Transformation of Citizenship: Status, Rights, Identity

Abstract

In a spirit of stocktaking and identifying frontiers of research, this article reviews recent changes of citizenship in three dimensions: status, rights, and identity. With respect to status, it is argued that access to citizenship has been liberalized. On the rights dimension, there has been a weakening of social rights and rise of minority rights. Citizenship identities today are universalistic, which limits states' attempts to counter the centrifugal dynamics of ethnically diversifying societies with unity and integration campaigns.

Notes

¹ In early August 2006, the Italian cabinet under R. Prodi approved a new citizenship law which would reduce the residence time required for naturalization from ten to five years and grant conditional jus soli citizenship to the children of immigrants (see Sepe, 2006).