At Home in Two Countries: The Past and Future of Dual Citizenship (Citizenship and Migration in the Americas)
In the nineteenth century, conflicts between nation-states meant that governments demanded “perpetual allegiance” from their sedentary citizens, conscripting them into military service against adversarial nation-states. But globalization has given rise to large-scale diasporas, meaning nation-states no longer possess the clout they once did. At Home in Two Countries deftly overviews how a mobile global populace has led to a rise in dual citizenship, forcing a gradual march toward widespread acceptance of an individual’s right to belong to more than one country. The complicated relationship between the citizen and the state comprises much of At Home in Two Countries. The peculiar modern scenario is that, despite a long history of state opposition, individuals can, if eligible, choose to obtain more than one citizenship, making citizenship not an ideological choice but rather a practical matter — emigrants may choose to become citizens of a foreign country in order to take advantage of things such as beneficial social programs (the author, Peter Spiro, obtains German citizenship so that he may visit EU museums at a discounted rate). In crisp, readable prose, Mr. Spiro tracks how the issue of dual citizenship has moved from one of state sovereignty to one of individual autonomy.
Author | Peter J Spiro |
---|---|
Star Count | /5 |
Format | Hard |
Page Count | 208 pages |
Publisher | NYU Press |
Publish Date | 07-Jun-2016 |
ISBN | 9780814785829 |
Bookshop.org | Buy this Book |
Issue | September 2016 |
Category | Current Events & Politics |
Share |
Reviews
There are no reviews yet.