Backup citizenship: reproduction, gender and motility in birth mobilities to Brazil

• Grant number: 23/05431-1
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research
• Start date: March 01, 2024
• End date: July 31, 2024
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Sociology - Other specific Sociologies
• Principal Investigator: Svetlana Ruseishvili
• Grantee: Svetlana Ruseishvili
• Host Investigator: Kristin Surak
• Host Institution: Centro de Educação e Ciências Humanas (CECH). Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCAR). São Carlos , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: University of London, England

Abstract

This research aims to investigate birth mobilities as a way of acquiring strategic citizenship. The concept of citizenship has undergone serious modifications in the globalised world. Once seen as a relationship of loyalty between the nation and its members, today, citizenship is perceived by subjects as an asset in the globalised and unequal competition for life opportunities. The present research is part of the debate on strategic citizenship and seeks to fill gaps regarding the relationship between forms of additional citizenship acquisition and gender. The analytical work is based on the empirical data from the multi-method research conducted with Russian women who came to give birth to their children in Brazil to obtain a Brazilian passport. During my stay as a visiting fellow at the London School of Economics, I intend to finalise the production of empirical data remotely and advance the analytical work, introducing new concepts that may contribute to a better understanding of the phenomenon globally. I propose the concept of "birth mobilities" to clarify that this is not a touristic phenomenon but rather a complex form of international mobility. The concept of 'backup citizenship' aims to challenge the conception of the acquisition of second citizenship as a rational choice. I argue that, in the case of Russian women, the element of care is central. Finally, I propose to think of the pursuit of additional citizenship as an act of individual navigation in the global 'kinetic stratification', in which subjects are endowed with unequal capacities to move between borders and which is structured and structures global inequality. (AU)

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

SVETLANA RUSEISHVILI; KRISTIN SURAK. Mercantilização da cidadania e desigualdades globais. REMHU: Revista Interdisciplinar da Mobilidade Humana, v. 32, 2024-06-17. (23/05431-1)