Abstract:
This paper examines two explicitly exclusive/inclusive national belonging regimes, by discussing two case studies of current negotiations on alien status and nationality in Dominican Republic and Venezuela. In the latter, from the governmental initiative in 2004 for “alien people regularization and naturalization”, Venezuelan citizenship was bestowed on undocumented immigrants, some of them as a part of massive public events. In Dominican Republic, administrative exclusion of Haitian-born Dominicans has been exceedingly increasing after the amendments on the Immigration Law of 2004, which stated that only those people born to Dominican parents or permanent residents in the country in that country are considered to be nationals. In both cases, it goes without saying that the notions of belonging are determinative both for immigration and nationality policies; and that the two political realms keep a close relation.
Keywords: Immigration, citizenship, nationality, belonging, Venezuela, Dominican Republic.
