Citizenship on the move: The deprivation and restoration of emigrants' <i>hukou</i> in China

Scholars have long debated whether international migration impinges on states’ control over transborder populations. In this article, I lay bare how states consolidate control through the calculated manipulation of emigrant citizenship. Based on a genealogical interrogation of China’s emigrant citiz...

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Main Author: LIU, Jiaqi M.
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Language:English
Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2021
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Online Access:https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/3852
https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/soss_research/article/5110/viewcontent/CitizenshipontheMove_av.pdf
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spelling sg-smu-ink.soss_research-51102024-08-27T01:06:33Z Citizenship on the move: The deprivation and restoration of emigrants' <i>hukou</i> in China LIU, Jiaqi M. Scholars have long debated whether international migration impinges on states’ control over transborder populations. In this article, I lay bare how states consolidate control through the calculated manipulation of emigrant citizenship. Based on a genealogical interrogation of China’s emigrant citizenship policies from the 1950s to present and three months of fieldwork in an emigrant community in China, I illustrate that the state first revokes emigrants’ citizenship and then imposes selective conditions on its restoration upon their return. China’s otherwise domestically oriented citizenship regime, namely, the household registration (hukou) system, works similarly as an international immigration regime by selecting and documenting potential citizens. My study sheds new light on the understudied external control of the hukou system by examining how it limits emigrants’ right of resettlement and proscribes overseas dual residency. I argue that citizenship is anything but an enduring, unproblematic demographic fact. It is, in essence, a revocable, precarious politico-legal accomplishment. These malleable processes enable the state to redefine the citizenship of absent and returned members, reinsert the congruence between nationality and residency, and reinforce control over transborder populations. These findings may have implications for similar mechanisms of governing international migrants through documentation and legal codification beyond China. 2021-07-01T07:00:00Z text application/pdf https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/3852 info:doi/10.1080/1369183X.2020.1788381 https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/soss_research/article/5110/viewcontent/CitizenshipontheMove_av.pdf http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ Research Collection School of Social Sciences eng Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University Emigrant citizenship emigration state transborder population China hukou deprivation and restoration Asian Studies Demography, Population, and Ecology Immigration Law
institution Singapore Management University
building SMU Libraries
continent Asia
country Singapore
Singapore
content_provider SMU Libraries
collection InK@SMU
language English
topic Emigrant citizenship
emigration state
transborder population
China
hukou
deprivation and restoration
Asian Studies
Demography, Population, and Ecology
Immigration Law
spellingShingle Emigrant citizenship
emigration state
transborder population
China
hukou
deprivation and restoration
Asian Studies
Demography, Population, and Ecology
Immigration Law
LIU, Jiaqi M.
Citizenship on the move: The deprivation and restoration of emigrants' <i>hukou</i> in China
description Scholars have long debated whether international migration impinges on states’ control over transborder populations. In this article, I lay bare how states consolidate control through the calculated manipulation of emigrant citizenship. Based on a genealogical interrogation of China’s emigrant citizenship policies from the 1950s to present and three months of fieldwork in an emigrant community in China, I illustrate that the state first revokes emigrants’ citizenship and then imposes selective conditions on its restoration upon their return. China’s otherwise domestically oriented citizenship regime, namely, the household registration (hukou) system, works similarly as an international immigration regime by selecting and documenting potential citizens. My study sheds new light on the understudied external control of the hukou system by examining how it limits emigrants’ right of resettlement and proscribes overseas dual residency. I argue that citizenship is anything but an enduring, unproblematic demographic fact. It is, in essence, a revocable, precarious politico-legal accomplishment. These malleable processes enable the state to redefine the citizenship of absent and returned members, reinsert the congruence between nationality and residency, and reinforce control over transborder populations. These findings may have implications for similar mechanisms of governing international migrants through documentation and legal codification beyond China.
format text
author LIU, Jiaqi M.
author_facet LIU, Jiaqi M.
author_sort LIU, Jiaqi M.
title Citizenship on the move: The deprivation and restoration of emigrants' <i>hukou</i> in China
title_short Citizenship on the move: The deprivation and restoration of emigrants' <i>hukou</i> in China
title_full Citizenship on the move: The deprivation and restoration of emigrants' <i>hukou</i> in China
title_fullStr Citizenship on the move: The deprivation and restoration of emigrants' <i>hukou</i> in China
title_full_unstemmed Citizenship on the move: The deprivation and restoration of emigrants' <i>hukou</i> in China
title_sort citizenship on the move: the deprivation and restoration of emigrants' <i>hukou</i> in china
publisher Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University
publishDate 2021
url https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/3852
https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/soss_research/article/5110/viewcontent/CitizenshipontheMove_av.pdf
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