This seminar will inquire into the global movement of people in relation to the increasingly variegated definitions and practices of citizenship. Through ethnographic accounts of border-crossings around the world, we will pay particular attention to the everyday experiences of migrants on the one hand, and to the political, cultural and legal discourses of citizenship that shape and constrain those experiences on the other. We will assess the significance of the spread of global capitalism and of transnational legal norms in relation to the changing relationship between state sovereignty, immigrants, and citizenship. We will also pay attention to the ways in which hierarchies of class, ethnicity and nation find expression in the politics of international migration and citizenship.
