State, community, individual - Societal and Political Psychology ...

Olga Cojocaru
Having a blue passport means not having a red one yet
results in a fl exible status, exercised alternately
depending on circumstances. What is remarkable
is that in terms of mobility and opportunities
(career/ personal development projects
etc.), the young individual holding dual
citizenship will have access to an increased
number of openings. For example, opportunities
to participate in international projects for
young people are usually distributed according
to the EU and nonEU division. Young Moldovans
can benefi t from the both sides. “It is really
funny with all these international projects.
Now I am Moldovan, then I am Romanian. It
depends on the amount of scholarship, as one
colleague from Macedonia was making fun of
me. And I admit that.” (Vlada). Their versatile
citizenship requires consistency in practicing
one or another “Sometimes I am mixing it up.
That’s it...if you apply as a Moldovan, you must
remember it not to give away, otherwise you
lose the scholarship...” (laughs) (Vlada).
Bessarabians fi nd themselves in the position
of the alien/ immigrant without rights who,
after a period of insterstition, legalize their status
and eventually get into the category of citizen
endowed with rights. The handfelt citizenship
is the functional citizenship, which offers
certain benefi ts while the heartfelt citizenship
marks the bond (of the “uprooted”) with the
original space/home. In situations that threaten
the integrity of the red passport (a fi ne in urban
transport, routine police checks, etc.) the naturalized
Moldovan exposes again his untouchable
side (the stranger cannot be sanctioned:
“they can do me nothing, right? let them send
the notice home to Moldova!” - Andrei) Citizenship
is also a public event and the acquisition
of passports needs to be marked. The moment
when the affi rmative response from the
Authorities for Citizenship will come is highly
idealized and includes promises: “When I will
get my Romanian passport: “I will organize a
party”/ “I will offer drinks”/ “I will bow 23
times” (the number of years he/she has been
deprived of legal documents)
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Endnotes
1 National School of Political Science and Public
Administration, Anthropology Department, Romania.
Email: olga.cojo@gmail.com
2 Romanian citizenship law was adapted in 1991
(no. 21), supporting a series of successive changes
and additions almost every year since then. The Romanian
citizenship is granted upon request to former
citizens who lost it unwillingly, without their consent
for non attributable reasons.
3 The term “consular sadism” was fi rst used by
Neil Campbell, a researcher affi liated with the International
Crisis Group, referring to excessively
bureaucratic visa regime in the Balkans.
4 The names of the characters are not real and
are used here only for easier identifi cation purpose.
5 Transnistria is a strip of territory along the eastern
bank of the Nistru River, that belongs to Moldovan
Republic, but is not controled by the Moldovan
Authorities. Since its so called declaration of independence
in 1990, Transnistria is an unrecognised
state with its “government”, “constitution”, “policy”,
“currency” and other atributs of a state.
6 As for the Soviet passports, according to offi -
cial sources, currently in Moldova there are 395,129
holders of Soviet-style passports, and a government
decision extended the validity of these acts for life.
7 Currency in Transnsitria is “Transnistrian Rubles”.
8 Although new regional centers of the National
Agency for Citizenship were opened to assist the increasing
number of citizenship applicants, the situation
has not signifi cantly improved.
9 Customs is a topos circumscribed to passages,
where the the citizenship is reinforced and passengers
are judged solely on (the color of) their passport.
I will give below a quotation from a respondent,
representative for the border operations which
can take intrusive and humiliating forms: “Customs
is terror I experience every time. Especially when
you’re forced to get off the bus with the suitcase
stuffed with food by your mother, carry it helplessly
up the stairs, drop it on the ground and praying in
your mind not to be asked to open it there in front of
the other 40 pairs of eyes” (Crina).
References:
Bakewell, O. (2007). The meaning and Use
of Identity Papers: handheld and heartfelt nationality
in the borderlands of the North-West
Zambia. Oxford: International Migration Institute,
Oxford University Press.