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Greek citizenship tradition in flux? Investigating contemporary tensions between ethnic and civic elements of nationality

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

George Mavrommatis Open the ORCID record for George Mavrommatis [Opens in a new window]
George Mavrommatis*
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, Harokopio University, Athens, Greece
*
*Email: georgemavromatis@msn.com; gmavrommatis@hua.gr
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Abstract

Although the Greek citizenship tradition has contained both ethnic and civic elements all along, up until recently, at least according to the existing literature, it has replicated the geographical logic of a European divide between the East (ethnic) and West (civic). Lately, this tradition has been in flux as it appears to be moving along and changing positions across a hypothetical citizenship axis running along the two constitutional poles of nationality: ethnic descent and civic community. This paper attempts to shed light on this tradition in transit by bringing to the fore contemporary tensions between ethnic and civic elements of citizenship. More specifically, these ongoing frictions have been mostly manifested in the ever-changing conditionality of the terms of acquisition of Greek citizenship by second- and “one-and-a-half” generation migrant children. Most importantly, these antagonisms between an ethnicized (ethnic) citizenship and a politicized (civic) nationality became discursively played out within the arena of migrant integration discourse. However, one question remains: What can the Greek case tell us about the broader politics of citizenship and belonging in Europe and beyond?

Keywords

citizenshipnationalityethniccivicmigrant integrationbelonging
Type
Articles
Information
Nationalities Papers , Volume 46 , Issue 3 , May 2018 , pp. 484 - 500
Copyright
Copyright © 2017 Association for the Study of Nationalities 

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