Measuring group switching in the European Parliament: Methodology, data and trends (1979-2009)

Party group switching in the European Parliament (ep), where parliamentarians individually or collectively switch from one party group to the other, is a well-known contributor to the volatility of the ep party system. We present a new dataset that contains party group information on all meps from 1979 to 2009. As a first step to a more comprehensive analysis of the phenomenon of party group switching in the ep we describe characteristics of all switches that have occurred in these six legislatures, with a focus on the trends across time, variety between member states, party groups, and ideological party families

Os múltiplos de cidadania e os seus direitos

De que falamos quando falamos em cidadania? Quem são os cidadãos portugueses e os cidadãos da União Europeia? Quais os direitos privativos destes cidadãos? A cidadania é um conceito omnipresente na vida política contemporânea, mas o seu real significado continua a ser muito controverso e o uso do termo propenso a abusos e equívocos. Ouvimos falar em cidadania cosmopolita, global, transnacional, pós-nacional, regional, local, multicultural, inclusiva, europeia, lusófona, cívica, activa, universitária, empresarial, etc., num rol aparentemente infinito de cidadanias possíveis. Subjacentes a todos estes usos do termo estão ideias importantes para a compreensão do conceito, como são as ideias de participação, reconhecimento, pertença, responsabilidade, direitos e deveres. No entanto, é necessário não perder de vista que a cidadania, no seu sentido mais comum e mais imediatamente relevante para a vida das pessoas, continua a ser um estatuto jurídico que liga os seus titulares a uma dada comunidade política estadual e que tem associados direitos e deveres específicos. Este entendimento da cidadania como cidadania estadual ou nacional tem sido objecto de inúmeras críticas, pelo seu carácter inevitavelmente exclusivo, mas está longe de ser superado por um qualquer modelo de cidadania inclusiva à escala planetária ou sequer continental. Os compromissos internacionais dos Estados em matéria de direitos humanos têm, por certo, conduzido ao reconhecimento a estrangeiros e apátridas de direitos até há pouco tempo privativos dos cidadãos, mas as diferenças persistem em alguns domínios fundamentais da relação dos indivíduos com a comunidade política, como são os direitos de participação nos assuntos públicos e o livre acesso ao território. De resto, o alargamento da cidadania a todas as pessoas, sob a forma de uma cidadania cosmopolita ou global, apesar de poder ser mais consentâneo com a universalidade dos direitos humanos, esvaziaria o conceito de conteúdo próprio e implicaria a sua completa irrelevância prática. A cidadania é necessariamente limitada a um grupo definido de pessoas que são identificadas como membros da comunidade política. Podemos discutir a justiça dos critérios de acesso ao estatuto, mas, enquanto sinal de pertença a uma comunidade política, a cidadania não pode deixar de estabelecer uma fronteira entre nós e os outros. É a qualidade de membro que justifica a atribuição aos cidadãos de iguais direitos civis, políticos e sociais. Pertença e direitos, apesar de diferentes aspectos do conceito de cidadania, são duas faces da mesma moeda e não podem ser separados na prática. Se a cidadania for um estatuto meramente nominal destituído de qualquer conteúdo específico (pertença sem direitos) ou se todos os direitos de cidadania puderem ser gozados também pelos não cidadãos (direitos sem pertença), a cidadania deixa de ter sentido. Qualquer que seja a dimensão da comunidade política em causa (local, estadual ou supra-estadual), a cidadania implica sempre uma demarcação entre os que pertencem à comunidade e os que dela são excluídos, bem como a reserva para os membros da comunidade de um conjunto de direitos vedados aos outros, os estrangeiros, e por isso percebidos, sobretudo por estes, como autênticos privilégios. Assim sendo, a cidadania significa sempre a qualidade de membro de uma comunidade política e a titularidade de um conjunto de direitos. Será, por isso, sob estas duas perspectivas complementares que é conduzido o presente estudo.União Europei

Statistics on Loss of Nationality in the EU. CEPS Liberty and Security in Europe No. 70/December 2014

This paper was prepared as a Policy Brief for discussion at the final conference of the project on Involuntary Loss of European Citizenship: Exchanging Knowledge and Identifying Guidelines for Europe, 11-12 December 2014. Co-funded by the European Commission’s DG for Justice, Citizenship and Fundamental Rights, the ILEC project has aimed to establish a framework for debate on international norms on involuntary loss of nationality. For more information visit: www.ilecproject.eu

Mapping Statistics on Loss of Nationality in the EU: A new online database. CEPS Liberty and Security in Europe No. 76/December 2014

Statistics can be useful when assessing the practical relevance of varying rules and practices on the involuntary loss of nationality across EU member states. Yet while much progress has been made within the EU in recent years with regard to the collection of comparable and reliable information on the acquisition of nationality, statistics on the loss of nationality are hard to find and, where available, difficult to interpret. In this comparative report, the authors explore the landscape of existing statistical data on loss of nationality in the European Union. They identify challenges to the existing methods of data collection and data interpretation and introduce an online statistical database, bringing together all existing statistical data on loss of nationality in the EU. These data are summarised in tables and graphs and discussed with reference to the relevant national and European sources. The authors conclude with recommendations to policy-makers on how to improve data collection in this area

