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The 'Dark Side' of Citizenship
- Bostonian 7y ago"Acounts of the glories and dignity of citizenship are everywhere, yet it is the arbitrariness, violence, and servility attending the concept that we must focus on when we interrogate it, argues Dimitry Kochenov, an expert on citizenship, nationality, and immigration law, in his book “Citizenship.” “Add to this citizenship’s inherent racism, its deep and chronic exclusion of women, and its upholding and reinforcing of class divisions between the haves and have-nots,” he adds, “and it becomes clear why citizenship is at a crossroads today: the ideals it emerged to defend have little to do with all that drives the thinking behind a good society in the contemporary world.” Books and thinking like this motivate Trump supporters who think that "globalists" are trying to take their country away. The author praises the European Union for not having internal borders, but that only works if it has defended external borders. When Merkel invited a mass immigration of Syrians during the civil war there, support for free movement within the EU waned, and the UK voted for Brexit because Leavers wanted to regain control of immigration.
- Porthos9K 7y agoIf you must ask permission to leave a country, or to live and work in a different country, then you are not as free as you think you are. Citizenship is nothing but serfdom.