ABSTRACT
Why were citizenship rights progressively extended to non-citizens? Why are citizenship rights being disentangled from nationality? These are the two main questions guiding this chapter. To answer my questions I will begin by describing the main explanatory models that address the extension of rights from citizens to non-citizens. Subsequently, I will analyse the Portuguese case. The Portuguese case is particularly suited for this purpose since the extension of citizenship rights to non-citizens is relatively recent, which makes it easier to uncover the discourse of legitimisation associated with this extension. Finally, based on the results of this case study I will assess the explicatory power of the existing models.
