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Transnational citizenship is a political concept which would redefine traditional notions of citizenship and replaces an individual's singular national loyalties with the ability to belong to multiple nation states, as made visible in the political, cultural, social and economic realms. [1] Unlike national citizenship, where individuals interact in such capacities with one sovereign state, transnational citizenship transcends pre-established territorial boundaries in order to create a modern meaning of "belonging" in an increasingly globalized society. [1] Additionally, while preconceived notions of citizenship are often divided between national, social and individual forms of identity, all three categories serve to contribute to the meaning of transnational citizenship. State citizenship can be defined as an individual establishing their sense of belonging by espousing to the liberal-democratic values of the state in the public sphere. When applied to transnational citizenship, an individual would have the opportunity to be civically engaged in multiple societies.
In terms of the categories of social and individual forms of belonging, transnational citizens are marked by multiple identities and allegiances, and often travel between two or more countries, all in which they have created sizeable networks of differing functions. Similar to global or cosmopolitan citizenship, it is composed of cross-national and multi-layered memberships to certain societies. Transnational citizenship is based on the idea that a new global framework consistent of subgroups of national identities will eventually replace membership to one sole nation-state. In a hyper-realized version of transnational citizenship, "states become intermediaries between the local and the global." Institutionalizing transnational citizenship would loosen ties between territories and citizenship and would ultimately result in a reconstruction of world order that forever changes the capacity in which individuals interact with government institutions.
While some relate transnational citizenship to any historic shift or fusion of identities within nation-states, modern conceptions of the term have only surfaced in the past twenty years. Many attribute the evolution of the term to the rising situation of globalization. Globalization is defined by a heightened international access to the world capital market system and increased abilities to more rapid forms of communication. Due to the convenience and ease of modern international exchanges, globalization has become the process by which international economies as well as individuals interact with one another. Since post-Cold War 1989, the evolved "global political economy" has resulted in massive "reconfigurations of the world's arenas". Globalization transformed a confined geo-political system into one that relies heavily on multiple levels of local, national and global interactions. For example, China's industrialization from an agricultural society to a manufacturing society chronicled by excessive imports and exports contribute to a need to interconnect societies from all corners of the globe. The wealth that private institutions experienced from globalization resulted in "further extensions of corporations in search of faraway resources and markets".
Beyond resulting in substantial political and economical shifts, globalization has also affected social and cultural practices between people. According to citizenship scholars like Andrew Vandenberg, such acts of globalization eventually "ended the constraints of space and time that conditioned all earlier human transactions, practices, and therefore identities. With the growth and distribution of technology, more people all over the world have come to establish personal relationships with one another. Former state-regulated formal encounters are now replaced by modern informal and all the more frequent interactions. Rapid world economic growth has consequently led to international migrations. In recent years, in conjunction with globalization, increased instances of uncontrolled and predominantly illegal international migrations contribute to opportunities for escalating transnational identities. Because obvious ties surface between immigrants, their home countries, and the receiving countries, the civic ramifications are widespread. Thus international immigration contributes to loosening individual state ties. Once in their host countries, immigrants form social networks while maintaining ties to their homeland. Some organizations function in both countries, which serves to further enhance the notion that international migrants act as transnational citizens in multiple lands.
It is important to draw a distinction between transnational citizenship and multiculturalism among national citizens. While transnational citizens bring cultural and societal elements of their home countries to their host countries and vice versa, multiculturalism results from the fusion of differing ethnic minorities or indigenous peoples on a micro scale of a particular local environment. These interactions are described as "crosscutting and always mutually situational identifications." Therefore, ethnic minorities and majorities alike intermingle in a mutually shared space. All different types of individuals function within the same system, and eventually collective national identities are formed. On the other hand, transnational citizens live within the context of two or more societies that differ in size, scope, populations, laws, morals, and cultural codes. While transnational citizens interact with those already present in each respective community, they are functioning within divergent spaces. They base their interactions more on the need to reconcile two completely diverse localities into a greater context that traverses international borders, politics, and ways of life.
