A geography of extra-territorial citizenship: explanations of external voting

Abstract

Geographers have a long-standing interest in citizenship as the link between political and territorial membership. Yet, even when key political processes associated with citizenship, such as voting or lobbying government institutions are carried out from beyond the territory there is a more complex relationship with territory that the simple 'inside/outside' division that external voting suggests. Although a number of general explanations have been offered for the introduction of external voting, and for the nature of the systems introduced it seems that contextual, country specific factors concerning the history and nature of the relationship between the government and emigrant groups are usually determinant. This paper then finally turns to recent research in the Maghreb to examine the gradual convergence of state policies on this subject.