"'A European dilemma’: The myth and reality of citizenship in Northwestern Europe"

Gray, Victor. (1997) "'A European dilemma’: The myth and reality of citizenship in Northwestern Europe". In European Union Studies Association (EUSA) > Biennial Conference > 1997 (5th), May 29-June 1, 1997, pages 48, Seattle, WA.

Abstract

The purpose of this essay is to examine the changing nature of citizenship in Northwestern Europe, specifically in Britain, France, and Germany, the three most important countries in the area; the causes and consequences of the changes; and the degree to which the changed reality corresponds to theory about citizenship in liberal democratic welfare states. It is a study of a Europe that, since World War II, has gone from homogeneity to heterogeneity--without planning or preparation; i.e., without adequate or even coherent policies with regard to immigration and naturalization. It posits two hypotheses, one growing out of this absence of a coherent, consistent policy and the other out of the increasing tenuousness of the traditional nation-state. First, essentially open borders and lack of clear-cut, equally open naturalization procedures have resulted in a large, permanently resident "foreign" population consisting of people who are not full-fledged members of the states and societies in which they find themselves. In the absence of action by the host governments, the risk arises that they may become permanently "foreign," creating, in turn, still further confusion about the role of the nation-state and the meaning, value of citizenship therein. The second hypothesis is that the strongest determinant of such governmental action is not self interest defined in economic terms, but rather the degree of identity security of host country citizens measured in sociocultural terms.