Legal Citizenship and Democratic Participation

The Politics of Belonging: Non-Full Citizens and the Crisis of Democratic Inclusion in the Age of Immigration

By Tony-JunLin Pan

DOI: Humanities and Social Science Research (HSSR)

https://doi.org/10.30560/hssr.v9n1p95

Keywords: non-full citizenship, immigration policy, anti-immigrant rhetoric, democracy, voting rights, social membership, democratic participation

Abstract: As immigration policy continues to trouble U.S. policy makers, a global trend in increased immigration in recent years has distorted the perceived statuses of full and non-full citizens in America. In addressing a growth in immigration, politicians and nativists have introduced moral assaults on non-full citizens, elevated the perceived status of legal citizenship, and justified disproportionately punitive measures through the portrayal of a domestic invasion of immigrants. Moreover, the overemphasis of legal status as the sole construct of identity and membership to a local community remains problematic as alternative approaches such as the stakeholder framework—a metric in recognizing all members of society has individuals who directly impact and are impacted by the success of their communities, or a lack thereof. As a result, this paper proposes potential solutions such as the expansion of voting rights to non-full citizens across Western democracies in order to alleviate a democratic deficit and allow for the political and social recognition of immigrants as substantive members—and not mere legal subjects—of democratic polities.

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