3 Conclusions: reshaping European citizenship

In the previous section, we have discussed the ways in which European citizenship is enacted by non-citizens, on the streets and in the courts, and both inside and outside the EU territory. We have been able to observe how people ‘do’ citizenship by looking at how citizenship is enacted ‘on the ground’ rather than solely by EU institution or states. By having done so, we have been able to see that citizenship is dynamic and it is contended. Instead of being simply a status, different groups organise and mobilise in order to demand citizenship rights or to challenge the existing instituted regimes of rights. It is precisely through these contestations and negotiations that EU citizenship is made and remade. Moreover, it is in this process and through claiming rights that new citizens emerge and partake in making of European citizenship.

When we look at the citizenship from the perspective of acts of citizenship as we have done in this module, we are left with a number of questions as our old convictions about citizenship no longer hold. If, non-citizens as for example Kurdish citizens in Turkey are key to the making of European citizenship, where do the borders of the EU begin and end? Why still talk of citizenship if non-citizens ‘do’ citizenship too? What are the policy implications of acts of citizenship perspective on citizenship? How can mobilisation and contestation be part of democratic politics? Aren’t they the exact opposite of democracy?

Let us discuss some of these issues with Mike Saward.

Interview with Mike Saward

Transcript