Emigrants’ citizenship in China

• Main Author: LIU, Jiaqi M.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2021
• Subjects: Citizenship; hukou; China; migration; Asian Studies; Demography, Population, and Ecology
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/3895; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/soss_research/article/5153/viewcontent/Emigrants__citizenship_in_China.pdf
• Institution: Singapore Management University

Scholars have examined closely how China’s citizenship regime, namely, the household registration (hukou) system, manages domestic population movements. However, how China’s citizenship regime regulates emigrants abroad remains largely unexplored. In this study, I throw into sharp relief the external dimension of hukou through a genealogical investigation of China’s citizenship policies towards emigrants abroad over the past seven decades. I argue that the otherwise domestically oriented hukou regime also governs emigrant citizenship by first deregistering emigrants who have obtained foreign residency and then selectively restoring those who seek to return to China. This combination of de- and reregistration processes leads to the dynamic unmaking and remaking of Chinese emigrants’ floating citizenship. Hence, I caution against perceiving citizenship as a given, static status, or “citizen-ness”, that is inherent, unchanged in a state’s nationals. Instead, I dive deep into the dynamism of “citizen-ization”. Rather than a unidirectional, irreversible entitlement, citizenship is shaped by the homeland state through a constellation of legal codification and bureaucratic practices. I establish a conceptual bridge between Chinese and Western citizenship regimes by discussing the broader transformation of citizenship, in an attempt to stimulate more dialogue across national cases.