"The question for the future of citizenship is whether a 'global' citizenship can transcend citizenships defined by 'local' stages on the basis of blood and birth through an act of the state itself." — Henry Teune
Some scholars consider the creation of the European Union as the pilot case for testing Teune's question about whether or not transnational citizenship can surpass national citizenship. Starting in the early 1980s, European national migration control officials met and established a consensus over the relationship between migration, asylum and crime. The control officials deemed migration as a security issue, and called for a "multi-level governance" in order to control migratory practices. Virginie Guiraudon generates the theory of "venue-shopping" in order to describe how cross-national policies prevailed. Venue-shopping is the process by which political members seek out specific governmental settings in order to establish their ideal policy outcomes. Political actors circumvented national levels of control in order to establish a "transnational cooperation" among nation-states. Starting in 1981, citizens with passports from European countries were able to move freely across borders into other European countries. Due to the increased ease of traversing borders, the "Europeanization" of individuals began to occur in which a new transnational identity could be conceived.
The creation of the European Union only accelerated growing notions of transnational citizenship across the continent. The European Union came into being on November 1, 1993, when European nations signed the Treaty of Maastricht into law. The treaty established "community policy" in six new areas, one of which is termed "trans-European networks." The treaty also discusses the specific effects of the merger on a new formation of European citizenship. The benefits of European citizenship include the ability for citizens to freely cross borders into and subsequently reside in other European countries, the right to vote in elections and run for office in both municipal and European elections in the state in which the citizen resides, the right to access any member country's diplomatic or consular services in a third-party country in which the citizen's birth nation is not represented, and the citizen's right to petition to the European Parliament. The treaty thus instituted "European citizenship over and above national citizenship". This ultimately facilitates a new form of "European identity" that allows for members of the European Union to function as transnational actors beyond their countries' borders, establishing the entire continent as one cohesive entity.
Finally, the creation of the euro serves as the pinnacle of Europe's newfound economic unification. On January 1, 1999, the euro replaced the pre-existing currency in 11 European countries. The Treaty of Maastricht also created the European System of Central Banks, which consists of the Central European Bank and national central banks working together to establish monetary policy across participating countries. Some scholars consider the act of unifying the currency as "culminating the progress toward economic and monetary union in Europe". While the aspect of monetary union is clear, the far-reaching effects of economic union between countries could be considered a cause for debate. Regardless, the euro allows for transnational citizens of the European Union to not only move freely across borders, but also to experience easier monetary exchanges through the ability to use a currency that is present in both the citizens' home and host countries. The political, economic, and social ramifications that result from the invention of the European Union help contribute to the construction of European citizens as the international model for transnational citizenship.
Citizenship is a membership and allegiance to a sovereign state.
The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of 27 member states that are located primarily in Europe. The Union has a total area of 4,233,255 km2 (1,634,469 sq mi) and an estimated total population of over 449 million. The EU has often been described as a sui generis political entity combining the characteristics of both a federation and a confederation.
The Treaty on European Union, commonly known as the Maastricht Treaty, is the foundation treaty of the European Union (EU). Concluded in 1992 between the then-twelve member states of the European Communities, it announced "a new stage in the process of European integration" chiefly in provisions for a shared European citizenship, for the eventual introduction of a single currency, and for common foreign and security policies, and a number of changes to the European institutions and their decision taking procedures, not least a strengthening of the powers of the European Parliament and more majority voting on the Council of Ministers. Although these were seen by many to presage a "federal Europe", key areas remained inter-governmental with national governments collectively taking key decisions. This constitutional debate continued through the negotiation of subsequent treaties, culminating in the 2007 Treaty of Lisbon.
Globalization or globalisation is the process of interaction and integration among people, companies, and governments worldwide. The term globalization first appeared in the early 20th century, developed its current meaning sometime in the second half of the 20th century, and came into popular use in the 1990s to describe the unprecedented international connectivity of the post–Cold War world. Its origins can be traced back to 18th and 19th centuries due to advances in transportation and communications technology. This increase in global interactions has caused a growth in international trade and the exchange of ideas, beliefs, and culture. Globalization is primarily an economic process of interaction and integration that is associated with social and cultural aspects. However, disputes and international diplomacy are also large parts of the history of globalization, and of modern globalization.
The Copenhagen criteria are the rules that define whether a country is eligible to join the European Union. The criteria require that a state has the institutions to preserve democratic governance and human rights, has a functioning market economy, and accepts the obligations and intent of the European Union.
Free migration or open immigration is the position that people should be able to migrate to whatever country they choose with few restrictions.
A supranational union is a type of international organization and political union that is empowered to directly exercise some of the powers and functions otherwise reserved to states. A supranational organization involves a greater transfer of or limitation of state sovereignty than other kinds of international organizations.