The relationship between citizenship and residence in the citizenship laws of the member states of the European Union

CARIM-India: Developing a knowledge base for policymaking on India-EU migrationThis paper addresses various aspects of the link between residence and citizenship in EU Member States. The first concerns the length or type of residence required for acquisition of citizenship by naturalization. All Member States impose residence requirements for this purpose, but differences between nationals law are considerable. Second, the paper surveys whether, or under which conditions, citizenship acquired by naturalization can by lost by a certain period of residence abroad. Third the paper describes and analyzes national laws that make an exception to the general rule citizenship can be transmitted by (a) parent(s) to their children, even if the parent(s) reside(s) outside of the country of citizenship and their children are therefore born outside that country. The content of this paper is based on several comparative studies conducted on grounds for acquisition and loss of nationality, in particular of the Member States of the European Union.CARIM-India is co-financed by the European University Institute and the European Unio

A Comparative Analysis of Regulations on Involuntary Loss of Nationality in the European Union. CEPS Liberty and Security in Europe, 75/December 2014

This study examines the workings of the Common European Asylum System (CEAS), in order to assess the need and potential for new approaches to ensure access to protection for people seeking it in the EU, including joint processing and distribution of asylum seekers. Rather than advocating the addition of further complexity and coercion to the CEAS, the study proposes a focus on front-line reception and streamlined refugee status determination, in order to mitigate the asylum challenges facing Member States, and vindicate the rights of asylum seekers and refugees according to the EU acquis and international legal standards. Joint processing could contribute to front-line reception and processing capacity, but is no substitute for proper investment in national systems. The Dublin system as currently configured leads inexorably to increasing coercion and detention, and must thus be reconfigured to remove coercion as a principle and ensure consistency with human rights and other fundamental values of the EU

Like parent, like child : how attitudes towards immigrants spill over to the political inclusion of their children

Published online: 20 November 2023Across Europe, citizenship is traditionally attributed at birth through descent only. As immigrant populations grow, policy-makers have come under pressure to extend citizenship rights to the children of immigrants born in the country. While such inclusive measures often counter political opposition, public attitudes on this question remain remarkably underexplored. In this study, we report on the results of an original choice-based conjoint survey experiment designed to examine which parental attributes affect respondents’ willingness to grant citizenship to newborns. We implement the survey experiment in Italy, where over one million children do not have Italian citizenship, yet reform proposals have so far been unsuccessful. In line with our pre-registered expectations, we find that respondents are more likely to support birthright citizenship for children born to parents who are economically, legally and socially integrated in society. These attitudes vary little by political background, education and age-category of respondents. Our findings suggest that incorporating immigration-related conditionality in birthright citizenship proposals is key to convincing sceptical publics of the legitimacy of such measures

Citizenship & migration

First Online: 04 June 2022Historically, citizenship has been a gatekeeper to political and social rights within communities, as entitlements of membership were closely connected to gender, race, and class. Nowadays, citizenship is a symbol of equality within states as much as a marker of inequality among states. It is (1) a defining feature of the international state system, which both reflects and reinforces inequalities of wealth and opportunity around the world, and (2) a tool for social closure, through which states determine who belongs to the group that can share common entitlements and who, by contrast, are excluded from them. These two characteristics of citizenship are central to understanding the citizenship-migration nexus: whereas the promise of equality represents a strong driver for migrants to acquire citizenship in their destination states, the different opportunities attached to citizenship of different countries encourage migration of individuals from less privileged parts of the world and enable mobility for those with a citizenship status in the more advantageous countries

Support for citizenship to immigrants’ children among Italians across party lines

The infographic illustrates Italians’ level of support for extending citizenship to the children born in Italy to immigrant parents. Using an experimental design, the authors show that Italians are more supportive of ius soli (territorial birthright citizenship) for children whose immigrant parents are in employment, have a residence permit and have lived in Italy for more than five years. Even the majority of right-wing voters support granting citizenship to children born to parents who have lived in Italy for five years and have a residence permit

Heterogeneous naturalization effects of dual citizenship reform in migrant destinations : quasi-experimental evidence from Europe

Published online: 13 November 2023Does dual citizenship acceptance increase immigrants’ propensity to naturalize and, if so, for whom does this matter most? We exploit exogenous variation in citizenship legislation in 200 migrant-origin countries to identify the effect of destination country policy reform. We hypothesize that the value of the origin country citizenship moderates the reform effect. We test our identification strategy in two West European countries with contrasting reforms: a canonical liberal reform in Sweden (2001) and an atypical restrictive reversal in the Netherlands (1997). We apply a staggered difference-in-differences model employing administrative data on complete migrant populations. We find reform effects remarkably similar in effect size and heterogeneity, with liberalizing reform increasing naturalization rates by 6.7 percentage points and restrictive change decreasing rates by 6.4 percentage points. The effect is concentrated among immigrants from EU and highly developed countries. Our quasi-experimental evidence informs naturalization scholarship and public debate on migrant political integration.This article (letter) was published Open Access with the support from the EUI Library through the CRUI - CUP Transformative Agreement (2023-2025)