Neoliberal communitarian citizenship - Current trends towards ‘earned citizenship’ in the United Kingdom, France, and the Netherlands

Abstract As Western European nation-states adapt to the challenges posed to the nation-state by globalization and immigration, adjusting citizenship criteria for immigrants has been one of the responses to these developments. In this article, we compare the current changes in citizenship policies of three Western European states: the United Kingdom, France, and the Netherlands. Our main concern is to shed light on the emerging development of a form of neoliberal communitarian citizenship that involves an increased emphasis the need to earn one’s citizenship. While many have signaled a shift towards neoliberal citizenship, we assess to what extent such a shift is characterized by a contractual view that sees citizenship no longer primarily as a prima facie right but as a prized possession that is to be earned and can be lost if not properly cultivated. At the same time, we analyze the content of citizenship criteria to see how the nation-state in these three countries is sacralized by an emphasis on the national community. We conceptualize these two trends of earned citizenship as neoliberal communitarianism. Keywords citizenship, France, neoliberal communitarianism, the Netherlands, United Kingdom