Citizenship at the Margins: Inclusion, Rights and “Democratic” Participation

Abstract

This panel brings together contributions that examine the boundaries of modern citizenship, focusing on voices from the margins, and deepening our understanding of these experiences. Drawing on key empirical contexts from Western democracies, from the US to Switzerland to Sweden, the papers explore how members of marginalised group – such as migrants, post-colonial subjects or diasporic communities – are included or excluded from formal citizenship statuses and how and why their opportunities for political participation remain restricted. They highlight the significant role civic education and socioeconomic disadvantages continue to have in posing as structural barriers to democratic inclusion, and the way in which diasporic communities sustain political ties, challenge exclusionary legal frameworks, and reshape norms of citizenship across country and regional contexts. Together, the papers offer a multidimensional perspective on the contested boundaries of modern citizenship, and the way these boundaries may yet be reaffirmed, renegotiated, or indeed fundamentally transformed from the margins.

Title	Details
Beyond the Ballot: Media Consumption and Immigrants’ Political Participation in Germany	View Paper Details
From Civic Roots to Voting Booths: The Enduring Impact of Adolescent Motivation on Electoral Engagement in Early Adulthood	View Paper Details
Moving Forward and Voting Back? Out-Of-Country Voting, Return and Diasporic Electoral Engagement	View Paper Details
Racialized Citizenship Loss, Acquisition and Contestation in Post-Colonial Portugal	View Paper Details