Identity And Citizenship: Impact Of Borders And Shifts In Boundaries

Pembecioğlu N., Jacott L., Kratsborn W.

Cice Network - Institute For Policy Studies İn Education - London Metropolitan University, London, 2008

  • Publication Type: Book / Vocational Book
  • Publication Date: 2008
  • Publisher: Cice Network - Institute For Policy Studies İn Education - London Metropolitan University
  • City: London
  • Istanbul University Affiliated: Yes

Abstract

Borders are usually thought of as national borders that may physically limit
people in crossing: this may involve questions (perhaps whether you are a
citizen of the country you are leaving or entering). Individuals are seen as
responsible for crossing a border: acceptable reasons include economic and
social reasons and for tourism. It may require paperwork, and management
and diplomatic decisions, processes that used to be long and unreasonable.
National borders are changing their structure, meaning and function. The
borders of nations are changing, as are the regulations: most nations accept
dual nationality and national borders become international. Even a decade
ago leaving one’s country and settling in another was rather different. Some
families now live across borders for part of the week, so that crossing the
border is more like going to another city in their own country. Mobility,
currency, common pricing – all change the status of an individual so that
being a European Citizen is easier. The functions of national borders are also
changing, and we are closer to a world citizenship in which all languages,
currencies and concepts are welcomed. These are the ‘free zone’ in which one
is beyond borders and only international law applies. Airports are ‘zero points’
in which individuals are neither citizens nor outsiders. It is everybody’s point,
yet, it’s nobody’s place. Levi-Strauss called it a ‘zero-institution’: ‘a kind of
institutional counterpart to the famous mana, the empty signifier with no
determinate meaning, since it signifies only the presence of meaning as such’
(Zizek 2000: 113). This border is an institution characterised by a lack of
difference. But it is impossible to live in these zero-institutions, as their reality
could only be valued through the absence of real institutions and nations.
As nations and borders change, the historical narratives of the previous
borders also change: European borders change over time as countries
separated with long walls or spiky lines are no more. Between the cities there
are no passport controls or security checks. The historical remains now are
nostalgia and tolerance, in a borderless Europe in which cultures mingle,
localities became more widely known and cultural differences are minimised.