Precarious Citizenship: Rights Claims of EU Migrants in the UK
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Precarious citizenship: Rights claims of EU migrants in the UK Kuba Jabłonowski Submitted by Jakub Jablonowski, to the University of Exeter as a thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Geography, March 2019. This thesis is available for Library use on the understanding that it is copyright material and that no quotation from the thesis may be published without proper acknowledgement. I certify that all material in this thesis which is not my own work has been identified and that any material that has previously been submitted and approved for the award of a degree by this or any other University has been acknowledged. Signature: Abstract EU citizenship comprises a set of rights, but it is most closely associated with free movement across member states. However, while free movers formally enjoy equal civil, social, economic and residence rights throughout the European Union, informal application of these rights is spatially uneven. Further, political rights of EU citizens remain curtailed as free movers usually cannot vote in national elections in their country of residency, but they can vote in local and external elections. This dynamic of inclusion and exclusion generates a democratic deficit, but it also produces emergent spaces of political action. My thesis engages with this opening to analyse how EU migrant citizens claim their electoral, socioeconomic, and residence rights in Bristol: a culturally and economically vibrant English city, where the density of migrant networks generates a fertile ground for both political engagement and engaged research. The study is theoretically informed by geographic and political literatures on citizenship and interdisciplinary citizenship studies – with the acts of citizenship approach being particularly useful – as well as social and political theory. It is empirically grounded in the English context and relies on qualitative, place-based research in Bristol. This includes interviews and ethnography with migrant voters and political campaigners, and interviews with labour and community organisers. Data collection took place over an extended period before and after the EU referendum. The thesis distinguishes between the means and modes of political action. The means are defined as organised social practices that enable acts of citizenship, and include voting, organising, and campaigning. Three overarching modes of claiming European rights emerge through this analysis, and they include enactments along, across, and beyond national frames. In this way, personal and collective rights claims serve as empirical proxies, or windows onto, European migrant citizenship. The thesis argues that vulnerability is a powerful catalyst for political action unfolding through citizenship. It also shows that acts of citizenship, while often cast as revolutionary 2 moments, are in fact processual and iterative. Citizenship understood in this way endows individuals with capacities and infrastructures to collectively learn, question, and rebel – to identify matters of concern, to identify sites of intensive relations of power, and to articulate interests and take action. 3 Acknowledgements Nine months before this thesis was drafted, I emailed one of my supervisors saying that I could not wait to write the acknowledgements. He replied: “ha, we can’t wait ’til the acknowledgements either.” Here we go then! For their wit, insight, and kindness, I cannot thank enough my supervisory team: Clive Barnett and Sean Carter. They showed trust in my work when I doubted it and stopped me from going astray whenever I was about to. They were also sensitive and supportive when I lost my dad just before PhD upgrade. Also, Clive gave me lots of books, and they were not just the ones that he wrote or edited himself – a rare trait in a scholar. Clive, Sean, you are absolute legends. For their time, trust, and candour, I am forever indebted to my research participants. Some of them I only met fleetingly. Others let me into their political lives for much longer, expecting nothing in return. Even if there was no space in this thesis to include all your individual voices, they all mattered in this research and I hope I did justice to your collective voice. Stay groovy, stand tall, and never apologise for being where you want to be – my fellow citizens. This research would not be possible without funding from the College of Life and Environmental Sciences at University of Exeter. I am grateful to the College for trusting me with that money. When my grant dried up, Up Our Street and Black South West Network commissioned enough freelance work to tide me over until the end. Thank you. Finally, the Foundation for European Progressive Studies helped me travel the world and develop as a public academic. Thanks! We do not really hang around water coolers enough at Exeter Geography, but it was always a pleasure to bump into colleagues and talk things through, more or less formally. In particular, thanks to those who taught me how to teach, and to those who were true, 4 upfront, and caring, and explained numerous ins and outs of university-land to me. I also had good times with fellow postgrads – thank you all! Last but not least, the Amory D385 crew was really tight-knit in my final year, which was helpful. And besides, is there another postgrad office where a true European can sit next to a true Scotsman *and* a true Irishman? It was a hoot. Numerous friends kept me company during those demanding four years and put up with me constantly talking about my PhD. Thank you all, but a special shout out to Dominik and Kasia, cause some things never change. Two further honourable mentions go to Anwar Ratha, a brilliant therapist, and Becca Mavin, a riotous editor who proofread this thesis for a coffee, cake, and a little bit of wine. I actually rewrote it slightly afterwards, so any remaining errors are mine. My family got smaller during my studies, and it was hard for me to take. I still miss my dad a lot. But my mum Alina, my sisters Marta and Natalia, and my kin: Kosma, Radek and Kamil were so brave that I had to pull it together too. Last but not least, I would not be here – in England, in Bristol, at Exeter – if it were not for Pat. For your wisdom, integrity, and support – thank you (…). Cynthia Enloe, who influenced me greatly at Bristol University over a decade ago, once said that acknowledgements are the most important part of a thesis and that sometimes there is no need to read beyond them. She was right, no? Kuba Jablonowski Bristol, 11th March 2019 5 CONTENTS: Abstract ............................................................................................................................. 2 Acknowledgements .......................................................................................................... 4 Tables ................................................................................................................................ 8 References ........................................................................................................................ 8 Introduction | Citizenship: precarious, uneven, and iterative .................................... 9 Chapter 1 | Conceptualising citizenship ..................................................................... 19 Studying migration through citizenship ...................................................................... 22 Theorising citizenship normatively ............................................................................. 31 Unpacking cosmopolitanism ....................................................................................... 42 Enacting citizenship .................................................................................................... 56 Rethinking citizenship geographically ........................................................................ 70 Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 86 Chapter 2 | Researching citizenship ............................................................................ 88 Researching reflexively .............................................................................................. 91 Designing research ...................................................................................................... 95 Enacting research ...................................................................................................... 111 Researching ethically ................................................................................................ 124 Understanding consent .......................................................................................................... 132 Trading anonymity .................................................................................................................. 136 Analysing thematically, narratively, and dialogically .............................................. 141 Conclusion ................................................................................................................ 150 Chapter 3 | Voting: claiming rights along national frames .................................... 152 The politics of absence .............................................................................................. 154 Participating distantly, caring deeply ........................................................................ 165 Reluctant migrations, intimate nationalisms ............................................................