Citizenship and migration: Mapping the terrain

Abstract

Citizenship lies at the heart of modern democracies. As a result, scholars have addressed it from very different angles, ranging from normative-philosophical reflections to more “positive” yet theoretically-oriented discussions to analyses based on empirical evidence. Moreover, today migration represents both a key policy field and an important field of study. And yet the two concepts aligned - as in this Handbook of Citizenship and Migration - might come across as an oxymoron. This is all the more stark when we consider those characters which are seen to embody these two terms: while citizens are those who are generally ascribed as belonging to a specific place - originally the city, more generally, a country, today - migrants are by definition people who move from one place - a city, a country, and so forth - to another. Yet, citizenship and migration are so intimately linked to each other that it is hard to theorize one without taking into account the other.