Prelims

Half Title Page

Freedom and Borders

Title Page

Freedom and Borders: A Theory of Citizenship for the Age of Globalization

By

Dario Mazzola

University of Geneva, Switzerland

University of Bergen, Norway

United Kingdom – North America – Japan – India – Malaysia – China

Copyright Page

Emerald Publishing Limited

Emerald Publishing, Floor 5, Northspring, 21-23 Wellington Street, Leeds LS1 4DL

First edition 2025

Copyright © 2025 Dario Mazzola.

Published by Emerald Publishing Limited

This work is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) licence. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this work (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this licence may be seen at http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode

Open Access

The ebook edition of this title is Open Access and is freely available to read online

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN: 978-1-80117-994-2 (Print)

ISBN: 978-1-80117-990-4 (Online)

ISBN: 978-1-80117-993-5 (Epub)

Dedication

To Fabiola and Eleanor, citizens of the world, and to the memory of Professor Geeta Chowdhry, who taught that justice reaches as far as humanity.

Epigraph

[S]o long as I may keep my mind directed ever to the sight of kindred things on high, what difference does it make to me what soil I tread upon? –Seneca ¹

About the Author

Dario Mazzola is a political theorist currently working as a researcher at the University of Bergen. He holds a BA and MA in Philosophy from the University of Pavia and a PhD in Philosophy and Human Sciences from the University of Milan. Dario has published on a variety of subjects, especially in political, social, and moral philosophy, and is specialized in the political and moral theory of migration and in the ethics of international relations and affairs. Articles by and about him have appeared on newspapers and scientific blogs in Italy, Norway, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and China. Beginning in February 2024, Dario works on a project funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation at the University of Geneva, where he is also a lecturer in Methodology of Political Theory.

Acknowledgments

This is a book about giving every human being their due. It is therefore especially regrettable that I have to violate this principle on the very first page. I will be unable to thank all who deserve it, but I made the hard choice of being unequally just toward a few rather than equally unjust toward all.

In the early years of this project, at the University of Pavia Ian Carter, Emanuela Ceva, Luca Fonnesu, and the late Salvatore Veca greatly encouraged and contributed to this project with their insights and feedback. I also thank Federico Faroldi and Enrico Grosso for their friendly support as well as for the philosophical discussions. At Northern Arizona University, Christopher Griffin, John Hultgren, Matt Evans, and Andrew Nuno, each in their specific fields, all gave me directions over crucial issues. A special thank you to the activist group No More Deaths, who illustrated to me the situation at the border. Valeria Ottonelli and Gershon Shafir also offered commentaries to working papers.

The late Geeta Chowdhry lavished her kind mentorship and extraordinary intellect and knowledge over a rudimental version of this work, in the last year of her life. The greatest hope I can put in this book is to participate, with its modest contribution, in her immense legacy.

At the University of Milan, my PhD advisor Marco Geuna provided guidance to issue in another monograph, but that also influenced this book. I as well thank all my colleagues from the PhD school in Philosophy and Human Sciences for supporting my research – and making my spare time worthwhile.

I too thank all the colleagues at the University of Bergen and Geneva who provided support and in particular Matteo Gianni and Esma Baycan-Herzog. I am grateful to the students I taught at these institutions and, especially, the ones I met during a visit to the MINT program of the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies on a gracious invite by Davide Rodogno. Questions and comments preciously enriched this work, but the IHEID students helped me uniquely by reporting views from their diverse international backgrounds.

David Kretz deserves my gratitude for the encouraging assessment he provided on an earlier draft of this book and for suggesting precious bibliographical references.

A sincere acknowledgment is also due to the excellent team at Emerald Publishing for having scouted and endorsed this book: Hazel Goodes, Abinaya Chinnasamy, Lydia Cutmore, Lauren Kammerdiener, Katy Maters, and Shanmathi Priya, all persevered with incredible tact and professionalism, even when I was sending more extension requests than pages. They own a large share of merit if this book is seeing the light after a pandemic, a war, a change of job and country, a marriage, or a child (just to name some of the circumstances, from terrible to marvelous, of the last four years).

Finally, a heartfelt thank you to my wife Fabiola and my daughter Eleanor: you conferred greater purpose to the book and to the author, and neither would be the same without you.

Geneva, February 28, 2024