In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

203 Chapter 10 “And Ye Shall Possess It, and Dwell Therein” Social Citizenship, Global Christianity, and Nonethnic Immigrant Incorporation Nina Glick Schiller and Ayse Caglar This chapter argues that the theology, practices, and identities deployed by born-again Christian migrants constitutes a form of social citizenship that challenges established notions of rights to territory and belonging articulated within state-based concepts of citizenship. In so doing, migrants engage in nonethnic incorporation, a form of settlement and identi- fication that dramatically differs from those generally discussed and debated by migration theorists and policy makers. Using our research among born-again Christians in Halle/Saale, Sachsen-Anhalt, Germany, and in Manchester, New Hampshire, from 2001 to 2005, we explore the ways migrants use evangelizing Christianity to facilitate claims to social citizenship in their countries of settlement.1 We examine the ways in which born-again Christianity can bring migrants and natives into local and global political engagement. We also note that migrants’ biblically based claims to territory and belonging articulate and reinforce the neoconservative global agenda. In this way, migrants and natives participate in a globe spanning imperial political project that extends far beyond the electoral politics of their locality and nation-state of settlement, while also becoming incorporated locally. Conceptualizing Citizenship The word “citizen” is now generally understood as a person who is fully a member of a modern state and as such has all possible legal rights, including the right to vote, hold political office, and claim public benefits. Citizens of states also have certain responsibilities that vary from country to country (Bauböck 1994; Shafir 1998). However, the clear-cut textbook-style definition gets very muddy in practice and in different states people practice and conceive of citizenship somewhat differently. In fact, there is an increasing disjuncture between the rights stemming from formal membership in a state and the substantive rights of people residing in that state. As scholars of citizenship have noted, not all people who are legal citizens receive the same treatment from the state or are able to claim the same rights. There are often categories of people who are legal citizens according to the laws of a state, yet who face various forms of exclusions and denials of civil rights because they are not considered to be truly part of the nation. These categories include members of lower social classes–both rural and urban—and persons who are racialized or gendered in ways that put them outside the body politic (Hamilton and Hamilton 1997; Haney-Lopez 1998; Lister 1997; Marshall 1964; Yuval-Davis 1997a). These exclusions operate both within systems of law and within civil society. In states such as Morocco, currently, or the United States, for long periods of U.S. history, both men and women have had legal citizenship but this status has accorded women fewer legal rights in domains of family law or property rights (Jones and Jonasdottir 1988; Salih 2003). As was finally acknowledged in the 2005 urban uprising in France, despite the fact that black immigrants from former colonies have been able to become citizens of France, they face barriers in entering either professions or politics; and black children are routed into vocations rather than university tracks (Tagliabue 2002; Craig 2005). These examples draw attention to the fact that the formal status of membership does not guarantee an array of civic and socioeconomic rights to the citizens. On the other hand, although legal citizens are often denied full civil rights, many states grant a range of rights to those who reside legally in a state but do not have legal citizenship and may even be ineligible to become citizens . As Yasemin Soysal (1994) has emphasized, although they lacked formal membership in the host nation, migrants and their descendants often have been accorded various social, economic, civil, and cultural rights. The access accorded to these migrants has revealed the disjuncture of formal and substantive citizenship rights. Consequently in understanding the social dynamics of participation in societies, scholars of citizenship increasingly have examined the practices and performance of citizenship rights, rather than only the formal status of membership. Moreover, they have expanded the concept of citizenship by decoupling formal and substantive citizenship rights and distinguishing between cultural and social citizenships. Because citizenship in its actual practice has discrete legal, cultural, and social aspects, separate literatures have developed to address these various dimensions . As defined by Renato Rosaldo and Juan Flores, cultural citizenship 204 N i na G...

Share