Evaluating and Explaining the Restrictive Backlash in Citizenship Policy in Europe

Abstract

This chapter examines recent citizenship policy change in Europe in order to address two important questions. First, are immigrant-receiving states undergoing a “restrictive turn,” making citizenship less accessible to foreigners? Our analysis finds that while certain restrictive developments have certainly occurred, a broader comparative perspective shows that these hardly amount to a larger restrictive trend. Second, regardless of what the restrictive changes amount to, what explains why certain countries have added more onerous requirements for citizenship? In answering this question, we focus on the politics of citizenship. We argue that once citizenship becomes politicized – thus mobilizing the latent anti-immigrant sentiments of the population – the result will likely be either the blocking of liberalizing pressures or the imposition of new restrictive measures. We support this argument by focusing on three countries: a case of genuine restrictiveness (Germany), another where the anti-immigrant rhetoric's bark has been more noticeable than the citizenship policy's bite (the United Kingdom), and one where proposed policy change in the restrictive direction does not add up to a restrictive policy overall, but rather a normalization with other liberal citizenship regimes in Europe (Belgium). We argue that politics accounts for why states adopt restrictive policies, and we conclude that it is premature and inaccurate to suggest that policies of exclusion are converging across Europe.

Citation

Wallace Goodman, S. and Morjé Howard, M. (2013), "Evaluating and Explaining the Restrictive Backlash in Citizenship Policy in Europe", Sarat, A. (Ed.) Special Issue: Who Belongs? Immigration, Citizenship, and the Constitution of Legality (Studies in Law, Politics, and Society, Vol. 60), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 111-139. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1059-4337(2013)0000060009