Dual Citizenship, Double Membership? Membership and Belonging of Immigrants' Descendants in France and Sweden.

Conceptual changes in the classical understanding of citizenship in connection with marked shifts in citizenship regimes have been widely studied in recent decades. Most of this work has been developed to explore legal and institutional aspects, thus giving citizenship a static framework. By turning to individuals' perceptions, a new picture of citizenship is discovered. The present study pays attention to a group that has not hitherto been central in discussions about citizenship, namely immigrants' descendants or so-called second-generation immigrants. This group is regarded as being in-between their parents' native country and the country in which they were themselves born, which could result in an ambiguous membership and potentially divided allegiance, especially for those having dual citizenship. This article introduces the experiences of Turkish descendants in France and Sweden. Qualitative work complemented by survey data shows how dual citizens prioritize one country or both in order to develop new and traditional aspects associated with citizenship. Two dimensions are explored: a civic dimension composed by traditional elements associated with legal status such as rights and duties and a subjective dimension that is defined by the personal elements that link individuals with the country, city, or community to which they belong. Citizenship regimes and paradigms of integration are also problematized in this article in order to capture the context and possible influence over people's narratives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]