MISSION STATEMENT
The purpose of this Section is to bring together political scientists working on issues of migration and citizenship, promote teaching and research in the field, and encourage communication among political scientists and scholars of migration and citizenship in related disciplines, including policy and other professionals, domestically and internationally.
Scholars in the field of migration and citizenship address topics including but not limited to:
* The local, national, transnational, international, and global politics of voluntary and forced migration, including political attitudes and orientations both towards and of all categories of migrants, including refugees and asylum seekers, internally displaced persons, and economic, family, circular, business, high-skilled, and irregular migrants;
* Immigration and emigration policies and laws, including the international relations, international political economy, and political philosophy aspects of such policies and laws;
* Immigrant integration and refugee resettlement policies and their implementation, including immigrant and refugee civic engagement, political incorporation, and citizen-making;
* Border and security studies as well as studies on intranational, regional, transnational, and international cooperation on the management and control of migration;
* The changing meanings and practices of citizenship, including the relationship between citizenship and identity, gender, multiculturalism, race and ethnicity, racism and xenophobia, human rights, indigenous peoples, empires and imperialism, civic engagement, transnationality, welfare, and public policy;
* The relationship between citizenship and transformations in or political contestation of sovereignty and political community, including state formation or disintegration, nationalism, sovereignty or secession movements, language, ethnic or other minorities, the politics of diaspora mobilization (including conflicts, democratization, voting, and economic development), and subnational, supranational (e.g., European Union), multilevel, corporate, or global citizenship;
* The politics of nationality and citizenship (and the distinctions between them), including the moral and empirical rights and obligations attached to citizenship, comparative or historical nationality law, statelessness, and policies and practices concerning the acquisition and loss of nationality through such procedures as naturalization and expatriation as well as dual or multiple citizenship.
Scholars explore these topics at multiple geographic and political scales (local, national, transnational, international, supranational, and global) using a variety of approaches (from single-country or single-city to domestic and international comparative studies and theoretical studies), and they draw on a variety of methods and data sources.
Virtually all countries around the world face questions related to migration and citizenship, as a result of which the political and policy relevance of these issues is high. The political salience of migration and citizenship, furthermore, has grown in recent years, as reflected in the growing interest both in research and teaching in these areas. Journals in the field—including Citizenship Studies, Georgetown Immigration Law Journal, Immigration and Nationality Law Review, International Migration Review, Journal of American Ethnic History, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, Nationalities Papers, Nations and Nationalism, and Refuge—regularly include articles by APSA members. Perspectives on Politics, furthermore, recently devoted an entire issue almost exclusively to migration and citizenship issues. A new Section on Migration and Citizenship will give teaching, scholarship, and writing on migration and citizenship issues a deservedly more central place in the political science discipline.
Migration and citizenship constitute a distinct and important area of study for political scientists also because numerous governmental institutions at different levels of government devote themselves to the relationship between migrants and the state. These government institutions include local offices of immigrant affairs in various American and European cities, national-level executive departments (including, for example, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement, Citizenship and Immigration Canada, the Australian Department of Immigration and Citizenship, the Philippine Bureau of Immigration, and Mexico’s National Institute of Migration) and their legislative analogues (e.g., the U.S. House Subcommittee on Immigration Policy and Enforcement and the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Immigration, Refugees, and Border Security), and various regional and international organizations (including, for example, the International Organization for Migration, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the United Nations Population Division, the Global Migration Group, and the Global Forum on Migration and Development).
Other professional associations already have organized sections focused on migration and citizenship. These include, among others, the Ethnicity, Nationalism, and Migration Section of the International Studies Association, the International Migration Section of the American Sociological Association, the Citizenship and Immigration Collaborative Research Network of the Law and Society Association, the Migration/Immigration Network of the Social Science History Association, and the new section on (Im)migration and Citizenship of the Western Political Science Association. Given its status as the leading professional organization for the study of political science, APSA is long overdue to diversify the profession and represent the teaching and research interests of its members by organizing its own Section on Migration and Citizenship.
The proposed Migration and Citizenship Section distinguishes itself from existing APSA sections in topics, methods, and data sources. Substantively, migration and citizenship forms a coherent area of study that is only tangential to the scholarship covered by, for example, the Urban Politics Section, the Race, Ethnicity and Politics Section, the Comparative Politics Section, and the International History and Politics Section. Methodologically, there is no one current APSA section that provides a fitting scholarly home for political scientists whose work focuses on migration and citizenship issues because this scholarship habitually traverses multiple geographical and political boundaries (e.g., neighborhood, city, state, nation, and beyond) and involves the use of varied methods and data sources (e.g., ethnographic research, interviews, large-scale surveys, theoretical inquiries, etc.). Given that the proposed Migration and Citizenship Section is substantively and methodologically distinct from existing APSA sections, it will increase the intellectual community within APSA without contributing to greater disciplinary fragmentation.
