Sassen Membership and its Politics - The two foundational subjects for membership in the modern nation-state, the citizen and the alien, are undergoing significant changes in the current period. The effect is a partial blurring of each the citizen subject and of the alien subject. I first outline these changes vis-à-vis nationality and citizenship. Second, I dissect notions of membership in order to create a set of tools for incorporating the undocumented immigrant as well as the minoritized citizenship. In the third section, I examine some key features of Europe and its immigrations in order to extract these ambiguities in the politics of membership. Fourth, I situate these repositionings within contemporary immigration facts and politics.
Keywords Citizenship, membership, minorities politics.