Palgrave Politics of Identity and Citizenship Series

This book provides powerful insights into the dynamics, nature, and experiences of the terrors of counter-terrorism measures in the UK. Abbas links her analysis to wider concerns of nation construction and belonging; racial profiling and policing; the state of exception and pre-emptive counter-terrorism measures; community-based counter-terrorism measures; and restrictions to political engagement, freedom of speech and hate speech. What makes this work distinct is its advancement of an original framework - the Concentrationary Gothic - to delineate the racialised mechanisms of terror involved in the governance of Muslim populations in the ‘war on terror’ context. 

The book illuminates the various ways in which Muslims in Britain experience terror through racialised surveillance and policing strategies operating at state, group (inter- and intra-), and individual levels in diverse contexts such as the street, workplace, public transport and the home.  Abbas situates these experiences within wider racial politics and theory, drawing connections to anti-Semitism, anti-blackness, anti-Irishness and whiteness, to provide a complex mapping of the ways in which racial terror has operated in both historical and contemporary contexts of colonialism, slavery, and the camp, and offering a unique point of analysis through the use of Gothic tropes of haunting, monstrosity and abjection. This vital work will be of interest to students and scholars across sociology, criminology, anthropology, terrorism studies, Islamic studies, and critical Muslim studies, researching race and racialisation, security, immigration, nationhood and citizenship.

This book offers the first empirical and holistic analysis of the design, implementation and effects of the new naturalisation regimes in the United Kingdom and Germany introduced in the 2000s. Based on a multi-sited state ethnography, it uniquely compares the law on the books, the local administration, and the lived experiences of citizenship tests, courses, and ceremonies from an interdisciplinary social science perspective.

The book argues that naturalisation procedures in both countries suggest to migrants to constantly optimise themselves in the state’s interests toward the subjectivity of the “Super Citizen” – a political, economic, and cultural asset to the liberal-democratic, capitalist nation-state. The concept of the Super Citizen enables us to highlight and criticise the overburdening expectations toward citizens by application as opposed to citizens by birth. The analysis reveals that the self-presentation of Britain and Germany as liberal and meritocratic politiesis in stark contrast to migrants’ lived experiences of the naturalisation process.

By shedding light on naturalisation policies’ efficacy, this book is aimed at students and scholars in sociology, politics, law, anthropology, and education, as well as policy-makers in the areas of citizenship and migration.

 This book explores the possibility of alienation amongst the British working-class and argues that the class is, in fact, alienated. Its point of departure is the right-communitarians, who outline how the working class has become alienated as a result of a loss of its political agency, the breakdown of its communities, and the undermining of its dignity. However, where these scholars tend to propose solutions from a right-communitarian perspective, this book adopts a more inclusive, left-wing, position to address working-class concerns.

This book sets out to provide a clearer picture of the movement and directionality of polyethnic rights – or immigrant-centered multiculturalism, as it is more commonly known – following recent shifts to the left in government (i.e., victories of left-parties, inclusion of left-parties in coalition governments, increase in left parties’ presence in parliament, defeat of far-right parties and right-wing populists). In so doing, it aims to understand the near and longer-term prospects of multicultural policy, multicultural discourse, demographic multiculturalism, and laws and regulations related to the immigration process in the 21st century and in an increasingly complex ideological environment. The book comprises case studies of multicultural developments in eight countries – Sweden, Canada, Aotearoa New Zealand, Switzerland, Germany, the United States, Australia, and the United Kingdom – all of which have recently (2014-2024) experienced a shift to the left in national level politics, albeit in different ways and to varying degrees. In addition to understanding what has happened to multicultural policy and discourse in recent years, the book also sets out to identify the conditions under which multiculturalism is more or less likely to mend after a shift to the left in government. The book’s overall aim is to see whether there is a future for multiculturalism in an increasingly ideologically complex environment or whether the victories of the political right, the rise of populism, the resurgence of anti-immigrant racism, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the changing nature of minority mobilization have irreversibly altered the course of multicultural affairs.

What happens when migration takes place between sites defined by different types of ‘colonial difference’?  This book asks this question in the context of Somali migration to Scotland, which it maps over a century of colonial relations, independence movements, and the reorganisation of the (post)colonial Somali and British states.  Framing both Somalia and Scotland as sites of marginality in the matrices of colonial power, it tracks through a combination of archival material and contemporary testimonies the operation, development and divergence of (the) colonial(ity of) power in shaping Somali migration and citizenship experiences in Scotland.  However, whilst the book has a grounded and localised focus, it makes the argument that Somali-Scottish migration cases present the urgent need for a holistic approach to the operation of coloniality, which not only emanates from the so-called ‘centre’ of Empire, but also at and between its edges.

This book aims to trace the development of a new conception of ‘mobility citizenship’ in Europe historically, demographically and experientially. To this aim, it adopts a ‘constellationist’ approach applied to the intra-European mobility space and uses the case studies of Hungarian and Romanian migration to the United Kingdom to develop a multidimensional meso-level comparative empirical analysis of mobility-citizenship constellations. The main theoretical proposition of the book is that citizenship has undergone a noticeable change in meaning and valuation, with mobility rights becoming a more central component in the structure of opportunities it provides citizens. The logic of ‘mobility citizenship’ is thus changing long-held perceptions around the social functions of citizenship, and consequently, the nature of contemporary transnational society. The multifaceted analysis presented in the book will appeal to readers with backgrounds in various disciplines such as political sociology, migration studies, citizenship studies, nationalism studies, or European studies.

The continuing prevalence of racial inequality and discrimination is well documented in Britain. While there are multiple accounts of how state institutions are shaped by and reproduce racism, much less has been said about their current and potential contribution to anti-racism. This book elucidates the long-term impact on racism of positive action in employment and multicultural school curricula. It also explores whether international human rights law creates a duty for states to adopt these policies. Positive action and multicultural curricula are not new and have long been advocated by multiculturalists, but this book systematically unpacks how they can counter four structural drivers of racism: racialised national identities, racialised power inequalities, racial fearmongering, and racial segregation. The book goes on to examine the extent to which they have been implemented in Britain, as well as the legal and political opportunities for future development.