Far from being obsolete, national states remain very powerful governing bodies. In particular, the regulation of national borders through state controls on citizenship and immigration profoundly shape people’s sense of space and their place in it. However, despite the fact that we live in a period of unprecedented numbers of people crossing international borders, we often think of issues of national identity as pertaining only to those with citizenship status. However, issues of border controls are perhaps even more important for those who are cast as the nation’s Others, those who live their lives as ‘foreigners’ within the territory governed by the state.
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