Abstract

CARVALHAIS, Isabel Estrada. The post-national condition of political citizenship: thinking about the integration of non-national residents in Portugal. Sociologia, Problemas e Práticas [online]. 2006, n.50, pp.109-130. ISSN 0873-6529.

A study on the political integration of non-national residents in Portugal reveals that, despite recent steps towards granting both social and political rights to non-national residents, the country is still far from a complete understanding of the meaning and relevance of admitting non-national residents to its political sphere. There are a number of obstacles in the way of achieving this "post-national" understanding, such as the idea that social citizenship is viable without political citizenship, and that social citizenship is what actually matters to nationals and non-nationals’ daily lives. Ideas like these keep democracy encapsulated in the old national paradigm, constraining its ability to be more inclusive. At the same time, while highlighting the supposed demise of the political dimension of citizenship, they in fact deprive social citizenship of an important battleground and arena in which earlier social gains are safeguarded.

Keywords : Political participation; non-national residents; post-national citizenship.

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