nationhood

Citizenship and nationhood in Bulgaria

Dimitar Bechev
Bulgarian presidency

Citizenship legislation and the associated administrative practices highlight several key points. First, membership in a supranational entity such as the EU has far-reaching effects, erasing to some degree the distinction between citizens and non-citizens but also making Bulgaria a more attractive proposition for various “third-country nationals”. Second, the provision of citizenship via naturalisation has broadened rent-seeking opportunities and exposed institutional weakness, a painfully familiar story in post-communist Bulgaria. Third, and most important, citizenship continues to oscillate between civic and more ethnicised notions. 

To understand the roots, evolution and workings of citizenship, along with the norms and practices of inclusion and exclusion in present-day Bulgaria one must look back to history. As elsewhere in South East Europe, Bulgaria’s approach to national identity and citizenship reflects the country’s path from Ottoman rule to independent statehood.

Montenegro and Serbia: squinting at dual citizenship

squinting at dual citizenship

Citizenship struggles in Montenegro and between Montenegro and Serbia continue.

When Serbia and Montenegro met in October 2008 to discuss the issue of dual citizenship, both parties were confident that an agreement would be reached by the end of the month. Two and half years later, the issue is still unresolved.

Imagining the nation in Serbia

Jelena Vasiljević
Graffitis in Belgrade

The changing citizenship regimes in Serbia illustrate the ways in which various narratives of nationhood run parallel to political changes, at times reinforcing them, at times creating obstacles for their implementation, but nevertheless providing a means by which they may be interpreted.

This is an extended summary of a longer paper that was originally published in the CITSEE Working Paper Series and is available for download here.

The Janus face of Slovenian Citizenship

Tomaž Deželan
A statue on a Ljubljana bridge

The citizenship regime in Slovenia can seem to have two faces. For those who focus on its numerous malfunctions, the citizenship regime seems xenophobic, even apartheid-like. By contrast, those who focus on the initial determination characterise the system as progressive and civic.

This is an extended summary of a longer paper that was originally published in the CITSEE Working Paper Series and is available for download here.

Defining the nation: constructing citizenship in the new Croatia

Viktor Koska
Old Zagreb

The Croatian citizenship legislation reveals the ongoing process of Croatian invention of, in the words of Rogers Brubaker, ‘the tradition of nationhood’ which is based on the idea that the Croatian state is a product of the “centennial” aspirations of the ethnic Croat community to have its own national state.

This is an extended summary of a longer paper that was originally published in the CITSEE Working Paper Series and is available for download here.

Macedonian Citizen: ‘Former Yugoslav’, Future European?

Ljubica Spaskovska
Old train station in Skopje

Citizenship in the former Yugoslav and the Macedonian context is yet to have its dimensions of status, rights and equality strengthened and its dimension of membership/belonging weakened in importance.

This is an extended summary of a longer paper that was originally published in the CITSEE Working Paper Series and is available for download here.

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