In every democratic polity there exist individuals and groups who hold some butnot all of the essential elements of citizenship. Scholars who studycitizenship r... » 

In every democratic polity there exist individuals and groups who hold some butnot all of the essential elements of citizenship. Scholars who studycitizenship routinely grasp for shared concepts and language that identifyforms of membership held by migrants children the disabled and other groupsof individuals who for various reasons are neither full citizens nor noncitizens. This book introduces the concept of semicitizenship as a means todramatically advance debates about individuals who hold some but not allelements of full democratic citizenship. By analytically classifying the rightsof citizenship and their various combinations scholars can typologize semicitizens and produce comparisons of different kinds of semicitizenships and ofsemicitizenships in different states. The book uses theoretical analysishistorical examples and contemporary cases of semicitizenship to illustratehow normative and governmental doctrines of citizenship converge and conflictmaking semicitizenship an enduring and inevitable part of democratic politics. «