Attachment and Belonging: Assessing the Borders and Boundaries of Citizenship

The International Court of Justice ruled in 1955 that citizenship requires a genuine link between state and citizen, “a legal bond having as its basis a social fact of attachment, a genuine connection of existence, interests and sentiments.” More than 60 years later, is the genuine link doctrine still a good law for assessing membership? And when (if at all) can links become substantial enough to create a right to citizenship? Professors Alex Aleinikoff (The New School), Jelena Dzankic (EUI), Rainer Bauböck (EUI), Hiroshi Motomura (UCLA School of Law) and Liav Orgad (EUI/WZB/IDC) discuss these fundamental dilemmas relating to membership and belonging, genuine ties and instrumental citizenship.
In the following lecture, Professor Hiroshi Motomura (UCLA School of Law), addresses national belonging and the borders of citizenship in the context of the American experience. The lecture explores why challenges to U.S. migration laws and policies often take national belonging as their foundation, and why this approach is both essential and yet limited as a path to ethical borders.

The event is dedicated to Prof. Rainer Bauböck, whose work marked and importantly advanced the field of citizenship and political theory over the course of decades.