Citizenship configurations : analysing the multiple purposes of citizenship regimes in Europe

Abstract

This article presents an analysis of the multiple purposes of citizenship regimes in 36 states in Europe. Previous studies on this topic suffer from two methodological deficits that lead to an incomplete perspective on how states regulate citizenship status: they emphasise the importance of static national membership models and focus nearly exclusively on the access to citizenship for immigrants. To overcome these deficits, we develop a citizenship regime typology based on functional components of citizenship laws, focusing on acquisition as well as loss, inside as well as outside the territory of a state. We find that citizenship regimes in Europe configure along two dimensions that can be associated with territorial and ethnocultural inclusion, which result in four types: territorially and ethnoculturally selective regimes that are inclusive on only one of these dimensions, expansive regimes that are inclusive on both dimensions and insular regimes that restrict both inclusions.