Dual citizenship as claims-making: the case of marriage migrants in South Korea

Over the past few decades, citizenship scholars have moved from conceptualizing citizenship as a legal status with associated rights to a more process-oriented approach acknowledging the socially constructed nature of citizenship. Although the dual citizenship literature hints at the importance of contention and recognition, it has yet to consider claims-making as a major mechanism shaping dual citizenship. Drawing on in-depth interviews, I examine the dual citizenship claims (or the lack of such claims) among marriage migrant women from the Philippines and Vietnam in South Korea, analyzing how women’s narratives regarding dual citizenship are framed vis-à-vis the normative ideals of citizenship in each state. I suggest the claims-making approach as an analytical framework through which the intersections of the normative, instrumental, and identity aspects of dual citizenship are brought to light in relation to the claimant’s positionality.