Citizenship in the undeportation regime: unpredictable and situated inclusion at the borders of Europe

This article explores the dynamics of citizenship production within the context of the undeportation regime in Italy. We argue that citizenship emerges through situated and unpredictable interactions with legal systems, civil society, and informal networks. We conceptualise citizenship not as a legal status but as a situated and relational process of inclusion (or differential inclusion) emerging from legal and social practices of negotiation among many different actors within specific contexts. The paper introduces the notion of socio-legal spaces of citizenship—localised arenas where acts of citizenship unfold through the engagement of active or activist citizens such as judges, lawyers, solidarity networks, grassroots movements and migrants themselves. We demonstrate that in Italy, access to citizenship is shaped by site-specific institutional practices and informal support systems. The Italian case reflects a multi-scalar, relational form of citizenship with implications far beyond national borders, shaping patterns of mobility and belonging across Europe.