'A knife with two sides': naturalization and the ambivalent value of citizenship for Syrians in Turkey.
Different legal citizenships and passports are associated with different sets of status, rights and identities. Through naturalization into a higher-value citizenship, former migrants can improve economic opportunities, transnational mobility, and ease relationships. Building on growing research tha...
| Published in: | Journal of Ethnic & Migration Studies Vol. 51; no. 9; pp. 2296 - 2314 |
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| Format: | Article |
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Taylor & Francis Ltd
May2025
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| Online Access: | View this record in EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=184762955&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: hlh uiTerm: 184762955 longDbName: Humanities International Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 1369183X 56F jtl: Journal of Ethnic & Migration Studies issn: 1369183X maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: May2025 vid: 51 iid: 9 pid: 377 pub: Taylor & Francis Ltd artinfo: ui: 184762955 10.1080/1369183X.2024.2405061 ppf: 2296 ppct: 18 formats: fmt: – @attributes: type: T – @attributes: type: P size: 505KB tig: atl: 'A knife with two sides': naturalization and the ambivalent value of citizenship for Syrians in Turkey. aug: au: Ziss, Paladia affil: School of Social Policy, University of Birmingham, Ringgold Standard institution, Birmingham, UK su: Temporary protection of refugees Social & economic rights Race discrimination Economic opportunities Syrians Türkiye sug: subj: Türkiye Temporary protection of refugees Social & economic rights Race discrimination Economic opportunities Syrians keyword: Migrant naturalization strategic citizenship territorialization Turkey ab: Different legal citizenships and passports are associated with different sets of status, rights and identities. Through naturalization into a higher-value citizenship, former migrants can improve economic opportunities, transnational mobility, and ease relationships. Building on growing research that questions the migrant-citizen binary, this paper asks how citizenship matters in practice through an exploration of naturalization amongst displaced Syrians in Turkey. Drawing on qualitative research with Syrians, some of whom held temporary protection status while others had naturalized, the paper argues that the rights and status associated with Turkish citizenship are ambivalent, simultaneously beneficial and costly. Naturalization provided some economic and social rights and spatial mobility compared to temporary protection status. But Turkish citizenship also reinforced class-based distinctions and racial discrimination, and shaped new forms of exclusion: Syrians forewent certain mobility and economic strategies that they accessed as refugees. The paper argues to conceive naturalization as a technology of territorialization that fixes people onto a certain territory and forces migrants to make difficult choices when negotiating state practices of bordering and mobility control. Paying attention to the simultaneously mobilizing and territorializing effects of naturalization helps to question linear assumptions of citizenship and status hierarchies. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: Y custom: Copyright of Journal of Ethnic & Migration Studies is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. item: Journal of Ethnic & Migration Studies holder: Taylor & Francis Ltd dt: @attributes: year: 2025 holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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