Since the 1980s, the question of citizenship has taken root as a
major theme in the social sciences and as the focus of juridical,
political, social, and cultural debates in all democratic societies.
In Europe, citizenship has taken different shapes and definitions in
its rhetoric, ideology, and practice with regard to immigrants;
incorporation into nation-states and their expansion of political
participation beyond boundaries relating to home and host country to
include a broad European space. Citizenship is also an issue for
European construction itself. Within nation-states citizenship has
been expressed in different domains extending from the national
community to the civil society, even though only “legal” citizenship
allows the full participation of individuals and groups in the
political community. At the European level, despite the
transnational participation of immigrants encouraged by the very
nature of the European Union and its supranational institutions and
de facto expansion of dual citizenship, the
claim for equal recognition as citizens that underlies the political
strategies of immigrants remains within the framework of the
legitimacy of the state of residence and citizenship.