Rethinking Liberal Citizenship

Abstract

This article aims at theoretically rethinking the meaning of “liberalization of citizenship,” which has resulted from increasing migration since the second half of the twentieth century. This article focuses on the relationship between citizenship's two aspects: （a）formal legal status（ “membership” ）and（b）informal demarcation of citizen/non-citizen（ “integration” ）. Both aspects operate on the logic that can be approximately formulated using the “ascription/achievement” distinction. Under the ideal-type of the nation-state, “membership” is ascriptive-based as it is a birthright, whereas “integration” is achievement-based as it refers to the substantive performance of an alleged-citizen in a society. As pure birthright “membership” has become increasingly invalid under a current increase in migration, a new strategy has emerged, which demarcates both “membership” and “integration” aspects using achievement-based criteria. It is this new trend of “achievement-based membership” that has been observed as “liberalization of citizenship.” However, this trend could be illiberal considering that it not only causes alleged-illiberal civic integration policies, but also potentially results in the banalization of forfeiture of nationality or the abolition of birthright citizenship. Therefore, the key to the realization of a true “liberalization of citizenship” lies in the composition balance between ascriptive-based and achievement-based criteria.