Globalizing Citizenship

Since 9/11, national governments in the global North have struggled to govern populations and manage cross-border traffic without building new barriers to trade. What does citizenship mean in an era of heightened tension between global capitalism and the nation-state? Building on Foucault’s concept of biopolitics and an examination of national border and detention policies, Rygiel argues that citizenship is becoming a globalizing regime to govern mobility. The new regime is deepening boundaries based on race, class, and gender, and causing Western nations to embrace a more technocratic, depoliticized understanding of citizenship.