CITIZENSHIP AS A STATENESS BOUNDARY MAINTENANCE REGIME: THE CURIOUS CASE OF LITHUANIAN DUAL CITIZENSHIP by Egle Verseckaite A dissertation submitted to Johns Hopkins University in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Baltimore, Maryland February, 2015 © 2015 Egle Verseckaite All Rights Reserved Egle Verseckaite: Citizenship as a Stateness Boundary Maintenance Regime Abstract In November 2006, the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Lithuania struck down the Law on Citizenship which allowed dual citizenship for ethnic Lithuanian emigrants, but not for representatives of ethnic minorities who have emigrated to their kin- states, as a case of ethnic discrimination. However, instead of expanding the availability of dual citizenship to ethnic minority migrants, the Constitutional Court ruled that widespread dual citizenship is unConstitutional and undesirable. Such a ruling went not only against the preferences of the Lithuanian general public, minorities, and politicians, but also against the predictions of mainstream citizenship studies which presume that an emigration country would seek to expand rather than curtail dual citizenship for its diaspora, and that European integration is supposed to make postcommunist countries more inclusive. This empirical puzzle prompted an inquiry into the approach dominating the field of citizenship studies – the twin liberalization/ convergence theses. The convergence thesis suggests that citizenship regulation is becoming similar accross different countries, especially in Europe, and the liberalization thesis suggests that this convergence is moving in the direction of greater accessibility of citizenship, including expanded opportunities for dual citizenship, expansion of rights for migrants, and a decline of the importance of identitarian criteria for ascription of citizenship. I challenge this thesis by noting how the decoupling of rights from citizenship unintentionally re-emphasizes its identitarian dimension. I analyze public discourse, parliamentary proceedings, and Constitutional Court rulings, and conclude that Lithuania‘s unexpected restrictive turn is a result of the combination of contradictory influence of the international norms and the enduring concerns with stateness – the requirement for a state to have a clearly established territory ii Egle Verseckaite: Citizenship as a Stateness Boundary Maintenance Regime and citizenry. On the basis of the case findings, I conceptualize citizenship as a boundary maintenance mechanism in reaction to the combination of concerns with stateness and the international norms which both delegitimize and reinforce the identitarian dimension of citizenship, and set out to test whether it has comparative purchase outside of the postcommunist region. An overview of dual citizenship regulations and discourse in different regions supports my argument that, even if there is a nominal upward trend in availability of dual citizenship, its identitarian dimension overshadows the instrumental dimension and is intermeshed with the use of citizenship to maintain the boundary of stateness. Although studies of democratic transition have relegated stateness issues to the postcommunist world, I demonstrate that it is relevant not only for a postcolonial country that has experienced foreign domination, but also for established Western states due to the pressures of globalization and migration. Keywords: dual citizenship; identitarian dimension of citizenship; Central and Eastern Europe; EU conditionality; liberalization/ convergence thesis; stateness. Dissertation defense committee: Erin Chung Richard Katz Margaret Keck Ho-fung Hung (chair) Erin Rowe iii Egle Verseckaite: Citizenship as a Stateness Boundary Maintenance Regime Acknowledgements It takes a village to raise a child, and it takes a transnational and temporal sprawl to produce a PhD. My long and winding path started with parents who instilled a thirst for knowledge, and with the Lithuanian independence movement which channeled that thirst of an impressionable teenager into burning curiosity on how politics works, why people do what they do and think what they think, and how it is possible make a difference. The Vilnius University Institute of International Relations and Political Science (VU IIRPS) was the best possible environment for an inquiring mind, with a modern approach to teaching and learning, smart students, and professors who believed in me before I believed in myself and taught me the value of encouraging my students to strive for more, but doing it in a nurturing way. My special gratitude belongs to professors Alvydas Jokubaitis and Algimantas Jankauskas – thanks to them, the VU IIRPS will always feel like home. IIRPS also built the bridge across the Atlantic