BY-LAWS
I. Name of the Section
The name of the section is the Migration and Citizenship Section of the American Political Science Association (APSA).
II. Purpose of the Section
The purpose of this Section is to bring together political scientists working on issues of migration and citizenship, promote teaching and research in the field, and encourage communication among political scientists and scholars of migration and citizenship in related disciplines, including policy and other professionals, domestically and internationally.
III. Governance of the Section
A. The Section will be governed by an Executive Council consisting of two Presidents, two Program Chairs, Secretary, Treasurer, Newsletter Editor, and a six-member Executive Committee. At least two of the six Executive Committee members shall be graduate students. The Section shall also consist of the following standing committees: Awards Committee; Mentorship Committee.
B. The duties of these officers and standing committees are:
Co-Presidents: Schedule and preside at the Section meetings at the Annual Meeting of APSA and meetings of the Executive Council; convene and participate in an elections committee for Section officers and standing committees; represent the Section as requested by the Executive Council in dealings with other academic associations and organizations; serve as a liaison between the Section and APSA as a whole; and take other actions requested by the Executive Council or that are in the interest of the Section.
Co-Program Chairs: Organize section panels at the annual meetings as requested by the APSA Executive Council and APSA Program Chairs; and schedule all appropriate section meetings and receptions at the annual APSA meetings.
Secretary: Record the minutes at meetings of the Executive Council and Annual Section Meeting; maintain a record of the minutes from previous meetings; develop and maintain the Section’s database, mailing list, e-mail listserv, and APSA Connect site; receive petitions from Section members to put issues on the agenda of the Annual Section Meeting; and communicate relevant information to the membership.
Treasurer: Maintain the financial records of the Section; communicate relevant financial information to the membership; and prepare an annual report for presentation to the Executive Council, Section membership, and APSA.
Newsletter Editor: Publish two newsletters per year, normally in December/January and June/July; ensure that archived newsletters are posted on the Section and/or APSA Connect site.
Executive Council: Fill all vacancies in any office including its own membership when vacancies occur before the end of the term until the next election; audit the annual report of the Treasurer; in September, identify appropriate members for the standing committees; propose amendments to the Section’s by-laws or receive petitions for changes in the by-laws; change the duties of the standing committees; make decisions and recommendations for any other business of the Section; and interpret the Section’s by-laws.
Awards Committee: Designate annual awards for the following: best dissertation on migration and citizenship; best article on migration and citizenship; best book on migration and citizenship.
Mentorship Committee: Sponsor activities that will assist graduate student members and junior scholars in their efforts to develop promising research, complete graduate school requirements, find appropriate publication outlets, and obtain academic, public, or private employment.
C. The selection of Executive Council members shall proceed as follows:
1) In even years, one co-President, Secretary, Newsletter Editor, and three Executive Committee members are up for election. In odd years, one co-President, Treasurer, and three Executive Committee members are up for election. The Executive Council shall appoint the two Program Chairs annually and standing committee members every two years.
2) Executive Council members can seek re-election without a break in service.
3) Offices that become vacant prematurely shall be added to the list of vacancies, with the term of that office expiring as scheduled.
4) In January, the co-Presidents establish an elections committee consisting of themselves and at least three other section members, representing the diverse interests of the Section. No candidate for office shall be a member of the elections committee.
5) In February, the elections committee solicits the membership for nominations, aiming to include the diverse interests of the Section. The call for nominations will be sent to all Section members. Any Section member may nominate or self-nominate for any vacant office. Nominations shall close at the end of March. The elections committee shall ensure that there is at least one graduate student candidate for the Executive Committee and that at least one position is contested. All candidates, including those for uncontested positions, shall provide the elections committee with a statement for circulation to the membership.
6) Candidates standing for officer positions that are contested are also automatically included on the list of Executive Committee candidates unless they expressly wish otherwise.
7) In early April, the elections committee circulates candidate statements to all Section members. The elections committee supervises an election in late April and/or May. Every Section member shall be entitled to vote. For officer positions contested by three or more candidates, the voting method shall be preferential ballot. For Executive Committee positions, Section members may cast any number of votes up to the number of vacancies.
