CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2025
| Author | Rimington-Light, Thomas |
|---|---|
| Title | Beyond Time and Presence. Exploring the Compatibility of Joseph Carens Theory of Social Membership with Digital Nomad Visa Programmes |
| Summary | This thesis seeks to explore the degree to which Joseph Carens’ Theory of Social Membership remains a useful guide to our assessment of how individuals gain claim rights against states over time by virtue of their presence within a given territory. The phenomenon of a new mobile class of digital nomads, and the subsequent state development of dedicated digital nomad visas appears as a form of migration that stands in stark contrast to the migration forms originally considered by Carens. This thesis explores the relationship between digital nomads and Carens’ theory. It identifies a number of tensions between the Theory of Social Membership and various harms associated with digital nomad’s presence. As a result, the thesis proposes that the core criteria of time and physical presence that form the foundation of Carens’ theory are insufficient to account for migration forms that differ from Carens’ base assumptions. The theory, in its current form, appears incomplete. The thesis proposes a potential revision to the theory in the form of an additional criterion. |
| Supervisor | Gheaus, Anca |
| Department | Political Science MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2025/light_thomas.pdf |
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