ABSTRACT
It is tempting to think of citizenship as something that is fixed and defined within national boundaries. However, as the world has become more mobile (Sheller and Urry 2006), questions have been raised as to whether citizenship continues to be defined by state borders or whether an interconnected world has loosened the moorings of state and citizen, leading to new formations of citizenship (Castles and Davidson 2000; Desforges et al. 2005; Ho 2008; Castles and Miller 2009; Staeheli 2011). After all, citizens are not static people:
all the world seems to be on the move. Asylum seekers, international students, terrorists, members of diasporas, holidaymakers, business people, sports stars, refugees, backpackers, commuters, the early retired, young mobile professionals, prostitutes, armed forces these and many others fill the world’s airports, buses, ships, and trains. The scale of this travelling is immense. Internationally there are over 700 million legal passenger arrivals each year (compared with 25 million in 1950) with a predicted 1 billion by 2010; there are 4 million air passengers each day; 31 million refugees are displaced from their homes; and there is one car for every 8.6 people. These diverse yet intersecting mobilities have many consequences for different peoples and places that are located in the fast and slow lanes across the globe.
(Sheller and Urry 2006: 207) Rather than disrupting citizenship, mobility defines it (Cresswell 2006a, 2006b). The ability to move between places and to claim universal rights within them are defining features of being a citizen (Marshall 1950 [1992]; Cresswell 2009). Restrictions on mobility are often associated with restrictions on the rights associated with citizenship. This chapter uses a range of scales to explore the relationship between mobility and citizenship. It begins by examining how new forms of international mobility are leading to new forms of citizenship that challenge its relationship with the nation-state.