Bücher der Reihe Palgrave Politics of Identity and Citizenship Series

This book offers the first empirical and holistic analysis of the design, implementation and effects of the new naturalisation regimes in the United Kingdom and Germany introduced in the 2000s. Based on a multi-sited state ethnography, it uniquely compares the law on the books, the local administration, and the lived experiences of citizenship tests, courses, and ceremonies from an interdisciplinary social science perspective.The book argues that naturalisation procedures in both countries suggest to migrants to constantly optimise themselves in the state¿s interests toward the subjectivity of the ¿Super Citizen¿ ¿ a political, economic, and cultural asset to the liberal-democratic, capitalist nation-state. The concept of the Super Citizen enables us to highlight and criticise the overburdening expectations toward citizens by application as opposed to citizens by birth. The analysis reveals that the self-presentation of Britain and Germany as liberal and meritocratic politiesis in stark contrast to migrants¿ lived experiences of the naturalisation process.By shedding light on naturalisation policies¿ efficacy, this book is aimed at students and scholars in sociology, politics, law, anthropology, and education, as well as policy-makers in the areas of citizenship and migration.

This book analyses the policies of recognition that were developed and implemented to improve the autonomy and socio-economic well-being of Maori in New Zealand and of indigenous and Afro-descendent people in Colombia.

In exploring this theme, The Secular Sacred focuses on diverse topics such as the dynamic roles of Carnival in Brazil, the public contestation of ritual in Northern Nigeria, and the culturalization of secular tolerance in the Netherlands.

This book argues that multiculturalism remains a relevant and vital framework through which to understand and construct inclusive forms of citizenship. Responding to contemporary ethnic and religious diversity in European states and the position of religious minorities, debates in multiculturalism have revitalized discussion of the public role of religion, yet multiculturalism has been increasingly challenged in both political as well as academic circles.With a focus on Britain and through a study of the narratives of British converts to Islam, this book engages in debates centered around multiculturalism, particularly on the issues of identity, recognition, and difference. Yet, it also identifies and interrogates multiculturalism¿s shortcomings in relation to specifically religious identities and belonging.In a unique and innovative analysis, this book combines a discussion of multiculturalism in Britain with insights from political theology. It juxtaposes multiculturalism¿s concepts of ethno-religious identity and recognition with the notions of religiosity and hospitality to offer a new perspective on religious identity and the implications of this for thinking with and about multiculturalism and multicultural social and political relations.

This book brings a transnational perspective to the study of immigrant integration in contemporary Western European societies, with a specific focus on transnational Turkish Islam and Turkish integration in Great Britain.

This book provides powerful insights into the dynamics, nature, and experiences of the terrors of counter-terrorism measures in the UK. Abbas links her analysis to wider concerns of nation construction and belonging; racial profiling and policing; the state of exception and pre-emptive counter-terrorism measures; community-based counter-terrorism measures; and restrictions to political engagement, freedom of speech and hate speech. What makes this work distinct is its advancement of an original framework - the Concentrationary Gothic - to delineate the racialised mechanisms of terror involved in the governance of Muslim populations in the ¿war on terror¿ context. The book illuminates the various ways in which Muslims in Britain experience terror through racialised surveillance and policing strategies operating at state, group (inter- and intra-), and individual levels in diverse contexts such as the street, workplace, public transport and the home. Abbas situates these experiences within wider racial politics and theory, drawing connections to anti-Semitism, anti-blackness, anti-Irishness and whiteness, to provide a complex mapping of the ways in which racial terror has operated in both historical and contemporary contexts of colonialism, slavery, and the camp, and offering a unique point of analysis through the use of Gothic tropes of haunting, monstrosity and abjection. This vital work will be of interest to students and scholars across sociology, criminology, anthropology, terrorism studies, Islamic studies, and critical Muslim studies, researching race and racialisation, security, immigration, nationhood and citizenship.

This book tackles unanswered questions on British Muslims and political participation: What makes religion a salient 'political' identity for young Muslims (over any other identity)? How do young British Muslims identify themselves and how does it relate to their political engagement? A fascinating insight into the lives of young British Muslims.

Using experiences of the white, English, working-classes in Manchester, this book explores the local frustrations with feeling 'ignored' and 'neglected' by the government through articulations of fairness.

The politics of multiculturalism faces challenges in Western democratic states. Arguing that this setback is based on the notion of culture as separate and distinct, this book explores how to face current challenges to multiculturalism without reifying culture, group and identity.

Security, Citizenship and Human Rights examines counter-terrorism, immigration, citizenship, human rights, 'equalities' and the shifting discourses of 'shared values' and human rights in contemporary Britain.

In exploring this theme, The Secular Sacred focuses on diverse topics such as the dynamic roles of Carnival in Brazil, the public contestation of ritual in Northern Nigeria, and the culturalization of secular tolerance in the Netherlands.

This book explores the political integration of Muslims and Islam across contemporary democracies. It sheds new light on the interactive dynamics between policy processes, the role of key meso-level actors such as movements and associations, and the political entrepreneurship of Muslims themselves within the overarching frame of French citizenship.

Based on in-depth interviews with Muslims who havebeen active within a Muslim community context, mainstream civil society and thepolitical arena, this comparative study reveals the enormous complexities and dynamicsof active Muslim citizenship.

Murdock combines both a thorough review of the theoretical body of research concerning multiculturalism and related concepts such as globalization, acculturation and biculturalism with specific empirical research evidence, providing new insights into factors which shape our openness towards a plurally composed society.

This book explores everyday realities of young Muslim women in Britain, who are portrayed as antithetical to the British way of life in media and political discourse.

The book argues that these changes give rise to a set of resentments among people who perceive themselves to be losing out, concluding that class resentments, depending on historical and political factors relevant to each nation, can take the form of either sub-state nationalism or right wing populism.

In an increasingly mobile world with mounting concerns about the states' control of borders and migration, passports and citizenship rights matter more than ever. This book asks what citizenship ceremonies can tell us about how citizenship is understood through empirical research in the UK, the USA, Canada, Australia, the Netherlands and Ireland.

Lewicki examines how current salient discourses of citizenship conceptualize democratic relations and frame the 'Muslim question' in Germany and Great Britain. Citizenship is understood not as a static or monolithic regime, but as being reproduced through competing discourses that can facilitate or inhibit the reduction of structural inequalities.

Although there has emerged a huge interest in the Muslim communities in Britain since 9/11 and 7/7, few academic studies have focused on the political processes within Muslim communities and the impacts these have on civic engagement. This book examines the political biographies and religious identities of British Muslims of Pakistani descent.

This book addresses the increasing role of queer politics within forms of Islamophobia, both by exploring the framing of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) issues as a key marker of western superiority and by identifying the ways in which Muslim homophobia contributes to this dialectic.