Migration, Membership, and the Modern Nation-State: Internal and External Dimensions of the Politics of Belonging

The politics of belonging—political struggles about the membership status of populations both within and outside the geographical confines of particular nation-states—derive from four conditions: (1) the migration of borders over people, (2) the deep and enduring inequalities between mainstream and minority populations, (3) the persisting legacies of empire, and (4) the migration of people over borders. New forms of external membership represent an extension and adaptation of the nation-state model, not its transcendence.