Irregular migrants and digital citizenship: how irregular migrants struggle for citizenship on the Internet

Irregular migrants are excluded from formal citizenship and by implication from the national political community. However, this does not preclude activity by irregular migrants to become part of the political community or even to attain citizenship. Empirical research reveals irregular migrants struggling for citizenship in various ways, e.g. by demonstrating in cities and occupying buildings (Hajer & Bröer, 2016). While the literature on citizenship accounts for this sort of ‘incremental citizenship’, one aspect of these citizenship struggles has received little attention: the Internet. This paper presents an analysis of how irregular migrants use the Internet in general and social media in particular in their struggle for citizenship. I suggest irregular migrants perform ‘digital acts of citizenship’ and make ‘digital rights claims’. Based on a study of the digital dynamics of two groups of irregular migrants - the ‘We Are Here’ in Amsterdam and the ‘Ex Moi’ in Turin - the paper shows how irregular migrants challenge the prevailing notion of citizenship by making claims to it in the digital sphere. Furthermore it shows how irregular migrants develop counter discourses that challenge the discursive boundaries of the mainstream public sphere by developing alternative stories about their situation and alternative interpretations of mainstream media coverage. The paper concludes with a discussion of the (theoretical) questions regarding the concept of (digital) citizenship, the boundaries thereof and the right to the ‘digital public sphere’.