Citizenship Reimagined
A New Framework for State Rights in the United States

States have historically led in rights expansion for marginalized populations and remain leaders today on the rights of undocumented immigrants.

Allan Colbern (Author), S. Karthick Ramakrishnan (Author)

9781108744720, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 22 October 2020

300 pages, 22 b/w illus. 14 tables
15 x 23 x 3 cm, 0.69 kg

'… an important and timely resource for scholars and practitioners interested in understanding how federalism shapes state citizenship rights. It is well researched and clearly organized, and the book's many useful tables and ?gures make it recommended reading for those interested in the politics of race, ethnicity, immigration, and federalism.' Els de Graauw, Political Science Quarterly

The United States is entering a new era of progressive state citizenship, with California leading the way. A growing number of states are providing expanded rights to undocumented immigrants that challenge conventional understandings of citizenship as binary, unidimensional, and exclusively national. In Citizenship Reimagined, Allan Colbern and S. Karthick Ramakrishnan develop a precise framework for understanding and measuring citizenship as expansive, multi-dimensional, and federated - broader than legal status and firmly grounded in the provision of rights. Placing today's immigration battles in historical context, they show that today's progressive state citizenship is not unprecedented: US states have been leaders in rights expansion since America's founding, including over the fight for black citizenship and women's suffrage. The book invites readers to rethink how American federalism relates to minority rights and how state laws regulating undocumented residents can coexist with federal exclusivity over immigration law.

1. Introduction
2. Citizenship in a federated framework
3. National and state citizenship in the American context
4. State citizenship for blacks
5. Worst to first: California's evolution from regressive to progressive state citizenship
6. State citizenship and immigration federalism
7. Enabling progress on state citizenship.

Subject Areas: Law [L], Public administration [JPP], Sociology [JHB], Migration, immigration & emigration [JFFN]