by sending me as an exchange student in 2004 and 2005 to the Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska, where professor Terry D. Clark, an amazing mentor, convinced me to pursue my PhD studies in the United States and helped figure out which universities would offer the best fit for my interests, thus leading me to the Johns Hopkins University. JHU was a revelation, I sometimes felt like I was ascending to a higher plane of consciousness thanks to the intellectual engagement of both the professors and the classmates. Professors Richard Katz, Margaret Keck, Mark Blyth and Kellee Tsai reshaped my understanding of what can be done with comparative politics, and Jane Bennett, William Connolly, Jennifer Culbert and Michael Hanchard opened my eyes to different ways of thinking. Special thanks go to Mark Blyth and Dorothee Heisenberg for enabling me to realize what kind of a teacher I want to be. My classmates Fabian Bauwens, Meghan Helsel, Noora Lori and Meghan Luhman have iv Egle Verseckaite: Citizenship as a Stateness Boundary Maintenance Regime each helped me to get over some humps along the road. Some other humps could not have been overcome without the help and support of the administration of the department, from the work of the chairs Richard Katz and Jane Bennett and the graduate studies directors Jennifer Culbert and Renee Marlin-Bennett, to the unsurpassed efficiency of administrative assistant Mary Otterbein. The greatest gratitude of all belongs to my advisor Erin Aeran Chung, who sometimes knew better than I did what I wanted to say, and who has gone beyond any expectations in her support and guidance for my work. Her class on Citizenship and Immigration is still my favorite class ever and a model for my own teaching. Erin’s efficient style of work and organization helped my dissertation process move along better than I could have expected, culminating in her putting together a dissertation defense committee (professors Erin Chung, Richard Katz, Margaret Keck, Ho-fung Hung and Erine Rowe) whose questions and comments made the defense surprisingly delightful, for which I will be forever grateful. I have also received valuable comments on my dissertation draft from VU IIRPS professors Nerija Putinaitė and Inga Vinogradnaitė. I am sorry for not being able to implement all of their advice in finalizing my work. Academic life does not take place in a vacuum, and often it is the unsung heroes of our everyday lives who make our intellectual pursuits possible. Baltimore has been a trying experience for my family, and I am very grateful to Laimutė and Charles Loskarn for giving us a home in the beginning of my studies, and to our friends from the Graduate Christian Fellowship, Dwight and Maria Schwartz, who graciously opened their home for me and v Egle Verseckaite: Citizenship as a Stateness Boundary Maintenance Regime provided moral, logistical and nutritional support for much longer than any of us had expected towards the victorious end. During the years of my graduate studies, I was privileged to find a job at the ISM University of Management and Economics in Vilnius, Lithuania, and an amazing boss, Vincentas Vobolevičius, the head of its Economics and Politics program, whose support and belief in me have been instrumental in my transition from a student to a teacher. I also have to thank the ISM administration and my esteemed colleague, professor Irmina Matonytė, for making it possible for me to take the semester needed to finish my dissertation. I owe my students as well, since teaching them about research methods and thesis writing has helped me improve my own understanding. A special note of thanks belongs to librarians and archivists. It started with the IIRPS library almost two decades ago, before we had access to electronic databases. The librarian used to let me browse the shelves in the restricted area and take as many scientific journals as I could carry in my scouting backpack, thus making my bibliographies the longest among my classmates. My extreme symbiosis with libraries continued with the Open Society Fund Lithuania library in Vilnius which often was the only place where certain political science titles could be found (no wonder they eventually merged with the IIRPS library), and, finally, the JHU library staff who have dealt with me checking out and returning suitcases and bins full of books mostly in good spirits. The staff at the archives of the Parliament of the Republic of Lithuania and the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Lithuania copied hundreds of documents at my request. The hard work of such people is one of the key stepping stones on the way to a dissertation. vi Egle Verseckaite: Citizenship as a Stateness Boundary Maintenance Regime Last, but not least,