ABSTRACT
The EU is often invoked as a model for theorizing about the development of citizenship beyond the borders of its member states; yet it also highlights the potential for conflict as citizenship is repositioned and new, transnational forms of citizenship rights (that is, the rights attached to EU citizenship status) emerge, while loyalties to individual member states persist. While access to citizenship rights has typically been framed by the attitudes of the dominant national group of the member state, which are themselves informed by a sense of co-national loyalty, framing these citizenship rights in such terms acts to undermine the rights of non-nationals, who, nonetheless, make justified citizenship rights claims within those national territories. In the EU, this tension is particularly evident in the case of EU citizens who migrate to other member states than that where they hold national citizenship and make legally justified rights claims in these alternative member states despite not holding the status of national citizen.
