Liberal nationalism and the Australian citizenship tests

Abstract

Deportation and denationalisation policies, which states employ to expel persons from their territory and membership respectively, have steadily increased in prominence over the last two decades. This special issue investigates these distinct but related phenomena and their relationship with, and implications for our understanding of, citizenship. In this editorial introduction, we outline the two main questions the different contributions to this special issue address. First, why has the 21 st century seen a (partial) reversal of the trend of increasingly constrained denationalisation and deportation practices that occurred in the second half of the 20 th century? Second, what are the normative implications of this reversal, specifically for our understanding of citizenship and belonging in our increasingly interconnected and mobile world? The individual contributions to this issue are introduced throughout, and the introduction concludes with some remarks on future research.

Australia’s “Liberal Nationalist” Multiculturalism

“…The formal acquisition of citizenship is arguably the one institutional domain where civic nationalist assumptions, or something like them, prevail. 42 To become an Australian citizen, one must accept Australian political values and institutions and pledge fidelity to the country and its people. The process does not require that one look, dress, or speak in a way that might be identified as "typically Australian. "…”

Aussie kids, global citizens: Cultural nationalism and cosmopolitanism in service providers’ and parents’ accounts

“…The development, maintenance and protection of national culture are the focus of cultural nationalism (Hutchinson, 1987(Hutchinson, , 1999Levey, 2014). Its enactments are necessarily specific to particular national contexts and may include a wide range of projects, movements and programmes which are intended to further this aim.…”

Nationhood and Scandinavian naturalization politics: varieties of the civic turn

“…Instead, these other scholars either argue that civic integration policies are layered on top of existing policies (Kymlicka and Banting 2013;Meer and Modood 2009) or that strong national differences remain in the interpretation of liberal and democratic values. These differences, it is argued, both tie in with how the nation has historically been imagined and how civic integration policies are designed and used today, if at all (Levey 2014;Mouritsen 2013). For these scholars, civic integration policies are but one symptom of a more broad 'civic turn' towards nation-states more intensely and openly questioning how to maintain a national citizenry conducive to a well-functioning liberal democracy and welfare state in the wake of (non-Western) immigration (Mouritsen 2008).…”