethnic and civic elements of nationality

Abstract

Although the Greek citizenship tradition has contained both ethnic and civic elements all along, up until recently, at least according to the existing literature, it has replicated the geographical logic of a European divide between the East (ethnic) and West (civic). Lately, this tradition has been in flux as it appears to be moving along and changing positions across a hypothetical citizenship axis running along the two constitutional poles of nationality: ethnic descent and civic community. This paper attempts to shed light on this tradition in transit by bringing to the fore contemporary tensions between ethnic and civic elements of citizenship. More specifically, these ongoing frictions have been mostly manifested in the ever-changing conditionality of the terms of acquisition of Greek citizenship by second- and “one-and-a-half” generation migrant children. Most importantly, these antagonisms between an ethnicized (ethnic) citizenship and a politicized (civic) nationality became discursively played out within the arena of migrant integration discourse. However, one question remains: What can the Greek case tell us about the broader politics of citizenship and belonging in Europe and beyond?

Keywords:

• citizenship
• nationality
• ethnic
• civic
• migrant integration
• belonging

ORCID

George Mavrommatis http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3286-8579

Notes

1 In this paper the words citizenship and nationality are used interchangeably, connoting the legal bond between an individual and the state as found in law. In this way, EUDO’s research terminology is followed (http://eudo-citizenship.eu/databases/citizenship-glossary/glossary).

2 For an informed discussion on the actual impact of access to citizenship to migrant integration, see Baubock and Liebich (2010).

3 The term “one-and-a-half” generation migrant children refers to children of migrant descent that although they have been born in the country of origin of their parents, they came early as young children and successively attended the host society’s educational system.

4 For instance, during the parliamentary hearings of Law 3838/2010, the Deputy Minister for Home Affairs, Theodora Tzakri, provided a different conceptualization of the need of migrant children to acquire citizenship at an early stage: “we give them the chance to experience citizenship from a very early age and to integrate into Greek society while at the same time enriching it through their diversity” (Parliamentary Hearings of Law 3838/2010, 11 March 2010, 4886). This integration discourse is more multicultural or diversity based than the Explanatory Report of law 3838/2010.