Project description
Denaturalisation laws under the microscope
Naturalisation is the legal procedure by which a country makes an immigrant a citizen and equates him or her with his/her rights and obligations with other citizens of the state. Denaturalisation is the opposite. It’s when a country revokes the citizenship of a naturalised immigrant. The EU-funded Affects project will study denaturalisation laws enacted as a security measure in Europe, with a comparative focus on policies in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. The project will consider whether denaturalisation endangers democratic citizenship. It will also consider the emotional politics involved. Through archival research and critical discourse analysis, the project’s findings will make a crucial contribution to security studies in which citizenship remains an under-researched question.
Objective
This project examines denaturalisation laws that have been enacted as a security measure in Europe, with a comparative focus on withdrawal practices in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. Denaturalisation laws raise fundamental questions about what it means to be a citizen in and of Europe. How do security practices impact democratic processes and the organization of society? Does denaturalisation endanger democratic citizenship? The democratic and societal implications of the withdrawal of citizenship and the emotional politics involved are a particularly urgent concern in Europe today. Security concerns have led to an intense revival of public debates about the legitimacy of withdrawing citizenship and about its consequences, both for the individuals involved and the wider society. The research methods applied are archival research and critical discourse analysis. Empirically innovative as it collects archival material on the underexplored issue of denaturalisation, the project makes a timely intervention in current debates on security and citizenship. By studying norms of citizenship in relation to security practices, it makes a crucial contribution to security studies, in which citizenship remains an under-researched question. Its focus on emotions reveals affective relationships between citizenship and security. The project will take place at the Queen Mary University of London under the supervision of Prof. Jef Huysmans, who is a renowned scholar in critical security studies with a focus on the relationship between citizenship and security. The fellowship will significantly enhance my academic skills and career opportunities, allowing me to join a leading research centre in the social sciences after having worked in the humanities so far. It will allow the scope of my research to grow from a national context to an international and comparative framework, and establish me as an inter-disciplinary expert in citizenship and security.
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Funding Scheme
MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)Coordinator
E1 4NS London
United Kingdom