ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses the UK Border Agency Museum as a nation-building site. It considers the connections between local and national loyalties. Nation-building is defined here as official, government-led nationalism aimed at legitimating the state. The flow of migrants across state borders contributes to shaping nation-building and integration discourses, both in countries of settlement and countries at the origin of a diaspora. Museums also contribute to the dominant discourse of national self understanding by preserving some aspects of national history and culture while forgetting' others. The chapter looks at the conceptual links between nation and citizen in the museums context, leading to an analysis of the UK Border Agency Museum. UK Border Agency addresses some of the practical consequences of belonging within nation-state borders, such as the impact of taxation and control. Here, it offers a Newman, McLean and Urquhart way of thinking about museums and social inclusion, understood in terms of active citizenship.
