The Legal Consciousness of Citizenship- an Asian Indian Immigrant Perspective

The study examines how members of an immigrant group understand citizenship and how their legal consciousness shapes this understanding. Modern citizenship can be understood in terms of the principle of equality of status. According to T.H. Marshall, citizenship is a status bestowed on those who are full members of a community. He argued for a welfare state in the aftermath of war, underscoring the importance of social rights, where previously political and civil rights had been dominant. The phenomenon of being born as citizens of one nation and migrating to another to adopt citizenship and become members of the new community calls for an understanding of not only how the construct of citizenship is viewed by immigrants, but their lived experiences. The concept of “legal consciousness” is employed to understand citizenship construction by an immigrant minority. This study interrogates how experiences of inclusion/ exclusion in the host country and notions of justice and egalitarianism shape immigrants’ ideas of citizenship and related statuses. A qualitative analysis of 55 semi-structured interviews of skilled, foreign-born, Asian Indians in the US was undertaken on meanings of citizenship and legal culture and policy. While Immigration policy and visa laws are incorporated, “Law” in this study also aligned with the conception that we "understand law not as something removed from social life, .. but as fused with and thus inseparable from all the activities of living and knowing" (Sarat 1994). Findings indicate that although legal status and the relevance of the nation state remains in an age where postnational forms of citizenship appears to be on the rise, there was clear recognition of the politics of the nation and its potential impact on immigration. Social cultures and legal dynamics are discussed and the importance of financial, physical and intergenerational security in citizenship decisions.