Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.20901/an.19.11
Insiders or Outsiders of Citizenship? Citizens, Foreigners, and Social Citizenship in Croatia
Vedrana Baričević
orcid.org/0000-0003-2562-9254
; Faculty of Political Science, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
The paper analyzes the politics of citizenship and immigration in Croatia, with special reference to ethnicization and marketization of citizenship that has been taking place in the last three decades. In doing so, I start from the concept of "differentiated citizenship" which assumes that the benefits of membership are unequally distributed among different subjects of citizenship, regardless of their formal citizenship status. Following the model of Rogers Brubaker and his concept of "social closure", citizenship studies in Croatia have so far dealt with the issue of ethnicity and formal membership. However, following Bridget Anderson's approach, in this paper I see ethnic citizenship as a political strategy that maintains the myth that participation in the nation carries clear symbolic and material benefits of membership. The paper shall argue that the processes of commodification work against the logic of ethnonationalism, and citizenship rights are dispersed in favor of the market, to the detriment of the targeted groups within (ethno)national majority, as well as ethnic minorities. Social citizenship that Brubaker and the literature on "social closure" ignores is critical for our understanding of citizenship as a concept and social practice.
Keywords
citizenship; immigration; identity; rights; ethnicization; marketization
Hrčak ID:
287218
URI
Publication date:
14.12.2022.
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