Citizenship, Exile and Territorial Rescaling: The Case of ‘Ostarbeiter’ and its Relevance for the Current Debate

The paper builds on the comparative analysis of Soviet Union’s citizenship policies towards the ‘Ostarbeiter’ (foreign slave workers gathered from occupied Central and Eastern Europe performing forced labour in Germany during WWII) and subsequent denial of their full citizenship rights. Original data was made available recently. There is an obvious gap in the literature as regards the case but, more importantly, the paper discusses the relevance to the current debate on stripping of citizenship over IS links. The ‘unwanted citizens category’ further complicates the nexus between nationalising states, conflict and territory. The paper elucidates how citizenship policies can affect groups that challenge the exact fit between proclaimed membership and state jurisdiction, showing how national governments through particular citizenship policies and categorisation practices engage in reduction of collective rights. On a more general level, this is linked to territorial rescaling issue (territorial shrinkage, expansion or secession) and the outreach of citizenship policies, bringing an important dimension of the problematique into the limelight.