European Union citizenship is afforded to all nationals of member states of the European Union (EU). It was formally created with the adoption of the 1992 Maastricht Treaty, at the same time as the creation of the EU. EU citizenship is additional to, as it does not replace, national citizenship. It affords EU citizens with rights, freedoms and legal protections available under EU law.
Transnationalism is a research field and social phenomenon grown out of the heightened interconnectivity between people and the receding economic and social significance of boundaries among nation states.
A continental union is a regional organization which facilitates pan-continental integration. Continental unions vary from collaborative intergovernmental organizations, to supranational politico-economic unions. Continental unions are a relatively new type of political entity in the history of human government. Throughout most of human history, political organization has been at the local level and in more recent centuries, the sub-regional ("regional")/sub-continental level ; however, starting with the advent of better transportation, weapons and communication there was for the first time the ability for a union of member states to organize at the continental level. After the devastation of the First and Second World Wars in the middle of the twentieth century, Europe began to slowly integrate with the founding of the "European Community", which became a political union covering much of the European continent.
Global citizenship is a form of transnationality, specifically the idea that one's identity transcends geography or political borders and that responsibilities or rights are derived from membership in a broader global class of "humanity". This does not mean that such a person denounces or waives their nationality or other, more local identities, but that such identities are given "second place" to their membership in a global community. Extended, the idea leads to questions about the state of global society in the age of globalization.
Human rights in Kuwait are a topic of significant concern. Most notably, Kuwait's handling of the stateless Bedoon crisis has come under substantial criticism from international human rights organisations and the United Nations. Kuwait has the largest number of stateless people in the entire region. Kuwait also faces significant criticism for the human rights violations against foreign nationals, women, and LGBT people. Although Kuwaiti law theoretically pledges to protect all human rights; the enforcement mechanisms designed to help protect human rights are very limited in Kuwait.
The Edinburgh Agreement or Edinburgh Decision is a December 1992 agreement reached at a European Council meeting in Edinburgh, Scotland, that granted Denmark four exceptions to the Maastricht Treaty so that it could be ratified by Denmark. This was necessary because, without all member states of the European Union ratifying it, it could not come into effect. Denmark had first rejected the Maastricht treaty, but with the addition of the Edinburgh Agreement, ratified the treaty in a 1993 referendum. The member states that had already ratified the Maastricht Treaty did not have to do so again.
Ukrainian nationality law details the conditions by which a person holds nationality of Ukraine. The primary law governing these requirements is the law "On Citizenship of Ukraine", which came into force on 1 March 2001.
The Romanian nationality law addresses specific rights, duties, privileges, and benefits between Romania and the individual. Romanian nationality law is based on jus sanguinis. Current citizenship policy in Romania is in accordance with the Romanian Citizenship Law, which was adopted by the Romanian Parliament on March 6, 1991, and the Constitution of Romania, which was adopted on November 21, 1991.
An open border is a border that enables free movement of people between jurisdictions with no restrictions on movement and is lacking substantive border control. A border may be an open border due to intentional legislation allowing free movement of people across the border, or a border may be an open border due to a lack of legal controls, a lack of adequate enforcement or adequate supervision of the border. An example of the former is the Schengen Agreement between most members of the European Economic Area. An example of the latter has been the border between Bangladesh and India, which is becoming controlled. The term "open borders" applies only to the flow of people, not the flow of goods and services, and only to borders between political jurisdictions, not to mere boundaries of privately owned property.
Postnationalism or non-nationalism is the process or trend by which nation states and national identities lose their importance relative to cross-nation and self-organized or supranational and global entities as well as local entities. Although postnationalism is not strictly considered the antonym of nationalism, the two terms and their associated assumptions are antithetic as postnationalism is an internationalistic process. There are several factors that contribute to aspects of postnationalism, including economic, political, and cultural elements. Increasing globalization of economic factors have shifted emphasis from national economies to global ones.
The economic and monetary union (EMU) of the European Union is a group of policies aimed at converging the economies of member states of the European Union at three stages.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to the broad, interdisciplinary subject of globalization:
Discrimination based on nationality is discriminating against a person based on their nationality, country of citizenship, or national origin. Although many countries' non-discrimination laws contain exceptions for nationality and immigration status, nationality is related to race and religion, so direct discrimination on the basis of nationality may be indirect discrimination on racial or religious grounds. The International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD), currently signed by 88 countries, allows discrimination by nationality, citizenship or naturalization but prohibits discrimination "against any particular nationality".