Contested citizenship : protest in the field of asylum

Abstract

The chapter addresses protests in the field of asylum, including both claims for and against asylum. It looks at three types of asylum-related protests: a) protests against asylum seekers and refugees, mainly by concerned natives, including radical or extreme right actors, b) pro-asylum solidarity protests, i.e. protests of natives in support of asylum-seeking migrants, and c) self-organized protests, led by (asylum-seeking) migrants. Secondly, the chapter analyses and discusses dominant ideas of citizenship that emerge in these three types of protests. It highlights that whilst pro- and anti-asylum protests have opposing goals, what often unites them is that they both have a tendency to remain within the confines of the nation state logic, i.e. they ultimately reaffirm exclusive concepts of citizenship. Thirdly, the chapter looks at pro-asylum protests more in depth, by engaging with the strand of research that has captured protests as ‘acts of citizenship’ from below, i.e. conceptualizing the participation in protests as a process constituting subjectivity and citizenship. It emphasizes that pro-asylum protests can protect individual migrants. It also argues that pro-asylum protests constitute powerful ‘acts of citizenship’ from below, but they tend to fall short of producing substantial universal rights for migrants.