En nation av emigranter: En studie över den salvadoranska statens förhållande till sin emigrerande befolkning samt konsekvenserna för deras medborgarskap.

Around the world governments reach out to their emigrant population, embracing them as part of the nation, expecting their economic contribution. The aim of this thesis is to examine the political strategy and governmental activities of El Salvador with the purpose to include emigrants in the nation building project. The main question is what consequences this has for the significance of citizenship. This case study is based on the theoretical framework of external citizenship which is a new fenomena emanating from states growing interest of their expanding diaspora. It divides external citizenship in two parts; a legal dimension and a practiced identity. I find that as the economic potential of salvadoreans abroad increase, the Salvadorean government makes institutional changes to tie emigrants to the nationstate. This results in the possibility for salvadoreans to remain citizens in their country of origin, practicing their salvadorean identity at the same time as they naturalize abroad. Also the nationstate is affected as the nation does not correspond with the territory of the state anymore. However, there are still areas of incorporation where external citizens and citizens resident in El Salvador are not treated as equals as in the case of political participation