Community, Immigrants and the Construction of Citizenship

这项研究考察了美国和英国移民理解公民身份的方式。许多关于公民身份的理论辩论都强调了两组问题：1)作为法律制度与政治社区的归属感和成员感之间相互作用的结果，公民身份被理解和体验的方式；2)关于公民身份的观念可能随着全球化而变化的方式。这些辩论表明，由于国际移民，关于公民的观念和经历正在发生变化。该研究通过150多次定性访谈和36个焦点小组对美国四个城市和英国两个城市的移民组织的领导人和成员进行了探讨。特别关注为阿拉伯移民服务的组织。这些组织将涵盖一系列社会、文化和政治活动，受访者的选择将确保性别、社会经济地位和年龄的差异。这项研究将考察移民融入他们目前居住的城市和国家的方式，他们如何理解公民身份，他们可能继续感受到与来源国的联系，以及他们是否以及如何调和属于两个国家社区的感觉。该研究特别询问了与公民身份相关的想法如何影响政治活动，以及特定地区的条件是否会塑造他们作为东道国或来源国公民的身份。这项研究将产生重要的理论和实际进展。首先，如果移民正在改变公民身份和对政治社区的归属感，那么了解它们如何变化以及这些变化如何影响移民的生活就很重要。通过关注那些每天都在改变公民身份观念的人，这项研究为基于实际经验的理论进步提供了基础。这在试图理解全球化背景下公民身份和社区的本质时尤为重要。跨国移民没有显示出减少的迹象，因此，对于接收社会来说，了解移民理解社区和公民角色的方式是很重要的。最近的事件表明，理解为什么有些群体在社会中感到被边缘化或孤立的重要性。关注公民身份和社区的不同概念可能会创造一种促进不同群体之间理解的情况

This research examines the ways in which immigrants to the United States and United Kingdom understand citizenship. Much of the theoretical debate over citizenship highlights two sets of issues: 1) the ways in which citizenship is understood and experienced as a result of the interplay between legal institutions and a feeling of belonging and membership in a political community, and 2) the ways in which ideas about citizenship may be changing in response to globalization. These debates suggest ideas about and the experiences of being a citizen are changing as a result of international migration. The research explores these debates through over 150 qualitative interviews and 36 focus groups with leaders and members of immigrant organizations in four US cities and two cities in the United Kingdom. The particular focus is on organizations serving Arab immigrants. The organizations will cover a range of social, cultural, and political activities, and respondents will be selected to ensure variation across gender, socio-economic status, and age. The research will examine the ways in which immigrants are incorporated into the cities and countries in which they currently live, how they understand citizenship, the connections they may continue to feel with the source country, and whether and how they reconcile feelings of belonging to communities in two countries. The research specifically asks how ideas related to citizenship affect political activism and whether conditions within specific places shape their identification as citizens of either the host or source country. The research will yield important theoretical and tangible advances. First, if migration is changing citizenship and the sense of belonging to a political community, then it is important to understand how they are changing and how the changes affect the lives of immigrants. In focusing on the people who negotiate changing ideas about citizenship on a daily basis, the research provides the basis for theoretical advances that are grounded in real experiences. This is particularly important in trying to understand the nature of citizenship and community in the context of globalization. Transnational migration show no signs of receding, so it is important for receiving societies to understand the ways in which immigrants understand the roles of community and citizenship. Recent events have demonstrated the importance of understanding why some groups feel marginalized or isolated within a society. Attending to the differing conceptualizations of citizenship and community may create a situation in which understanding between different groups can be fostered