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Citizenship is considered a core ingredient of democracy and provides an indeed valuable status: Having citizenship means, amongst other things, having the right to vote, belonging to a state and being able to show a passport when crossing a border. What happens, though, when citizenship is not a given but an option? After the collapse of the Soviet Union, a sizeable part of Latvia´s population was left without citizenship. Their willingness to naturalize has been lower than expected - a situation that challenges our understanding of citizenship as a desirable status.

What makes citizenship attractive for people? Why does the state want to have citizens and not only residents? Conceiving citizenship as a relation between an individual and a particular state, this book addresses different dimensions of citizenship. Firmly rooted in citizenship theory, the author presents answers to the question "What is citizenship for?" and provides a nuanced analysis of the development of Latvian citizenship policies.

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