Democratic Expression, ‘Foreign’ Policy and Decolonizing Citizenship

This paper focuses on the responses to pro-Palestinian protests and encampments by the state and civil society in North America in 2023 and 2024 to interrogate and discuss the limitations and distortions of citizenship in North America. The protests and encampments since 2023 have been debated mostly in relation to freedom of expression about foreign policy and international affairs. What are central to recent controversies, however, is not just suppression of some basic civil liberties. As importantly, and often not explicitly debated, are questions raised about national and civilizational identity and about the complexities and contradictions of citizenship and belonging in settler colonial and multicultural societies. Highlighting how some of these complexities and contradictions play out in specific citizenship negotiations and struggles, this paper interrogates what decolonization of citizenship would need to entail. Such interrogation tackles questions about whether decolonization is compatible with separation of foreign policy from internal politics and policies, and with keeping the former outside the realm of democratic politics. Based on critical Indigenous scholarship, the paper suggests that decolonizing citizenship would need to include, but also go beyond a mere extension of existing rights and freedoms to otherwise colonized and racialized groups; and to necessarily incorporate alternative and transformative visions.