• How is it possible for state citizens not to belong to the nation?

[lyna_rochdi]

After reading Zine’s article I got to thinking about the uniting factors of a nation. Intrinsically, two answers came to mind: sports and war. They hold the quality of creating history. Herein lies the difference between state and a nation. The former being a bureaucracy and the latter stemming from a complex idea of identity, culture, shared experiences and thus history.

Any fool with a little manpower can create a state (colonizers). Unfortunately, the membership of belonging to a nation is a more expensive than a green card.

Zine argues that immigrants who become state citizens are not accepted into the nation. After being accepted into the state, they must fight to be accepted into the nation instead of the nation welcoming them with open arms. Zine illustrates this point through “Discipline culture” (Zine, 152) in which those who do not traditionally belong must perform traditional ideas of a national, however this often ends up being just a question of performing whiteness.
A nation is an old institution that can precede and outlive the state. It is hard to change because it exists only in the global mind, yet it must change for immigrant civilians to belong to it. Only a redefinement and expansion of the norms of a “traditional” citizen will equate the legal status of a citizen to a member of a nation. This is a very interesting phenomenon for children of immigrant parents who must seek approval of the nation they were born in. They do not “belong” anywhere, as they have never lived in the country of their parents originated from. Minorities are made to earn their nationality by trading off their own history and culture.

Honestly, the concept of belonging seems idealized. What does it even mean to belong? Do people even want to belong? I understand belonging to state, there can be many practical advantages such as healthcare, safety, political choice, public goods….But if belonging to the nation and not having to suffer from racism means having to erase ones own culture then it seems like nations (as they are constructed today) are erasing all originality (Zine, 158) The nation shouldn’t make the social contract too costly for minorities of states.