ABSTRACT
This chapter offers an overview of concepts of the nation-state, citizenship in general and refugee citizenship in particular. It examines the under-theorised concept of refugee citizenship from the perspective of neo-institutionalism, which allows us to address the gap between talk and action in EU refugee policy and to consider a broad field of governmental and non-governmental organisations dealing with refugee- and asylum-related issues. The chapter explores the still-tremendous divergence of national asylum regimes and the corresponding absence of an institutionalised European refugee citizenship, but also refers to some tendencies of European 'upward convergence' towards a Common European Asylum System (CEAS). The normative pillar of institutionalising a European refugee citizenship includes a Europe wide professionalisation of all collective and individual actors who are engaged in refugee and asylum issues. While the normative pillar of a European refugee citizenship is more than weak, the cognitive pillar hardly even exists.
