External and Multiple Citizenship in the European Union. Are ‘Extrazenship’ Practices Challenging Migrant Integration Policies?

Pablo Mateos, Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropología Social

This paper investigates a growing but understudied group of EU external and multiple citizens here termed EU “extrazens”. These are EU citizens born outside the EU who either, have accessed an EU citizenship through ancestry, or do not permanently reside in the country that granted them citizenship, but move within and outside the EU. Extrazens trajectories do not conform to traditional conceptions of citizenship acquisition through the expected route of unidirectional migration, settlement and naturalisation. Although external and multiple citizenship practices are increasingly common worldwide, it is argued that in the context of a highly integrated EU they have far-reaching and understudied implications for the future of the institution of citizenship and integration policies. A typology of extrazens is proposed, revealing the contradictions and highly discriminatory basis of EU nationally-based citizenship and integration policies, in the context of an integrated EU space of free mobility and equal rights.