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Extraterritorial Political Rights and Dual Citizenship in Latin America

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 September 2022

Cristina Escobar*
Affiliation:
Princeton University
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Abstract

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There is variation among the Latin American sending countries in the timing, sequence, and form by which they have approved retention-of-nationality laws (dual-citizenship laws) and have extended political rights to their migrants abroad. This variation is the product not only of the characteristics of the migration in each country but also of the specificity of their political and electoral systems and of the historical relationship between the state and its citizens. I focus my analysis on Latin American migration to the United States, which, although not the only destination, has attracted the majority of Latin American migrants and has significantly influenced, with its immigration policies, the policies of Latin American sending countries towards their émigrés.

Resumen

Resumen

Existe una gran variedad en la forma, el momento y la secuencia en las cuales los países latinoamericanos expulsores de población han aprobado leyes de retención de nacionalidad (doble ciudadanía) y han extendido derechos políticos a sus nacionales en el exterior. Esta variación es el producto no sólo de las características de la migración de cada uno de los países sino también de la especificidad de sus sistemas político y electoral, y de la relación histórica que el estado ha tenido con sus ciudadanos. Enfoco mi análisis en la migración latinoamericana hacia los Estados Unidos, país el cual, si bien no ha sido el único destino de la migración latinoamericana, ha atraído una gran mayoría de ella y ha influido significativamente, con su política de inmigración, la política de los países latinoamericanos expulsores para con sus emigrados.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © 2007 by the University of Texas Press

Footnotes

*

I would like to thank the International Migration Program of the Social Science Research Council and the Program for Latin American Studies at Princeton University for their generous support in the initial stages of this research, and to the Center for Migration and Development of the same University for their support thereafter. I also want to thank the anonymous LARR reviewers for all their insightful comments.

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