National belonging is renegotiated ad hoc, not governed by law

Evidence

The laws of citizenship are deceptively formulaic, yet the logics of national belonging (can we refer to them as “laws”?) are bewilderingly ad hoc. They send us in search of background details and behavioral traits. Were you born here? Were your parents? Do you speak the national language without a foreign accent? Do you dress, eat, walk, play sports, watch movies, and interact, more or less, like the rest of us? Answering “yes” or “no” to any of these questions will not definitively settle matters of citizenship and belonging. Nation states are filled with people who seem local, but are legally outsiders, and persons who seem foreign, and are treated as such, but are citizens in good standing. Hence, a mystery lies at the heart of national identity: It is a compelling reality secured not by official laws or customary likenesses, but by a constantly renegotiated blend of the two. — Carl W. Ernst, Islamophobia in America_ The Anatomy of…, 658

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: The definition of national identity as a constantly renegotiated blend of law and likeness is dense and paradigm-shifting enough to sit with.
• DEFINE: Clarifies what ‘national belonging’ actually consists of — an ad hoc negotiation rather than law.