New European identity and citizenship

Book abstract:

This book examines the developments in European identity and citizenship created by the movement of immigrants across Europe. This splintering of the population, and various people's claims to diverse systems of citizenship and religious identity, for example, complicate the idea of national identity and underline calls for the notion of a more integrative European citizenship, one based on a European identity and not on any individual Member State. Some countries like France, for instance, currently grant their immigrant populations, such as Corsicans, Algerians and Muslims, individual citizenship, but deny them the outward expression of any collective identity. Along with negotiating the problem of exclusion felt by some minority groups, the work consists of debate on three major issues: the question of Islam, the rise of 'undocumented' immigrants, and the emergence of both ordinary and political refugees.

The book is divided into nine essays, each from a different contributor. Chapter one deals with the question of immigration in terms of Islam and citizenship in Western Europe, and chapter two looks at Muslims in Italy. Chapter three explores the immigration of Moroccans in Spain, chapter four scrutinises Belgium's policy on undocumented 'aliens', chapter five analyses EU citizenship and migration, and chapter six discusses the developments in French Islam. In chapter seven there is an interrogation of the challenge citizenship has against the notion of 'blood and soil', chapter eight debates Muslim citizenship within the UK, and chapter nine concludes with the promotion of religious-based citizenship and the case of Tariq Ramadan.

The book is aimed at scholars and students researching in the field.

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