Citizenship in Question: Evidentiary Birthright and Statelessness

Citizenship is often assumed to be a clear-cut issue--either one has it or one does not. However, as the contributors to Citizenship in Question demonstrate, citizenship is not self-evident; it emerges from often obscure written records and is interpreted through ambiguous and dynamic laws. In case studies that analyze the legal barriers to citizenship rights in over twenty countries, the contributors explore how states use evidentiary requirements to create and police citizenship, often based on fictions of racial, ethnic, class, and religious differences. Whether examining the United States' deportation of its own citizens, the selective use of DNA tests and secret results in Thailand, or laws that have stripped entire populations of citizenship, the contributors emphasize the political, psychological, and personal impact of citizenship policies. Citizenship in Question incites scholars to revisit long-standing political theories and debates about nationality, free movement, and immigration premised on the assumption of clear demarcations between citizens and noncitizens.
Contributors. Alfred Babo, Jacqueline Bhabha, Jacqueline Field, Amanda Flaim, Sara L. Friedman, Daniel Kanstroom, Benjamin N. Lawrance, Beatrice McKenzie, Polly J. Price, Rachel E. Rosenbloom, Kim Rubenstein, Kamal Sadiq, Jacqueline Stevens, Margaret D. Stock

Author: Benjamin N. Lawrance
Publisher: Duke University Press
Published: 02/03/2017
Pages: 312
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.90lbs
Size: 8.90h x 6.00w x 0.70d
ISBN: 9780822362913

Review Citation(s):
Choice 08/01/2017

About the Author
Benjamin N. Lawrance is Hon. Barber B. Conable Jr. Endowed Professor of International Studies and Professor of History and Anthropology at Rochester Institute of Technology and the author of Amistad's Orphans: An Atlantic Story of Children, Slavery, and Smuggling.

Jacqueline Stevens is Professor of Political Science and founding director of the Deportation Research Clinic in the Buffett Institute for Global Studies at Northwestern University and the author of States without Nations: Citizenship for Mortals.