8) Executive Committee vacancies are filled by the candidates with the highest number of votes, except that candidates elected as officers are dropped from the list and that at least one vacancy must be filled by a graduate student. If a graduate student does not otherwise receive sufficient votes, the graduate student candidate with the highest number of votes is elected. In the case of an unanticipated vacancy, the graduate student candidate with the highest number of votes is elected to a two-year term and another candidate serves the one year term, so that there are always at least two Executive Committee members elected as graduate students. Executive Committee members elected as graduate students who cease to be graduate students following their election shall nonetheless be entitled to serve out their term.
9) Questions or conflicts regarding any election shall be settled by the Executive Council.
10) The elections committee shall inform the Membership of the election outcomes via the listserv/APSA Connect.
D. The terms of Executive Council members are as follows:
- Co-Presidents: staggered two year terms
- Co-Program Chairs: one year
- Secretary, Treasurer, Newsletter Editor: staggered two year terms
- Executive Committee members: staggered two year terms
- Standing Committees: two years
IV. Membership in the Section
A. All members of the American Political Science Association are eligible for membership in this Section.
B. Associate membership in the Section is available to all non-APSA members who share an interest in Migration and Citizenship. Associate members may receive all benefits and services of regular members except that they may not participate in the election of officers or serve as officers.
C. Membership in the Section is established by payment of annual Section dues to APSA or, for associate members, to the Treasurer.
D. The dues for members and associate members will be set by the Executive Council at the level necessary to cover expenses for elections and other services provided by the Section.
V. Amendments to the By-Laws
Amendments to these by-laws may be proposed by the Executive Council, by a majority vote of the participants at the Annual Section meeting, or by a petition containing the names of 25 percent of the members of the Section submitted 30 days prior to the Annual Section meeting. Amendments should be voted upon by email ballot. Amendments to the by-laws become effective immediately after approval by two-thirds of the Section members returning their email ballots.
SECTION FORMATION AND PETITION SIGNATURES
After receipt of at least 200 signatures of interested APSA members, the organizers of the Migration and Citizenship Related Group shall organize a representative committee to organize and conduct the elections for officers at the next Annual APSA Meeting as outlined in these by-laws. The officers shall assume their official duties when elections are completed.
At the first Annual Section Meeting, determination of which officers (i.e., which co-president and which three Executive Committee members) initially serve one or two year terms shall be by mutual agreement of the officers or, failing that, by lot.
The purpose of this Section is to bring together political scientists working on issues of migration and citizenship, promote teaching and research in the field, and encourage communication among political scientists and scholars of migration and citizenship in related disciplines, including policy and other professionals, domestically and internationally.
Scholars in the field of migration and citizenship address topics including but not limited to:
* The local, national, transnational, international, and global politics of voluntary and forced migration, including political attitudes and orientations both towards and of all categories of migrants, including refugees and asylum seekers, internally displaced persons, and economic, family, circular, business, high-skilled, and irregular migrants;
* Immigration and emigration policies and laws, including the international relations, international political economy, and political philosophy aspects of such policies and laws;
* Immigrant integration and refugee resettlement policies and their implementation, including immigrant and refugee civic engagement, political incorporation, and citizen-making;
* Border and security studies as well as studies on intranational, regional, transnational, and international cooperation on the management and control of migration;
* The changing meanings and practices of citizenship, including the relationship between citizenship and identity, gender, multiculturalism, race and ethnicity, racism and xenophobia, human rights, indigenous peoples, empires and imperialism, civic engagement, transnationality, welfare, and public policy;
* The relationship between citizenship and transformations in or political contestation of sovereignty and political community, including state formation or disintegration, nationalism, sovereignty or secession movements, language, ethnic or other minorities, the politics of diaspora mobilization (including conflicts, democratization, voting, and economic development), and subnational, supranational (e.g., European Union), multilevel, corporate, or global citizenship;
* The politics of nationality and citizenship (and the distinctions between them), including the moral and empirical rights and obligations attached to citizenship, comparative or historical nationality law, statelessness, and policies and practices concerning the acquisition and loss of nationality through such procedures as naturalization and expatriation as well as dual or multiple citizenship.
Scholars explore these topics at multiple geographic and political scales (local, national, transnational, international, supranational, and global) using a variety of approaches (from single-country or single-city to domestic and international comparative studies and theoretical studies), and they draw on a variety of methods and data sources.
