A free movement paradox : denationalisation and deportation in mobile societies

Abstract

This epilogue to the special issue of Citizenship Studies reflects on the connections between states’ powers to deport foreigners and to denationalise citizens and asks how both powers ought to be hedged in by liberal and democratic constraints. The article argues that citizenship revocation powers are ultimately at odds with a democratic principle that governments are collectively authorised by citizens. It suggests also that the protection of long-term foreign residents from deportation is due to the emergence of a quasi-citizenship status for denizens in liberal democracies. Finally, the article raises a question about the future of the power to expel in increasingly mobile and interconnected societies. Could the proliferation of multiple citizenships and the increasing number of people with multiple residences in different countries undermine the justifications for strong constraints on the state power to expel proposed by the contributions in this volume?