Offshore Citizens
Subtitle: Permanent Temporary Status in the Gulf
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 2019
Language: eng
Number of pages: 296
ISBN-13: 9781108498173
Subjects: Law, united arab emirates
Description: When it comes to extending citizenship to some groups, why might ruling political elites say neither 'yes' nor 'no, ' but 'wait'? The dominant theories of citizenship tend to recognize clear distinctions between citizens and aliens; either one has citizenship or one does not. This book shows that not all populations are fully included or expelled by a state; they can be suspended in limbo - residing in a territory for protracted periods without accruing citizenship rights. This in-depth case study of the United Arab Emirates uses new archival sources and extensive interviews to show how temporary residency be transformed into a permanent legal status. Temporary residency can informally become permanent through visa renewals and the postponement of naturalization cases. In the UAE, temporary residency was also codified into a formal citizenship status through the outsourcing of passports from the Union of Comoros, allowing elites to effectively re-classify minorities into foreign residents.