Virtually all countries around the world face questions related to migration and citizenship, as a result of which the political and policy relevance of these issues is high. The political salience of migration and citizenship, furthermore, has grown in recent years, as reflected in the growing interest both in research and teaching in these areas. Journals in the field—including Citizenship Studies, Georgetown Immigration Law Journal, Immigration and Nationality Law Review, International Migration Review, Journal of American Ethnic History, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, Nationalities Papers, Nations and Nationalism, and Refuge—regularly include articles by APSA members. Perspectives on Politics, furthermore, recently devoted an entire issue almost exclusively to migration and citizenship issues. A new Section on Migration and Citizenship will give teaching, scholarship, and writing on migration and citizenship issues a deservedly more central place in the political science discipline.
Migration and citizenship constitute a distinct and important area of study for political scientists also because numerous governmental institutions at different levels of government devote themselves to the relationship between migrants and the state. These government institutions include local offices of immigrant affairs in various American and European cities, national-level executive departments (including, for example, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement, Citizenship and Immigration Canada, the Australian Department of Immigration and Citizenship, the Philippine Bureau of Immigration, and Mexico’s National Institute of Migration) and their legislative analogues (e.g., the U.S. House Subcommittee on Immigration Policy and Enforcement and the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Immigration, Refugees, and Border Security), and various regional and international organizations (including, for example, the International Organization for Migration, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the United Nations Population Division, the Global Migration Group, and the Global Forum on Migration and Development).
Other professional associations already have organized sections focused on migration and citizenship. These include, among others, the Ethnicity, Nationalism, and Migration Section of the International Studies Association, the International Migration Section of the American Sociological Association, the Citizenship and Immigration Collaborative Research Network of the Law and Society Association, the Migration/Immigration Network of the Social Science History Association, and the new section on (Im)migration and Citizenship of the Western Political Science Association. Given its status as the leading professional organization for the study of political science, APSA is long overdue to diversify the profession and represent the teaching and research interests of its members by organizing its own Section on Migration and Citizenship.
The proposed Migration and Citizenship Section distinguishes itself from existing APSA sections in topics, methods, and data sources. Substantively, migration and citizenship forms a coherent area of study that is only tangential to the scholarship covered by, for example, the Urban Politics Section, the Race, Ethnicity and Politics Section, the Comparative Politics Section, and the International History and Politics Section. Methodologically, there is no one current APSA section that provides a fitting scholarly home for political scientists whose work focuses on migration and citizenship issues because this scholarship habitually traverses multiple geographical and political boundaries (e.g., neighborhood, city, state, nation, and beyond) and involves the use of varied methods and data sources (e.g., ethnographic research, interviews, large-scale surveys, theoretical inquiries, etc.). Given that the proposed Migration and Citizenship Section is substantively and methodologically distinct from existing APSA sections, it will increase the intellectual community within APSA without contributing to greater disciplinary fragmentation.
BY-LAWS
I. Name of the Section
The name of the section is the Migration and Citizenship Section of the American Political Science Association (APSA).
II. Purpose of the Section
The purpose of this Section is to bring together political scientists working on issues of migration and citizenship, promote teaching and research in the field, and encourage communication among political scientists and scholars of migration and citizenship in related disciplines, including policy and other professionals, domestically and internationally.
III. Governance of the Section
A. The Section will be governed by an Executive Council consisting of two Presidents, two Program Chairs, Secretary, Treasurer, Newsletter Editor, and a six-member Executive Committee. At least two of the six Executive Committee members shall be graduate students. The Section shall also consist of the following standing committees: Awards Committee; Mentorship Committee.
B. The duties of these officers and standing committees are:
Co-Presidents: Schedule and preside at the Section meetings at the Annual Meeting of APSA and meetings of the Executive Council; convene and participate in an elections committee for Section officers and standing committees; represent the Section as requested by the Executive Council in dealings with other academic associations and organizations; serve as a liaison between the Section and APSA as a whole; and take other actions requested by the Executive Council or that are in the interest of the Section.
Co-Program Chairs: Organize section panels at the annual meetings as requested by the APSA Executive Council and APSA Program Chairs; and schedule all appropriate section meetings and receptions at the annual APSA meetings.
Secretary: Record the minutes at meetings of the Executive Council and Annual Section Meeting; maintain a record of the minutes from previous meetings; develop and maintain the Section’s database, mailing list, e-mail listserv, and APSA Connect site; receive petitions from Section members to put issues on the agenda of the Annual Section Meeting; and communicate relevant information to the membership.
Treasurer: Maintain the financial records of the Section; communicate relevant financial information to the membership; and prepare an annual report for presentation to the Executive Council, Section membership, and APSA.
Newsletter Editor: Publish two newsletters per year, normally in December/January and June/July; ensure that archived newsletters are posted on the Section and/or APSA Connect site.
