Within and Beyond Citizenship: Lived Experiences of Contemporary Membership

Within and Beyond Citizenship was the first of two international symposia convened in 2013 by Dr Nando Sigona from the University of Birmingham and Dr Roberto G Gonzales from the University of Chicago investigating the relationship between legal status, rights and belonging in contemporary diverse societies. The Oxford symposium was organised by the Centre on Migration, Policy and Society (COMPAS), Oxford Institute of Social Policy (OISP) and the Refugee Studies Centre (RSC) at the University of Oxford and the School of Social Service Administration at the University of Chicago. It investigated the interplay between forms and modes of contemporary membership, migration governance and the politics of belonging. Participants discussed issues such as the position of the non-citizen in contemporary immigration and emigration states; the nexus between human mobility, immigration control, and citizenship; the tension in policy and practice between coexisting traditions and regimes of rights; the position of mixed status families in relation to the nation-state; and the intersection of ‘race’ and other social cleavages and legal status.