Saeed A. Khan
Lecturer, Department of Classical & Modern Languages, Literatures and Cultures
Wayne State University
487 Manoogian Hall
Detroit, MI 48202
Email: s.khan@wayne.edu
Abstract:
Multiple Citizenship, Migration and Transnationalism in the 21st Century:
A Realignment of Rights and Responsibilities Between the Individual and
the State(s)
Citizenship may be described as a relationship between an individual and the state that
involves a mutual exchange of rights and responsibilities. Generally, this exchange is
discharged within a single national space. Migration and transnationalism in the 21st
century, however, are catalyzing the emergence of individuals with multiple citizenship,
possessing legal-judicial relations in more than one state and thus, capable of multiple
spaces in which the rights/responsibilities interaction may occur. This phenomenon may
facilitate the process whereby a citizen may derive the benefits in one state, i.e. where
he/she resides and yet fulfill the obligations of being a citizen in another state, often the
country of origin or ethno-cultural affiliation. Such a development by definition alters
the conventional reciprocity of rights and responsibility within a single state and may
create an asymmetrical exercise of citizenship, redefining it beyond merely its ontological
or legal categories. Moreover, tangible impacts on the allocation of resources and their
transfer from one state to another by such citizens may affect perceptions of national
allegiance and loyalty as well as notions of belonging and nationality-based identity.
This paper analyzes the evolving morphology and ethos of the citizen within the global
space as transnationalism and increased migration redefine the relationship the citizen has
with the state or creates relationships with multiple states. It will also explore and
distinguish between single-state citizens and citizens claiming citizenship in multiple
states and how the exchange of rights and responsibilities vis-à-vis the state are affected
in each category. Finally, this paper will offer a functional definition of these emerging
expressions of citizenship that allows for the development of new models of social and
cultural engagement, inclusion and integration, in both national and transnational
contexts.
Keywords:
Postnational
Identity
Citizenship
Transnational
Nationality
Culture
Belonging
Rights
Representations
Inclusion
Nations
Responsibilities
Saeed A. Khan is currently in the Department of Classical and Modern Languages, Literatures and Cultures
at Wayne State University, where he teaches courses on Islamic and Middle East History, Politics and
Culture, and is also a Fellow at the Center for the Study of Citizenship. His area of research is the identity
politics of Muslim diaspora communities in the US, UK and Europe. He is also Adjunct Professor in
Islamic Studies at the University of Detroit-Mercy and at Rochester College, co-teaching a course on
Muslim-Christian Diversity. He has taught Islam and World Politics at Michigan State University: James
Madison College and been a lecturer at Henry Ford College and Eastern Michigan University. In addition,
he is a founding member and a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Social Policy & Understanding: a
Michigan-based Think Tank promoting the study and analysis of US social and domestic policy. Most
recently, Saeed has founded the Center for the Study of Trans-Atlantic Diasporas, a think tank and policy
center examining and comparing the condition of ethnic immigrant groups in North America and Europe,
consulting the US and UK governments and the EU on their respective Muslim communities.
He is a
regular a contributor C-Span, NPR, Voice of America and the National Press Club, as well as newspapers
and other outlets, and is also a consultant on Islamic and Middle East affairs for the BBC.
Mr. Khan’s scholarship has been published in the Encyclopedia of the Human Genome, by Nature
Publishing Group, the Encyclopedia of Islam in America and in Brill’s Encyclopedia of Women and Islamic
Culture, as well as chapters in edited volumes such as Negotiating Boundaries? Identities, Sexualities,
Diversities, published by Cambridge Scholars Press and most recently in Muslim Youth: Challenges,
Opportunities and Expectations, by Continuum Books and Defining and Re-Defining Diaspora: From
Theory to Reality, by Interdisciplinary Press of Oxford and the Maryland Journal of Race, Religion, Gender
and Class.