This comprehensive Handbook gives an overview of the political, social, economic and legal dimensions of citizenship in the Middle East and North Africa from the nineteenth century to the present.
...The terms citizen and citizenship are mostly used by researchers in an off-hand, self-evident manner. A citizen is assumed to have standard rights and duties that everyone enjoys. However, citizenship is a complex legal, social, economic, cultural, ethical and religious concept and practice. Since the rise of the modern bureaucratic state, in each country of the Middle East and North Africa, citizenship has developed differently. In addition, rights are highly differentiated within one country, ranging from privileged, underprivileged and discriminated citizens to non-citizens. Through its dual nature as instrument of state control, as well as a source of citizen rights and entitlements, citizenship provides crucial insights into state-citizen relations and the services the state provides, as well as the way citizens respond to these actions.
This volume focuses on five themes that cover the crucial dimensions of citizenship in the region:
Historical trajectory of citizenship since the nineteenth century until independence
Creation of citizenship from above by the state
Different discourses of rights and forms of contestation developed by social movements and society
Mechanisms of inclusion and exclusion
Politics of citizenship, nationality and migration
Covering the main dimensions of citizenship, this multidisciplinary book is a key resource for students and scholars interested in citizenship, politics, economics, history, migration and refugees in the Middle East and North Africa.
Introduction Meijer, Roel; Sater, James N.; Babar, Zahra R.
Routledge Handbook OF Citizenship in the Middle East and North Africa,
2021
Book Chapter
The study of citizenship has been a recent phenomenon in Middle East and North Africa studies. Citizenship studies, however is not united in its approach to the subject. There are two main trends. ...The first is more structuralist and focuses on state-citizen relations. The second trend looks more at how citizens constitute citizenship through “acts of citizenship”. This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book analyzes the transition from colonial pact with intermediaries to the middle class social pact of national unity, state-led economic development and social equality and expansion of education in both the Mashreq and the Maghreb. It describes different versions of social contracts and models of citizenship that states attempted to impose, with varying success. The chapter focuses on the techniques and instruments of state control as an essential part of citizenship regimes.
