Roxanne Lynn Doty
Prompted by the integration of Europe, Derrida recently posed the following questions. ‘Indeed, to what concept, to what real individual, to what singular entity should this name be assigned today? Who will draw up its borders?’ While this question speaks of the political entity called Europe, it has much broader resonance. It echoes concerns about identity, boundaries, and the relationship between the inside and the outside of political entities, concerns that have not escaped the attention of critical International Relations scholars. Nor are these necessarily new concerns. The situation in post–World War II Britain prompted the same questions Derrida raises about Europe in 1992. To what real individuals, to what singular entity the terms ‘British’ and ‘Britain’ should be assigned was a question that prompted debate, political violence, and a series of increasingly restrictive and, some would suggest, racist immigration policies. The transformation of Britain from an empire to a nation–state was accompanied by a crisis of identity whereby early postwar proclamations that Britain ‘imposed no colour bar restrictions making it difficult for them when they come here’ and that ‘there must be freedom of movement within the British Empire and the Commonwealth’ were, rather quickly, to give way to exclusionary practices and a retreat to ‘little England’.(Online publication July 1996)
Roxanne Lynn Doty is an assistant professor of political science at Arizona State University. She has written several articles that have appeared in International Studies and Millennium, and a book, Imperial Encounters: The Politics of Representation in North-South Relations (1996). Her research interests include IR theory, North-South relations, and race and immigration.
Footnotes
* I would like to thank the people who have made helpful comments and suggestions on earlier versions of this article: Michael Barnett, Thomas Biersteker, Daniel Deudney, Naeem Inayatullah, Alexander Murphy, David Strang, Alexander Wendt, and Cynthia Weber. I would also like to thank the following participants of the Comprehending State Sovereignty Conference, Brown University, 26–28 February 1993, at which an earlier version of this paper was presented: John Agnew, Hayward Alker, Jarat Chopra, James Der Derian, Craig Murphy, Donald Puchala, and Lori Gronich and Kent Worcester of the Social Science Research Council. My thoughts on this paper have also benefited greatly from various conversations with Richard Ashley. I would also like to thank three anonymous reviewers at the Review of International Studies for their critical comments and helpful suggestions. Finally, this paper would not have been possible without the research assistance of Shannon Bradley, Michelle Paz Soldon, and See Seng Pan.
A different version of this article is being published under the title of ‘Sovereignty and the Nation: Constructing the Boundaries of National Identity’, in Thomas J. Biersteker and Cynthia Weber (eds.), State Sovereignty as Social Construct (Cambridge, forthcoming April 1996).Roxanne Lynn Doty (1996). Immigration and national identity: constructing the nation. Review of International Studies, 22, pp 235-255
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