This paper uses a bottom-up perspective to analyse engagement with kin-state citizenship and quasi-citizenship and assess the impact of this engagement on conceptions of borders and boundaries. The paper compares engagement with kin-state citizenship (Romanian citizenship in Moldova) and kin-state quasi-citizenship (Russia’s Compatriot policy in Crimea) based on fieldwork interviews in Moldova and Crimea (2012-2013). The paper argues that, even with fragmenting and multiplying citizenship regimes, citizenship (and not quasi-citizenship) remains the key point of entry to the state, offering access to more desirable institutions than quasi-citizenship policies, by reducing the social and political impact of borders between kin and kin-state and beyond (i.e. via access to EU citizenship). Equally, use of kin-state citizenship regimes does not imply the switching (or replacing) of affiliation from home-state to kin-state, but rather the ability of individuals to multiply their political affiliations and participate in multiple states over and across borders (Kovacs 2009).
