The Politics of Migration and Citizenship
The Politics of Migration and Citizenship
This chapter examines how changing patterns of migration and the dynamics of citizenship laws both affect and reflect the abilities of African states to consolidate power. It shows that these two phenomena are interconnected because citizenship laws embody the identities that African states have tried to construct on the assumption that populations are no longer mobile. It argues that, contrary to conventional wisdom, African boundaries have fundamentally altered the nature of population movements across the continent. As a result, citizenship has acquired a salience that is often greater than the ties between ethnic groups separated by a border. However, African countries have not exploited the surprising firmness of their boundaries to develop innovative citizenship regulations that might establish a strong national bond between state and citizen. Because of this, a critical opportunity for state consolidation often has been lost.
Keywords: migration, citizenship, Africa, states, power, boundaries, population movements, ethnic groups, state consolidation
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