Political settlements and expatriate dual citizenship in Australia and Indonesia

Abstract

Many countries have extended rights of dual citizenship to their expatriates but, as Faist has noted, the road towards increasing tolerance of expatriate dual citizenship (EDC) has been ‘bumpy’. This study seeks to illuminate the reasons for this bumpiness by examining the political dynamics surrounding EDC in Australia and Indonesia, two countries that have pursued distinct approaches to the issue. In both cases, we find that their approaches have reflected the nature of their political settlements and, in the Australian case, that this effect was mediated by political elite strategizing. We accordingly call on researchers to give greater attention to how political settlements and politicians’ agency shape EDC adoption in future analysis.