Soziologie

Interpreting the law and imagining the citizen Naturalisation procedures in Belgium and the UK
Djordje Sredanovic

Invitation to Colloquium Series "Global Migration as the New Social Question"
Sociology of Transnationalization, Development and Migration
Wednesday, May 31, 16-18 c.t.
Room: X-C3-107

While using also previous researches on the uses of formal citizenship as both a factor of settlement and mobility, this presentation focuses in particular on the implementation of citizenship legislation in Belgium and the UK. I have conducted indepth interviews with the staff of different institutions processing naturalization applications: municipal registries and magistrates (Parquets du Procueur du Roi) in Belgium, local Nationality Checking Services and UK Visas and Immigration, a branch of the Home Office, in the UK.
The research has shown how in Belgium a highly-codified citizenship law, which apparently leaves little space to interpretation, is nevertheless applied quite differently across the decentered naturalization system. On the other hand, the highly discretional UK law is applied in a relatively uniform way in the centralized naturalization system of the country, although significant spaces of discretion remain.

The presentation also aims to show how, while dual nationality and the continuing cultural links with the country of origin are becoming increasingly tolerated in naturalization procedures, other dimensions of the transnational experience remain outside the image of the citizen that allows candidates to naturalize. In particular, work outside the country of naturalization and, especially, passing a part of the year in the country of origin, can still be obstacles to naturalization both in Belgium and in the UK.

Djordje Sredanovic has obtained a PhD in Social Sciences from the University of Padua in 2012 and, after working at the University at Bologna, is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the Group for Research on Ethnic Relations, Migration & Equality and the Migration Asylum Multiculturalism research group of the Université Libre de Bruxelles. He is specialized in the sociology of citizenship and migration and in the sociology of media, and has published articles in Citizenship Studies, International Migration, and International Political Science Review.