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Following China’s rise as an economic powerhouse, the country’s immigrant population has quickly increased and diversified, leading to an increase in romantic relationships between foreign and Chinese citizens. This article analyzes the racialization of belonging and citizenship of Chinese nationals born into Chinese-foreign families living in China. Drawing on data gathered through analyzing online debates and media reports, supplemented by interviews and fieldwork observations, the article investigates how discussions about the identity of vloggers, pop stars, and athletes of mixed Chinese-foreign descent shed light on rising Chinese racial nationalism at a time when China has become a destination for international migration and a new frontier for racial knowledge production. We argue that this process is characterized by a tension between China’s emergence as an immigrant society and the hardening boundaries of its national identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past twenty years, prominent theorists of citizenship envisaged cosmopolitan openings, the re-making of national identity, and progressive multicultural change. The paper explores perspectives on civic inclusion in Kymlicka's Multicultural Odysseys, Soysal's Limits of Citizenship, and Benhabib's Another Cosmopolitanism. It explores this work in light of two recent political episodes, the formulation of an "anti-separatism" law in France and "anti-ghetto" policies in Denmark. The paper contrast tendencies that theorists of inclusive citizenship envisage with the denial of associational rights in France and the assertion of racial logics in Denmark. It illustrates blinds spots in prominent accounts of civic inclusion, in particular the reliance on a prescriptive account of minority and post-migrant agency, a disembodied logic of human rights, and limited regard for status differentials on the inside of citizenship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Theorists of post-nationalism examine the (re)configuration of national identity, membership and rights. Yet while normative scholarship has conceptualized post-nationalism as an ongoing practice of discursive contestation over the role of national group membership in liberal democratic societies, more empirical studies have tended to overlook these features to predominantly focus instead on top-down legal and political institution-building as evidence of post-nationalism. In this article I argue in favour of an empirical conceptualization of post-nationalism which more effectively captures micro-level practices of discursive contestation. Specifically I posit that post-national activists, or actors engaging in post-national practices of contestation from within the state, are a key focus of analysis for scholars of post-nationalism. I develop this claim through the analysis of data collected with individuals working on civil society campaigns for migration rights in Europe, Australia and the USA who - I demonstrate - embody many of the characteristics of the post-national activist. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most studies of nationalism and war focus on the direct causal relationship between the two. Whereas the naturalist theories see strong national attachments as a primary cause of war, the formativist approaches understand nationalism as an inevitable product of warfare. This paper challenges both of these leading interpretations by problematizing the nature of group solidarity in the large scale violent conflicts. The author develops an alternative argument that emphasizes the centrality of two institutional processes: centrifugal ideologization and the cumulative bureaucratization of coercion. The principal argument is that war does not create nationalism neither does nationalism generate wars. Instead the development of nationalism owes much to the macro historical institutional processes that have little to do with the actual battlefields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the dominant heritage discourse in Cyprus concerning preservation and destruction, and its implications for ethno-cultural identity construction and promotion. By exploring two heritage sites (one north and one south of the Buffer Zone) it suggests that heritage practice is more complex than commonly presented. Specifically, it shows how ethnic conflict has not only been responsible for heritage destruction but also for the preservation of it as an unintended consequence of 'freezing' development. It also examines how ethnic groups and individuals may come to evaluate their 'own' heritage negatively, specifically as an inconvenient cultural load, in efforts to develop ideologically specific or socially 'progressive' identities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines and develops a comparison of the Holy Cross School conflict and the campaign by Robert McCartney's sisters and partner to bring those responsible for his murder to justice in Northern Ireland. Both events involved women who identify with the Irish nationalist community in public protest. The article employs a feminist theoretical framework to investigate the ethno-gender dynamics of these particular manifestations of women's political protest. By engaging in a comparative analysis of both protests, the article exposes how these specific expressions of women's political agency and the political discourses and images that they stimulated were influenced by, reflected and disturbed notions about the role of women in nationalist societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the nationalization of foreigners in Los Angeles, California in the twenty-first century. The author discusses the meaning of "Americanization," and asserts that foreigners in the U.S. clearly undergo a transformation into Americans, so far as to support the bounding of their new national identity and community, to the extent that they feel future immigration should be controlled. Topics of discussion include the immigrants' views on language policies, immigration regulation, cultural plurism, and nationalism.

