Citizenship abroad, capital at home: how global inequalities affect the value of dual citizenship

Thesis

Citizenship and global inequalities are intrinsically interwoven. This thesis con-cerns one particular case in which this plays out: voluntary return migration from the Global North back to the Global South. Most studies examining the impact of citizenship and naturalisation on people’s socio-economic trajectories do not con-sider what impact acquired Northern citizenship might have on life after return to the Global South. At the same time, studies of return migration do not focus on voluntary return migration but tend to examine involuntary return—and if they do study voluntary return migration, they tend to disregard the impact that ac-quired citizenship may have on the return experience. Drawing on in-depth in-terviews with Ghanaian return migrants, this thesis examines if and how volun-tary return migrants in Ghana value dual citizenship for their everyday life after return. Drawing on legislative documents and Hansards, it embeds the analysis of returnees into an analysis of the political history of dual citizenship in Ghana. There are three main findings. First, most returnees—regardless of whether they returned as dual citizens or not—saw in dual citizenship a Bourdieusian econom-ic, social, and cultural capital that helped with upward mobility in Ghana. Second, one group of returnees stood out by not seeing any additional value in dual citi-zenship for life in Ghana: these were members of politically well-connected fami-lies of Ghana’s elite who distanced themselves from upwardly mobile dual citi-zens. With their example, I show that dual citizenship signals upper middle-class status, but remains irrelevant to the elite of the country. Third, the analysis of Ghana’s political history on citizenship shows that for dual citizenship to work as a form of capital and a class marker in the country of return, there needs to be a political atmosphere which is generally positive towards liberal democracy and welcoming towards diasporans.

Authors: Schweers, J

• DOI: 10.5287/ora-zbnk1oorr
• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: return migration
• Subjects: Return migration