Comparative citizenship Week 21 Comparative Sociology

Recap Considered how health and welfare policies are related to capitalism and culture But are often gendered in their design Looked at notions of a ‘clash in cultures’

Outline What is citizenship? Immigration and citizenship. –France, Germany, Australia and the UK The issue of asylum

What is citizenship? Status within a nation-state Set of rights and responsibilities A social contract

Marshall’s three aspects T.H.Marshall divided citizenship into three aspects –Civil Freedom of speech, right to justice –Political Right to participate in political decision-making –Social Sufficient economic welfare and security to be able to participate in the live of the nation

Citizenship ‘rights’ Citizenship often involves organisation and distribution of resources Gender, class, ethnic inequalities can led to exclusion from these resources and therefore impact on the ‘level’ of citizenship

Three key questions Who can be a citizen? What rights and responsibilities are bound up with citizenship? How ‘deep’ should citizenship be? –Should it take priority over other forms of identity?

Getting to be a citizen Gaining citizenship – By birth in a particular place – By descent (parents and/or grandparents) –By naturalization

What does citizenship mean to you? Do you think of yourselves as citizens? What form does this citizenship take? How important is it to you?

French citizenship In France, ideas about citizenship arose following the revolution. Citizenship is a political and territorial identification Citizenship is open to residents who identify and participate in the national culture

Headscarves The issue of Muslim girls wearing headscarves in schools caused a political frenzy Opponents upheld ideal of ‘secular values’ Immigration seen as a threat to national identity?

Problematic citizenship Formal citizenship based on civic participation Citizenship is thus seen as ‘at risk’ from immigrants For ‘immigrants’ to be French citizens, their identification with ‘white’ French ideas should take priority over their religious identity

German citizenship German citizenship based on a community of descent Blood ties is the key element in defining the nation First naturalization laws only in 2004

Inclusion and exclusion Following collapse of the Soviet Block, Germany welcomed thousands of ethnic Germans ‘home’ Many couldn’t speak German, and had few German cultural connections but they were granted citizenship 2 million Turkish ‘guestworkers’ in Germany who at that time did not have citizenship (including right to vote) Many 2 nd or 3 rd generation

Problematic citizenship Ethnicity is the formal route to citizenship Guestworkers not able to participate as full citizens Centrality of German ethnicity allows denial of a multi-cultural society?

Citizenship questions Discuss with the person sitting next to you how ideas about citizenship are invoked in the issue of headscarves in France and the exclusion of guestworkers in Germany.

Australian citizenship Establishment of citizenship excluded the indigenous population Immigration Acts up to 1960s based on whiteness Immigration initially restricted to UK, then other white Europeans accepted

Aboriginal identity White Australia policy lead to forced assimilation of Aborigines Aborigines Protection Act 1909 supported the forcible removal of Aboriginal children from their parents. This continued until 1970s.

UK citizenship After WW2, citizenship was extended to encourage commonwealth members to cure the labour shortage in Britain Immigration has become progressively tougher since then. Professional migration welcomed, unskilled workers excluded

Rights and responsibilities Immigrants can be excluded from the social contract ‘No recourse to public funds’ clause means that families whose financial situation changed risk deportation

Asylum Seekers in the UK Moral panic over asylum seekers ‘Bogus asylum seekers’ an oxymoron –Right to seek asylum enshrined in law Increasing numbers granted ‘leave to remain’ but denied full citizenship rights

Asylum seekers as a ‘threat’ Why do you think asylum seekers are vilified in the media? What links can you make to ideas about citizenship?

Link to US citizenship film &q=citizenshiphttp://video.google.com/videoplay?docid= &q=citizenship

Summary Ideas about citizenship are linked to wider culture Rights and responsibilities are not neutral but linked to class, gender and ethnic inequalities Categories of inclusion and exclusion do change over time, but are always present