Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Framing Non-Whites And Producing Second-Class Citizens In France And Portugal, Bernd Reiter

Government and International Affairs Faculty Publications

The quality of contemporary democracies hinges on the breadth and depth of the citizenship regimes on which democracy ultimately rests. This article argues that, to assess citizenship, two important dimensions are of crucial interest, namely to what extent formal citizens are able to live and practice substantive citizenship roles and, secondly, how access to citizenship rights is used by different societal groups in order to defend privilege. Having conducted a comparative case study of Portugal and France, I now argue that political elites are contributing to a framing of non-whites as foreigners and immigrants because it serves their purpose and …