Sharing History and Future? Time Horizons of Democratic Membership in an Age of Migration

In: Constellations: an international journal of critical and democratic theory, Band 4, Heft 3, S. 320-345

Abstract

Argues that international migration disturbs two assumptions of the democratic community, ie, it no longer appears to be based in a clearly delineated territory or a shared past. Considering the relations between the temporal & territorial aspects of membership in a democratic community, it is probably impossible to adopt a universal concept of citizenship that ignores the particularity of location; however, current understandings of the nation must be overcome. To offset democratic deficits of nonrepresentation & liberal deficits of ethnic inequality & intolerance of diversity, models of transnational citizenship must be developed. It is critical that such models recognize necessary territorial & temporal constraints & include the migrant experience in the historical narrative of the democratic polity. E. Munson