MA Seminar Series: BURNING ISSUES WEEK 2 CITIZENSHIP REIKO SHINDO

Introduction  Any new students?  Last week: Course overview / What does it mean to be critical in IR?  This week:  What is the difference between traditional and critical citizenship?  What kinds of political issues can be best analysed through the perspective of citizenship?  What are cosmopolitanism debates? What is ‘acts of citizenship’?

Quick exercise!  What does citizenship mean to you?  List three words that come to your mind when thinking about citizenship?  How does your answer to this question help you to define citizenship?

Citizenship and the state  The relationship between ‘men’ and ‘citizens’  The state obligation to protect ‘citizens’  The conflict between ethical responsibilities and state obligations: the difference between cosmopolitanism and communitarianism

Two different ideas of citizenship  1. Citizenship as a bundle of legal rights  T.H. Marshall  Civil, political, and social rights  Rights are given by the states  Denizens

Two different ideas of citizenship  2. The idea of ‘acts of citizenship’  Engin F. Isin  Citizenship as practices  Rights are claimed and taken by people from others  Bearers of rights are not limited to people with rights  Examples of claim-making moments of citizenship

The ‘acts of citizenship’  Forms of political community other than the state  The sense of belonging to community is cultivated through different forms of community (e.g. dual citizenship, multiple citizenship)  What kinds of community can you think of as providing a form of belonging other than the state?  Political struggles at the centre of citizenship  The right to claim rights (instead of the right to have rights)  Noncitizens’ claim-making  What kinds of struggles can you think of as instances where people claim citizenship?

‘Migration crisis’ in Europe  ‘Migration crisis’ in Europe; triggered by the conflict in Syria (March 2011)  More than 12 million Syrians have been displaced: 7.6 million people are internally displaced; About 4 million have fled their country; more than 130, 000 killed; 4 million registered/awaiting for registration with the UNHCR.  Majority of Syrian refugees fled to neighbouring countries: Turkey 2 million; Lebanon (1 in 5) 1.2 million; Jordan 1.4 million; Egypt 130, 000; Iraq 250, 000

‘Migration crisis’ in Europe  5 percent of the total number of displaced Syrians have arrived in Europe: 200,000 Syrians have arrived in Europe in 2015 (adding to the 230,000 Syrians already in Europe); The British government has recently expressed its intention to resettle 20,000 over the next 5 years  the US has resettled around 1,500 Syrians have been resettled in the US; 2,000 in Russia; Russia refuses to take part in any resettlement scheme) (Source: )

‘Migration crisis’ in Europe  40,000 migrants currently staying in Greece and Italy will be relocated to other EU states.  The EU has yet to achieve an agreement on mandatory quotas for 120,000 displaced Syrians.  Germany and the European commission are pushing the plan of the mandatory quotas forward. (Source: )

Who are the 120,000?  They are "in clear need of international protection" to be resettled from Italy, Greece, Hungary to other EU member states  15,600 from Italy, 50,400 from Greece, 54,000 from Hungary, it is unclear though how many are still in Hungary  Initial screening of asylum applicants carried out in Greece, Hungary and Italy  Syrians, Eritreans, Iraqis prioritised  Financial penalty of 0.002% of GDP for those member countries refusing to accept relocated migrants  Relocation to accepting countries depends on size of economy and population, average number of asylum applications  Transfer of individual applicants within two months (‘Migrant crisis: EU ministers approve disputed quota plan’, BBC, 22 September 2015) ‘Migration crisis’ in Europe

Some key categories  Citizen: an individual with legal status as member of a particular territorial political unit  Foreigner: an individual outside of his or her country of citizenship  Stateless person: an individual without legal protection of any state  Immigrant: an individual who settles in a country other than that of his or her country of citizenship (second/third generation immigrants)  Refugee: an individual who is formally recognized as requiring protection in a state other than his or her own, due to persecution in his or her home state  Migrant: an individual who has moved (across international state borders?), usually for the purpose of work, or to join family members  Asylum seeker: an individual who seeks protection as a refugee Some key distinctions  Forced/voluntary; political/economic; legal/illegal What is at stake by defining people based on the aforementioned categories?  ‘Migrant’ crisis or ‘refugee’ crisis?  What is at stake in calling the current human movement as ‘migration’ ‘crisis’? ‘Migration crisis’ in Europe

 In pairs, please discuss the following questions:  How do you call them? Migrants? Refugees? Something else (e.g. ‘humanitarian migrants’)?  What is at stake by defining people based on the aforementioned categories?  What kinds of solutions can be conceivable?  There are people who welcome migrants; and those who are hesitant to accept them. Is conversation between them possible? How do you talk to people who hold different views on the issue of migration crisis?  In what way, does the ‘acts of citizenship’ help us to understand migration crisis?  How differently migration ‘crisis’ would be discussed if it is understood by using the idea of ‘acts of citizenship’?  Please prepare feedback to the group as a whole. Group exercise

Recommended readings  Nyers, P. and Z. Sleiman (2016 forthcoming) ‘Citizenship’, in Ní Mhurchú, Aoileann. and Shindo, Reiko. (Eds) Critical Imaginations in International Relations, Oxon: Routledge.  Isin, E.F. (2009) ‘Citizenship in Flux: the Figure of the Activist Citizen’, Subjectivity 29:  Marshall, T.H. (1950) Citizenship and Social Class and Other Essays, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.  McNevin, A. (2011) Contesting Citizenship: Irregular Migrants and New Frontiers of the Political, New York: Columbia University Press.  Nyers, P. (2008) ‘Community without Status: Non-Status Migrants and Cities of Refuge’ in D. Brydon and W. Coleman (Eds) Renegotiating Community: Interdisciplinary Perspectives, Global Contexts, Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press.  Rygiel, K. (2010) Globalizing Citizenship. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press.  Stevens, J. (2010) States without Nations: Citizenship for Mortals, New York: Columbia University Press.  Tyler, I. and K. Marciniak, (Eds) (2014) Protesting Citizenship: Migrant Activisms, London: Routledge.