Analysing activist citizenship: A ‘noncitizenist’ approach to understand contemporary sites of struggle within migration in Scotland

In this paper, we explore the notion of ‘activist citizenship’ (Isin, 2009; Papa & Milioni, 2013) to develop understandings of citizenship within the context of migration in Scotland. According to Isin, by disrupting dominant orders through ‘acts’ of citizenship “the emerging figure of the activist citizen making claims to justice is the defining figure of contemporary global politics” (p. 382). Traditionally, the concept of citizenship is often connected to civil, political and social rights and is recognised as ambiguous in many ways, with some people and groups either included or excluded from the structures of society (Castles & Davidson, 2020). However, drawing from recent sites of struggle for social justice within the context of migration in Scotland, we move away from established forms of citizenship, to examine how ‘activist citizenship’ emerges and develops. Specifically, we utilse examples from Kenmure Street, Glasgow, which witnessed the local community successful in halting a UK Home Office immigration raid (Brooks, 2021) and interrogate tensions that emerged in the town of Erskine when far-right groups clashed with counter-demonstrators from anti-racist campaigners (Mackay, 2023). Bloom’s (2023) concept of ‘noncitizensim’ is used to prioritise the perspectives of those with direct experience of exclusionary borders within global migration governance. In doing so, we argue that noncitizen power; the centring of those who “live out their lives and politics despite the institutions that govern them” (Bloom, 2023, p.1) is an essential force within contemporary sites of struggle and instances of everyday activism.