Conditional citizens

Europe's history of slavery and colonialism haunts it. Of course, there is occasional talk of the 'new deal' and 'partnership of equals'. However, given the enormity of the crisis in Africa, from where the largest number of refugees seek shelter, such policies, even if implemented in right earnest, can at best scratch the surface

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In his much-celebrated book This land is our land, Indian-American writer Suketu Mehta offers advice to the immigrants in Europe and America. He says that when immigrants are asked "why are you here", they should respond, "we are here because you were there." Immigrants, mostly from Asia, Africa and Latin America have increasingly become what novelist Laila Lalami calls "conditional citizens."

Over the years, the US has tried various policies to deal with the flood of illegal migrants, particularly from Latin America. In 2019 President Trump and Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador came to an agreement to keep non-Mexican asylum seekers in Mexico while their claims were adjudicated in US immigration courts.

The same year the United States signed "Safe Third Country Agreements" with Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador, requiring migrants on their way to the US to apply for protections in those countries first. It effectively banned most migrants arriving at the US border from requesting asylum.

Various US administrations have sought temporary protection status 'neither documented nor undocumented' for asylum seekers and immigrants; what sociologist Cecilia Menjívar calls "liminal legality." The twilight status for the immigrants has been variously explained by experts as "precarious legality", "differential inclusion", "conditional belonging" and "earned citizenship."

Conditional rights and belonging are at the heart of what citizenship means for many minorities today in their own home countries. Are discourses around "good" and "bad" citizens, or immigrants any different from what and how colonialism and settler colonialism categorized indigenous peoples under restrictive conditions?