Labour market integration and transnational lived citizenship: Aspirations and belonging among refugees in Germany

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Abstract

Transnational lived citizenship has gained prominence as a means to analyse mobility and foreground activist notions of citizenship over legal status. I argue that lived citizenship and transnational movements are strongly intertwined with aspirations and belonging. I use the material example of labour market integration as the space of enactments of citizenship and analyse the patterns of belonging those create and contest. I develop my argument through the empirical example of labour market integration of refugees in Germany. I demonstrate how such integration transforms social, and more importantly, economic location and in turn creates complex and often contradictory forms of transnational allegiances. I ultimately argue that lived citizenship can in important ways advance aspirations of refugees and migrants. At the same time, transnational lives and multiple allegiances are often hindered by state-based citizenship and the rights this confers. Legal status thus remains an important marker of citizenship.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)5-19
Number of pages15
JournalGlobal Networks: A Journal of Transnational Affairs
Volume22
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jan 2022

Keywords

  • Citizenship
  • aspirations
  • belonging
  • labour market integration
  • refugees
  • transnational lived citizenship
  • Germany

Research Beacons, Institutes and Platforms

  • Global Development Institute

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