| Publication |
2013.
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| Summary/Abstract |
This article addresses the transformations in migrant political behaviour as people move between countries and how citizenship is exercised in the process. It highlights the limits of formal citizenship in the exercise of membership rights in given political communities. Using survey data from a probability sample drawn from a municipality in Puerto Rico, evidence shows how political activity decreases when circular migrants sojourn in the United States, a country in which they are citizens, but it is indistinguishable from non-migrants when in Puerto Rico. While these US citizens remain at the margin of the political system in the US, they are fully engaged in Puerto Rico's. Citizenship may be a necessary condition to exercise rights of political membership, but it is not enough. A laissez-faire disposition from state and political institutions and an emphasis on individual-based efforts sidelines newcomers to migrant-receiving polities.
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