Disconnected Citizenship? Exploring The Anti-Terrorism/Citizenship Nexus

1. Disconnected Citizenship?Exploring The Anti-Terrorism/Citizenship Nexus Lee Jarvis l.jarvis@swansea.ac.uk

2. Citizenship/Anti-terrorism Nexus • Erosions of rights/incursions on democracy • Consequent fragility of citizenship • Suspect communities • Particular and uneven impacts of AT policy • ‘Docile patriots’ • Disciplinary power, surveillance technologies, and passivity • ‘Active’ citizens in the war on terror • ‘the weapons of choice’ (Rygiel, 2006: 145). • However: • Tendency toward quantitative or purely theoretical work • Emphasis on religious subjectivities • And, frequently limited conception of citizenship…

3. Rethinking the nexus • “The citizen’s voice and perspective have been missing from contemporary debates about security policy…how citizenship is felt, talked about, thought, enacted and disrupted” (Gillespie & O’Loughlin 2009: 109). • Citizenship is not exhausted by the possession of civil liberties. • Citizenship is not reducible to a formal legal status. • UK focus groups on ‘Anti-terrorism, Citizenship and Security’ • Residence (metropolitan/non-metropolitan) • Self-designated ethnicity (black, white, Asian)

4. Rights • Widespread concern with erosion of citizen rights: • Anti-terrorism powers: “…remove that freedom of individuals and restricts the democracy we live in” • Yet, a number of white participants: • Unconcerned: “I don’t think your liberty is really going to be threatened, because you haven’t done anything wrong” • Or supportive: “Never mind all the red tape and all the messing about, if you come here and you incite any hatred…you lose your rights” • Many non-white participants felt directly targeted: • “All of these measures are designed to control Muslims” • “A black van might just come and I am taken away, whisked away by MI5 or MI6...I have to sort of fear what I say because of the possible repercussions”

5. Participation • For many white participants: • Limited impact: “All this is happening on a level that does not touch us” • Anger/irritation: “I can’t say I felt threatened, I was annoyed, I was angry” • Non-white participants, resignation and disengagement: • “I would love to change things, which is probably why I have a passion for politics. But right now currently I would rather keep my mouth shut and not say anything” • “you feel discriminated, you feel undermined, you feel less of an individual ...You are a citizen, technically, because of your status, but in terms of your participation, it just won’t work”

6. Identity Claims • White participants: lack of linkage between AT powers and belonging: • Although, at times, empathy: AT likely to “breed suspicion” toward minorities who would “probably feel quite alienated”. • Widespread experience of disconnection amongst non-white groups: • “But after ten years of things like that happening, the way I’m looked at, I don’t feel as part of the British society, as accepted” • “people that are meant to be protecting you, protecting your freedom, making sure that we are secure and safe, are in some sense turning against you…it’s kind of the same government that is making you feel intimidated”

7. Duties • Vertically - to the state: • General support for engaging with security practices: • “Muslims themselves need to take on the responsibility of engaging [with anti-terrorism initiatives]” • Although, reductions in rights were linked to reductions in duties: • “Why should you help a government that doesn’t want to help you?” • Horizontally – to other citizens/communities: • View that more could be done to reduce suspicion and hostility: • “It’s maybe for us to try our best, I guess, to put our point across” • But widespread sense that meeting these oblications is difficult: • “I don’t have the security of belonging, you know, like I look at white people and hardly anybody totally accepts me”

8. Disconnected Citizenship? • Troubling picture of the anti-terrorism/citizenship nexus: • Widespread sense of citizenship’s erosion by AT powers. • Reductions in rights connect to a declining sense of belonging, dampened enthusiasm for political engagement, and reduced commitments to the state and other citizens. • Moreover, differential experiences amongst citizens: • For many white individuals, AT acts at a distance • Contrasts with experiences of black and Asian participants: AT frequently seen to directly impact everyday life. • Danger this contributes to a broader fracture of citizenship in the UK.

9. Thank you for your time! Published Version: Jarvis, L. & Lister, M. (2013) ‘Disconnected Citizenship? The Impacts of Anti-Terrorism Policy on Citizenship in the UK’, Political Studies 61(3): 656-675.