The early 21st century has witnessed a growing politicisation of migration and citizenship. This is a global phenomenon, and one with a long history. Despite assertions of an increasingly borderless and globalised world, a reversal or at least a backlash appears to be taking place. Perhaps such promises were always illusory. The neoliberal loosening of trade regulations across borders has been selective and uneven, with the movement of some goods, information, capital and people eased, while for others, it remains or has been made difficult or impossible.

The current moment is emerging as a crucial period in which the neoliberal consensus, while still strongly asserted, is nevertheless being contested through renegotiations of migration, citizenship and globalisation's promise of a borderless world. Fundamental questions of the right to move and the right to stay, the right to belong, and the right to contest the status quo are in flux. Two watershed moments stand out. On 23 June 2016, the UK voted to leave the European Union (EU). The vote in favour of ‘Brexit’ marked the first time that a country had chosen to leave the EU since the 1957 Treaty of Rome, which set up the European Economic Community. Just over four months later, on 8 November 2016, the US elected Donald Trump as its president. A political outsider who had never previously held office, Trump vowed to ‘Make America Great Again’. His campaign pledge both targeted the efforts of the previous president, Barack Obama, and harkened back to a previous golden era when America was great. The Brexit vote in the UK to leave the EU and the election of Donald Trump in the US are decisions specific to their countries, but they have strong ripple effects on other countries. They are also indicative of larger political changes taking place around the world, particularly with respect to migration and citizenship policies, which have become both more liberal and more exclusive at the same time. This book explores these changes, connecting them and putting them into context at multiple scales. Through this analysis, a clearer picture of the roots of these politics emerges, as well as of the consequences for mobility, political participation and belonging in the 21st century.