Citizen Wayn? The Struggle of Parliament in Contemporary Jordan

This article is part of the Special Issue “Parliaments in the Middle East and North Africa: A Struggle for Relevance”. Because the politics of citizenship is felt at all stages of the parliamentary process, the very question of parliamentary relevance itself cannot be answered without reference to the citizenry. That Jordan’s citizenship regime influences and impedes parliamentary politics is explored through two cases. The first being decentralization, understood as a relocating of tasks, decision-making and mandates from a centralized location to different, more localized levels. The second study focuses on the uprisings occurring from May 30, 2018 against the draft domestic tax law introduced to parliament by the government of then-Prime Minister Hani al-Mulki. Both cases are implicated in the Kingdom’s parliamentary politics, and their selection is a conscious move away from election analysis. Taken together they elucidate how citizenship is a key battleground on which any future emancipation/development of parliament will be fought.

Strengthening Canadian citizenship: but how and for whose benefit? The rise and fall of (Bill) C24, or towards a hierarchized Canadian citizenship

While Statistics Canada evidences immigration to be a key driver of Canada’s population growth, unwelcoming immigration settlement policies and Canadian citizenship legislation combine to impede recent immigrants’ integration. Above all, citizenship policy plays a pivotal role in easing newcomers’ integration into the host polity by transforming them into citizens. Through naturalization, immigrants acquire legal citizenship; their substantive citizenship makes them enjoy rights and exercise responsibilities embedded in, and defined by citizenship policy. This paper argues that, by institutionalizing a conditional citizenship for new immigrants, recent changes to the Canadian citizenship regime brought by C-24 in June 2014 then repealed by C-6 in June 2017, not only weaken but jeopardize both legal and substantive citizenship of dual Canadian citizens and, consequently, hinder their successful integration into the Canadian polity. This study concludes that the lived experiences of recent immigrants mark a distinction between new Canadians’/visible minorities’ alientity and mainstream Canadian identity.

Strengthening Canadian citizenship: but how and for whose benefit? The rise and fall of (Bill) C24, or towards a hierarchized Canadian citizenship

While Statistics Canada evidences immigration to be a key driver of Canada’s population growth, unwelcoming immigration settlement policies and Canadian citizenship legislation combine to impede recent immigrants’ integration. Above all, citizenship policy plays a pivotal role in easing newcomers’ integration into the host polity by transforming them into citizens. Through naturalization, immigrants acquire legal citizenship; their substantive citizenship makes them enjoy rights and exercise responsibilities embedded in, and defined by citizenship policy. This paper argues that, by institutionalizing a conditional citizenship for new immigrants, recent changes to the Canadian citizenship regime brought by C-24 in June 2014 then repealed by C-6 in June 2017, not only weaken but jeopardize both legal and substantive citizenship of dual Canadian citizens and, consequently, hinder their successful integration into the Canadian polity. This study concludes that the lived experiences of recent immigrants mark a distinction between new Canadians’/visible minorities’ alientity and mainstream Canadian identity.

Origins and Consequences of Market Citizenship

In this chapter, we establish the historical context needed to understand the place of cash transfer in contemporary market-enhancing social policy. To this end we outline the circumstances that led to the establishment of the twentieth-century regime of “industrial citizenship,” to growing criticism of it, and finally to the rise to prominence of a competing model, labeled (largely by its opponents) as “market citizenship.” We pay considerable attention at each step to the social and philosophical debates that surrounded this evolution, trying to understand not just how one citizenship regime was challenged and partially replaced by another, but why.

Remember to be Jewish: Religious Populism in Israel

The paper explores the relation between religion and populism in Israel. Jewish identity has been an important marker of citizenship and belonging in Israel since its inception. The founders of the Zionist movement and the dominant elites of early statehood remained dependent upon Jewish religion to demarcate national boundaries and legitimate territorial claims. With the establishment of the state, Jewish identity helped create and legitimate a segmented citizenship regime that secured privilege for Jews. Gradually, and especially in the past two decades, Jewishness became more contested, demarcating not only Jews from non-Jews but also “authentic” Jews from allegedly “cosmopolitan elites,” thus becoming part of populist politics, central to Israeli politics. The complex relation between religion and populism in Israel is demonstrated by the development of two populist parties; an “inclusive” one (Shas) and an “exclusionary” one (Likud). The study of the two parties shows the role of religious identities, tropes, and symbols in boundary-making and political strategies. In Israel, religion functions both as the positive content of the political community (the ethnos––the Jewish people—is conflated with the demos) and the demands for inclusion; and as the marker of a threat (non-Jewish citizens, asylum seekers, and allegedly disloyal secular elites).

The Emerging Regional Citizenship Regime of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations

This article analyses the citizenship regime of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Current literature on ASEAN regionalism has refrained from examining the link between community-building and citizenship building, and the prevailing assumption remains that ASEAN lacks a citizenship regime. This assumption derives from the premises that a regional citizenship regime is the result of the reconfiguration of national citizenship rights and that it is a legally defined status. By deploying the concept of citizenship regime based on the dimensions of rights, access, belonging, and responsibility mix, the article argues that there is an emerging citizenship regime in ASEAN built on citizenship-related policies. This citizenship regime is informal, developing, and atypical – and the unintentional outcome of ASEAN trying to fulfil its agenda on community-building. The analysis contributes to citizenship studies and ASEAN regionalism by offering a nuanced understanding of how citizenship regimes are built through citizenship-related policies and practices.