Citizenship and Belonging In Asia and the Pacific

This session will explore the different ways in which citizenship is imagined, negotiated and lived across Asia and the Pacific. While citizenship has long been a central concern in the social and political sciences, much of the foundational literature has emerged from North American and European contexts. Yet, the meanings and lived realities of citizenship as a formal legal status, social practice or individual identity vary across time and space.

The Asia-Pacific region provides a particularly important context for these discussions. Shaped by migration, mobility, colonial and postcolonial legacies, and diverse nation-building projects, countries across the region offer valuable insights into how citizenship is constituted, practised, and contested. Moving beyond understandings of citizenship as solely a formal legal status, this session will explore citizenship as an everyday and relational process through which rights, obligations, identities, and belonging are negotiated. It also considers how citizenship is experienced across generations, highlighting the role of families, communities, and state institutions in shaping everyday citizenship identities and practices.

Bringing together papers from across Asia and the Pacific, this session will trace the intersections of citizenship with race, ethnicity, migration flows, nationhood and belonging. It seeks to contribute to broader debates on citizenship by foregrounding perspectives and experiences from the region.

Format: Open Sessions (Paper Presentation Sessions)