Gender, Naturalisation and Deserving Citizenship

This chapter focuses on citizenship policies in Europe that require migrants to prove that they ‘deserve’ citizenship, e.g. through naturalisation processes which require proof of ‘good character’ and language proficiency. In this chapter, drawing on work largely informed by intersectional scholarship—specifically Black feminist traditions—I consider what happens when the study of naturalisation in Europe is analysed at the intersection of gender, sexuality, race and class. Analysing naturalisation, and specifically deserving citizenship, at these intersections exposes the deeply entrenched colonial power relations underlying naturalisation processes and provides insights into what it would mean to fundamentally challenge ‘deservingness’ and citizenship.