The most significant event in the politics of immigration in the Republic of Ireland has been the 2004 Referendum that removed 'jus soli' constitutional rights to citizenship from Irish born children of immigrants. Constitutional definitions of Irishness narrowed at a time when the composition of Irish society had broadened significantly through immigration. The Referendum coincided with restrictions on welfare rights and entitlements upon migrants from the new EU member states. Irish citizens voted overwhelmingly in favour of government proposals for 'commonsense citizenship' aimed at removing 'loopholes' in the Constitution and the Good Friday Agreement which defined all those born on the island of Ireland as Irish. An asylum 'crisis' had become politicised in the late 1990s but by 2004 asylum seekers had become a very small proportion of overall immigration. The Referendum institutionalized a populist distinction repeatedly drawn by Irish politicians and media between nationals and non-nationals. At the same time racialised hostility towards asylum seekers and their Irish born children was mobilised in support of the Referendum. A government campaign in support of the Referendum emerged alongside ones by immigrant organizations aimed at promoting political responsiveness to immigrant voters and the inclusion of immigrants in Irish political parties. The Referendum coincided with the 2004 local government elections and campaigns by immigrant organisations to promote political responsiveness to immigrant non-citizens (including asylum seekers) entitled to vote in local government elections. This article draws upon a study of Irish political parties which identified an institutional inability among these to engage with immigrant communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study explored feelings of European identity and attitudes towards Europe manifested in two groups within the British population: the indigenous white British population (N = 58) and the South-Asian ethnic minority (N = 44). A social survey approach was used with scales to evaluate British, European and ethnic identities and also attitudes towards Europe. Perceived compatibility of identities was also assessed using a visual representation of identities task. Previous research findings were confirmed with the indigenous white British respondents, who displayed a strong sense of national identity negatively correlated with European identity. In contrast, the South Asian respondents displayed positive feelings of identification on all three levels, and a British identity that correlated positively with European identification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article critically examines the generation of discourses on Greek identity following an episode that took place in northern Greece (2000/2003) when an Albanian student was elected flag-carrier in a commemorative parade. Three versions of Greek identity emerged in this context: the first was based on civic understandings of identity, promoting the current Europeanist project of citizenship as belonging. The second version drew upon the notion of “culture” as an all-encompassing concept to promote ideas of Greek cultural “purity” that have roots in Greek ethnogenesis. The third version adopted an understanding of the “nation” in terms of racial affiliation, transforming it thus into a natural category. The argument put forward is that in the context of the 2000/2003 episode (a) Greek self-perceptions are affected by the problematic economic and cultural position of Greece within Europe and (b) Greek discourses of identity are a form of resistance to processes of Europeanization that threaten traditional “imagined communities” embedded in history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the most influential theories in the study of nationalism has been the ethnic-East/civic-West framework developed by Hans Kohn. Using the 2002 Eurobarometer survey on national identity and building on earlier survey studies, this article examines whether the Kohn framework is valid at the level of popular understandings of nationhood. It scrutinizes the framework both conceptually – do people define nationhood in civic or ethnic terms? – and regionally – is the East indeed more ethnic than the West and the West more civic than the East? It will show that identity markers cluster in a political, a cultural and an ethnic dimension. Respondents do not see these dimensions as competing sources of nationhood, however. The article further lends some support for the regional component of the framework. Lastly, it argues that it is the intensity of national identifications rather than their qualitative nature (ethnic-civic) that correlates with xenophobia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An area of long-standing interest in sociological studies of nationality and ethnicity has been the implications of widespread cross-border movements of peoples for cultural identity. One important stream of research has been concerned with peoples who have moved to a new country that is culturally different from their "homeland". Yet, far less attention has typically been given to those who shift to a country that is culturally alike. The study examines how peoples who have relocated from Great Britain to Australia feel about various ideas at the heart of contemporary debates about Australian national identity. Drawing on data from a 2001 survey of Australian national identity, analysis indicated that (i) British-born residents differ from the Australian-born in how their attitudes to key ideas about Australian national identity are "packaged" together, and (ii) among the British-born, views about Australian national identity vary across subgroups with different configurations of national pride. