Dual Citizenship as a Strategy of Global Upward Mobility

This chapter presents an approach that posits that global inequality in citizenship value is the main factor that shapes the acquisition and use of dual citizenship. The world's citizenships are not equal. Some citizenships provide access to a secure and prosperous territory; guarantee extensive social and political rights; and come with a prestigious, high-mobility passport. On the other end of the spectrum, some citizenships are practically worthless in terms of economic access, social welfare, and political rights—and, moreover, mark their bearer as an automatic suspect when trying to cross international borders. The chapter then describes a model of the global citizenship hierarchy. Within this hierarchy, citizenship from Western or EU countries provides the highest level of rights, opportunities, and travel freedom. Once dual citizenship became available, millions of individuals from middle-tier nations in Latin America and Eastern Europe drew on their ancestry or ethnicity to obtain EU citizenship. For those individuals, compensatory citizenship is a deliberate strategy of upward mobility in the global hierarchy.