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ID: 103992

Citizens of the region: party conceptions of regional citizenship and immigrant integration / Hepburn, Eve

Hepburn, Eve	Journal Article
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2011.

Summary/Abstract

Citizenship is usually regarded as the exclusive domain of the state. However, changes to the structure of states resulting from decentralisation and globalisation have required a re-conceptualisation of citizenship, as authority is dispersed, identities multiply and political entitlements vary across territorial levels. Decentralisation has endowed regions with control over a wide range of areas relating to welfare entitlements, education and cultural integration that were once controlled by the state. This has created a new form of 'regional citizenship' based on rights, participation and membership at the regional level. The question of who does or does not belong to a region has become a highly politicised question. In particular, this article examines stateless nationalist and regionalist parties' (SNRPs) conceptions of citizenship and immigration. Given that citizenship marks a distinction between members and outsiders of a political community, immigration is a key tool for deciding who is allowed to become a citizen. Case study findings on Scotland, Quebec and Catalonia reveal that although SNRPs have advocated civic definitions of the region and welcome immigration as a tool to increase the regional population, some parties have also levied certain conditions on immigrants' full participation in the regional society and political life as a means to protect the minority culture of the region.

Key Words

Globalisation ; Citizenship ; Immigration ; Decentralisation ; Regional Citizenship

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ID: 157198

They vote like their kindred: regional citizenship, electoral politics, and discourses of belonging in brong ahafo, ghana / Lobnibe, Isidore

Lobnibe, Isidore	Journal Article
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Summary/Abstract

This paper explores reactions to election results in the Brong Ahafo region of Ghana from the perspectives of the politics of belonging debates – the distinction citizens of the same nation-state make between those who belong and those who belong less in one of Ghana’s highly competitive electoral regions. It argues that multi-party democracy has intensified or given rise to social and political tensions or conflicts in some local communities rather than enhance democratic ideals and peaceful coexistence

Key Words

Migration ; Voting ; Regional Citizenship ; Northern Ghana ; Brong Ahafo

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