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Strong communal identities and institutions have survived in the Mexican state of Oaxaca in spite of over 150 years of central state efforts to eliminate them. This article examines why this is so, focusing on the liberal reform period of 1856 to 1911, when state officials mandated the privatization of communal land held under corporate title by Mexico's indigenous communities. In contrast to much of the literature on nations and nationalism, in which local and national identities are held to be in opposition, the article argues that local identities and institutions survived in Oaxaca precisely because villagers employed national identities, discourses, and institutions in their defence. More generally, the article contends that we need to rethink the conventional contrast between local and national identities, in order to better comprehend the politics of nation-building and state formation: local identities (communal, ethnic, regional, religious) can only be understood in terms of how they relate and respond to national identities and state institutions; national identities and state institutions, in turn, are in part constructed by subordinate groups whose understanding of the nation is informed by their own local identities, cultures and histories of political conflict. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The tensions between individual rights promised to US citizens and group discrimination targeted against African Americans and similar racial/ethnic groups constitute one enduring paradox of US society. This essay examines this paradox by exploring how a gendered family rhetoric contributes to understandings of race and US national identity. Using African American women's experiences as a touchstone for analysis, the article suggests that African American women's treatment as second-class citizens reflects a belief that they are 'like one of the family', that is, legally part of the US nation-state, but simultaneously subordinated within it. To investigate these relationships, the article examines 1) how intersecting social hierarchies of race and ethnicity foster racialized understandings of US national identity; 2) how the gendered rhetoric of the American family ideal naturalizes and normalizes social hierarchies; and 3) how gendered family rhetoric fosters racialized constructions of US national identity as a large national family. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the concepts of borders and boundaries in the formation of an Eritrean national identity. The dialectical relationship between the State of Eritrea and its borders towards the Sudan and Ethiopia are addressed in order to analyse how this relationship influences the formation of a `formal' national identity. The cultural, political, religious and historical configuration of the Eritrean frontiers makes it difficult to demarcate a particular Eritrean identity, distinguishing it from Sudanese ethnic and religious identities or historical-politico and ethnic Ethiopian identities. The Eritrean border conflicts with the Sudan and Ethiopia are used as empirical cases to show how state violence through the mobilization of the multi-ethnic national army is employed in order to manifest a significant other that the `formal' Eritrean national identity may be contrasted against. The article concludes that the Eritrean boundaries of identity and borders of territory are still in the making, and what they will eventually embrace and contain remains to be seen. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the importance of intra- and inter-state cultural comparisons in the construction of national identity in a multi-ethnic country. A theoretical discussion first explores two dimensions of the underdeveloped concept of national identity: content and strength. It is argued that perceptions of cultural similarity among a country's ethnic and ethno-regional groups, and perceptions of both cultural similarity and difference between these groups and the populations of other countries, shape and promote these dimensions of national identity. The argument is evaluated using the case of Ukraine. Qualitative analysis of writings by Ukrainians and quantitative analysis of an élite survey distributed in the cities of Lviv and Donetsk examine how cultural comparisons between Ukraine's main ethno-regions and perceptions of the differences and similarities among European, Russian and Ukrainian culture condition national unity in Ukraine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the role of others in the (re-)definition of national identity. A brief review of dominant theories of nationalism shows that the existence of the `other' is an implicit assumption made by most scholars. Nevertheless, the relationship between the nation and the other remains largely unexplored. However, national identity is defined not only from within, namely from the features that fellow-nationals share in common but also from without, that is, through distinguishing and differentiating the nation from other nations or ethnic groups. National identity becomes meaningful only through the contrast with others. This article introduces the notion of `significant others' to investigate the ways in which others may condition the formation or lead to a transformation of the identity of the ingroup. The Macedonian question and the emergence of a new Greek nationalism is used as a case-study to highlight the role of significant others in shaping the identity of the nation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many recent scholars, influenced by nationalist historians, intellectual trends, or political leaders, seek to antedate and create a nation or national identity when in reality none existed. They tend to apply theories based on non-rational, emotional aspects of ethno-nationalism to the formation of national consciousness in general. Thus, the large-scale vertical identity of modern nationalism is projected back into an era which was characterized by a set of horizontal identities. This article seeks to explore the genesis and development of modem national identity in Ukraine during the period 1840 to 1921. Focusing on social-structural and circumstantial conditions, it attempts to demonstrate that the appeals to ethno-national sentiments throughout this period failed to generate a group identity and solidarity among the Ukrainian people. The Ukrainian case, along with that of other subordinate ethnic groups, suggests that nationalism by itself was not operational before the emergence of the so-called nation-states of the 'non-historic' nations of Eastern Europe. The formation of modem nations based on mass national consciousness was accomplished by the centralized bureaucratic state which, through conscious and deliberate socialization, succeeded in transforming potential nations into modern nations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]