Citizenship Dynamics and Policy Implications
Summary
Citizenship has evolved from a legal bond defining state membership to a complex field shaped by economic, social and geopolitical forces. Recent scholarship emphasises how states increasingly deploy citizenship as a tool for selective inclusion and exclusion, whether through investment schemes, differential naturalisation pathways or revocation powers. These dynamics interact with broader trends of neoliberal governance, in which economic value and individual responsibility are layered onto traditional notions of political belonging and social solidarity. Simultaneously, the rise of dual and multiple citizenship challenges territorial sovereignty and prompts debate over rights, duties and identity in an interconnected world. The divergent treatment of migrants, diasporas and stateless populations underscores the tension between universal human rights and national prerogatives. Policy implications extend from border management and integration strategies to the regulation of commercial citizenship markets and the protection of vulnerable groups, demanding coordinated responses that balance security, equity and democratic legitimacy.
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Citizenship Dynamics and Policy Implications publication trend
The graph below shows the total number of articles in citizenship dynamics and policy implications across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).
Technical terms
Economic citizenship regime: A system in which rights of membership are traded or allocated on the basis of financial investment rather than solely on birth or residence.
Neoliberal rationality: A mode of governance that applies market logic and individual entrepreneurial responsibility across social and political domains.
Residence-by-investment scheme: A policy enabling non-nationals to secure residency or citizenship in exchange for specified capital contributions.
Regulatory intermediary: An actor that interprets, negotiates and shapes rules between public authorities and private interests in policy implementation.
References
- Buying in? The political economy of investor migration in Western Europe. West European Politics (2023).
- ‘Our citizenship is being prostituted’: The everyday geographies of economic citizenship regimes. Progress in Human Geography (2022).
- The Business of Citizenship: Investment Citizenship Firms in Global Governance. Global Society (2022).
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