How National Citizenship Shapes Transnationalism: Migrant and Minority Claims-making in Germany, Great Britain and the Netherlands

Abstract

In general studies of globalization, as well as in the more specific literature on transnational migration, the nation-state and national citizenship are not exactly en vogue. Anything beyond (“postnationalism”), below (“the local,” “devolution”), above (“global discourses,” “supranational institutions”), between (“transnational communities”), or circumventing (“glocalism,” “global cities”) nation-states has the warm attention of the academic community. By contrast, the nation-state, if not ignored altogether, usually appears attached to prefixes such as “post-”, “trans-” and “supra-”, suggesting its actual or upcoming demise. We do not want to deny that the (actual or potential) new trends that are addressed by these strands of research do not deserve attention. To some extent it is legitimate to pay more attention to what is new than to that which remains the same.