Expulsion and ‘Legal Otherness’ in Times of Growing Nationalism

Abstract

In times of growing nationalism, states increasingly revert to mechanisms of legal othering by drawing the demarcation line between ‘us’ and ‘them’ more sharply. The removal of foreigners from the national territory is a particularly visible and effective instrument of legal othering, as it physically excludes ‘the other’ and assures nationals of their special status. Even though this power has been curtailed not only by public international law, but also by European Union (EU) law, as it adversely affects EU citizens’ free movement and residence rights, EU Member States retain some discretion to expel non-nationals, including EU citizens, from their territory. This contribution maps the shifting limits of Member States’ capacity to distinguish between their own nationals and foreigners by analysing the protection against expulsion provided for by EU law against the background of a growing emphasis on national sovereignty and a rising fear of ‘the other’.