Executive Council: Fill all vacancies in any office including its own membership when vacancies occur before the end of the term until the next election; audit the annual report of the Treasurer; in September, identify appropriate members for the standing committees; propose amendments to the Section’s by-laws or receive petitions for changes in the by-laws; change the duties of the standing committees; make decisions and recommendations for any other business of the Section; and interpret the Section’s by-laws.
Awards Committee: Designate annual awards for the following: best dissertation on migration and citizenship; best article on migration and citizenship; best book on migration and citizenship.
Mentorship Committee: Sponsor activities that will assist graduate student members and junior scholars in their efforts to develop promising research, complete graduate school requirements, find appropriate publication outlets, and obtain academic, public, or private employment.
C. The selection of Executive Council members shall proceed as follows:
1) In even years, one co-President, Secretary, Newsletter Editor, and three Executive Committee members are up for election. In odd years, one co-President, Treasurer, and three Executive Committee members are up for election. The Executive Council shall appoint the two Program Chairs annually and standing committee members every two years.
2) Executive Council members can seek re-election without a break in service.
3) Offices that become vacant prematurely shall be added to the list of vacancies, with the term of that office expiring as scheduled.
4) In January, the co-Presidents establish an elections committee consisting of themselves and at least three other section members, representing the diverse interests of the Section. No candidate for office shall be a member of the elections committee.
5) In February, the elections committee solicits the membership for nominations, aiming to include the diverse interests of the Section. The call for nominations will be sent to all Section members. Any Section member may nominate or self-nominate for any vacant office. Nominations shall close at the end of March. The elections committee shall ensure that there is at least one graduate student candidate for the Executive Committee and that at least one position is contested. All candidates, including those for uncontested positions, shall provide the elections committee with a statement for circulation to the membership.
6) Candidates standing for officer positions that are contested are also automatically included on the list of Executive Committee candidates unless they expressly wish otherwise.
7) In early April, the elections committee circulates candidate statements to all Section members. The elections committee supervises an election in late April and/or May. Every Section member shall be entitled to vote. For officer positions contested by three or more candidates, the voting method shall be preferential ballot. For Executive Committee positions, Section members may cast any number of votes up to the number of vacancies.
8) Executive Committee vacancies are filled by the candidates with the highest number of votes, except that candidates elected as officers are dropped from the list and that at least one vacancy must be filled by a graduate student. If a graduate student does not otherwise receive sufficient votes, the graduate student candidate with the highest number of votes is elected. In the case of an unanticipated vacancy, the graduate student candidate with the highest number of votes is elected to a two-year term and another candidate serves the one year term, so that there are always at least two Executive Committee members elected as graduate students. Executive Committee members elected as graduate students who cease to be graduate students following their election shall nonetheless be entitled to serve out their term.
9) Questions or conflicts regarding any election shall be settled by the Executive Council.
10) The elections committee shall inform the Membership of the election outcomes via the listserv/APSA Connect.
D. The terms of Executive Council members are as follows:
- Co-Presidents: staggered two year terms
- Co-Program Chairs: one year
- Secretary, Treasurer, Newsletter Editor: staggered two year terms
- Executive Committee members: staggered two year terms
- Standing Committees: two years
IV. Membership in the Section
A. All members of the American Political Science Association are eligible for membership in this Section.
B. Associate membership in the Section is available to all non-APSA members who share an interest in Migration and Citizenship. Associate members may receive all benefits and services of regular members except that they may not participate in the election of officers or serve as officers.
C. Membership in the Section is established by payment of annual Section dues to APSA or, for associate members, to the Treasurer.
D. The dues for members and associate members will be set by the Executive Council at the level necessary to cover expenses for elections and other services provided by the Section.
V. Amendments to the By-Laws
Amendments to these by-laws may be proposed by the Executive Council, by a majority vote of the participants at the Annual Section meeting, or by a petition containing the names of 25 percent of the members of the Section submitted 30 days prior to the Annual Section meeting. Amendments should be voted upon by email ballot. Amendments to the by-laws become effective immediately after approval by two-thirds of the Section members returning their email ballots.
SECTION FORMATION AND PETITION SIGNATURES
After receipt of at least 200 signatures of interested APSA members, the organizers of the Migration and Citizenship Related Group shall organize a representative committee to organize and conduct the elections for officers at the next Annual APSA Meeting as outlined in these by-laws. The officers shall assume their official duties when elections are completed.
At the first Annual Section Meeting, determination of which officers (i.e., which co-president and which three Executive Committee members) initially serve one or two year terms shall be by mutual agreement of the officers or, failing that, by lot.