Immigration and Citizenship in an Enlarged European Union

Immigration has become one of the most significant and emotionally charged social and political issues of contemporary Europe. Public and political debates on immigration, however, differ greatly. This book asks how and why differences arise by examining public debates on Romanian migrants and the Roma minority in Italy and Spain. In so doing, it reveals what it means to become a citizen of an enlarging European Union facing economic crisis. McMahon's study shows how political responses to immigration and negotiation of the terms of citizenship are mediated by political positioning and claims making. It is a contextual and contested process, and often therefore tells us more about the political dynamics in the host country than about the immigrants themselves. Analysing three levels of these dynamics: the national, the local dimension in the capital cities of Rome and Madrid and the cross-border dimension of transnational political and social relations, this book provides a rich insight into the politics of citizenship and will be a valuable resource to scholars of Political Science, Sociology, Political Economy and Anthropology.