Racial-Nationalism and Representations of Citizenship: The Recalcitrant Alien, the Citizen of Convenience and the Fraudulent Citizen

Authors

  • Augustine SJ Park Sociology&Anthropology, Carleton

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.29173/cjs17939

Keywords:

racial-nationalism, cultural racism, citizenship of convenience, citizenship fraud

Abstract

This paper traces racial-nationalism through three recent sites of controversy relating to citizenship: the banning of face coverings while swearing the citizenship oath, the evacuation of Canadians abroad and the revocation of the citizenship of 1,800 alleged to have gained citizenship through fraudulent means. Racial-nationalism is an architecture of race-thinking defined by (1) cultural racism, which operates as a strategy of “sorting out” outsiders from insiders and (2) expulsion or what Hage refers to as the logic of pure exclusion. Through an interrogation of online reader commentary responding to news reporting, this paper examines three allegorical figures at the core of public discourses representing citizenship: the recalcitrant alien, the citizen of convenience and the fraudulent citizen.

Author Biography

Augustine SJ Park, Sociology&Anthropology, Carleton

Augustine SJ Park is an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology. Her research interests include critical studies of peacebuilding and liberal interventionism, transitional justice, restorative justice and studies in childhood.

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Published

2013-02-20

Issue

Section

Articles