“We, the people…”

Articles towards a European Citizenry

Some variation of this phrase is written into the very beginning of several founding documents. It is in the Preambles of the US Constitution, the UN Charter, and the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, thus highlighting both the international character and the very European nature of this statement. Yet at the very core of this statement lies the question of citizenship. Who is “we”? How are we “a people”? What makes someone a citizen?

The Most Important Right of All

Without sounding controversial or hierarchical, there is arguably one right that matters above all others. It is not the right to vote, nor is it freedom of speech or freedom of movement.

It is much deeper than that.

In ‘The Decline of the Nation-State and the End of the Rights of Man’, Hannah Arendt elaborates on the now-famous quip that nationality is “the right to have rights”. Since most of us are born with a particular nationality, and therefore a particular set of rights, the right to citizenship is perhaps the one right that is rarely questioned and therefore remains often overlooked. What does it take to become a member of a political community?

Arguably, it is only some migrants who ever learn how difficult it is to “switch” your nationality. Switching…