Paper short abstract:

The aim of this paper is to investigate the processes of citizenship changes for South Sudanese citizens who were formally considered as Sudanese citizens, and are still resident in Khartoum’s shantytowns since the independence of South Sudan in 2011.

Paper long abstract:

The aim of this paper is to investigate the processes of citizenship changes for South Sudanese citizens who were formally considered as Sudanese citizens, and are still resident in Khartoum's shantytowns since the independence of South Sudan in 2011.

Very little attention has been paid by either scholars or policy practitioners to the relationships between identity, nationalism and citizenship in Sudan, apparently because South Sudan became independent recently, and it is the first time that a part of Sudan has become an independent state. Questions of a lack of South Sudanese national identification and commonality have escalated recently following the December 2013 political crisis and ensuing violent conflict in South Sudan. The estimated numbers of Southern Sudanese affected range between 500,000 and 700,000 individuals. These people now are facing the dilemma of lacking any recognized legal status in Sudan. They are living under the constant risk of being arrested and charged with violating the immigration laws, and the threat of expulsion to South Sudan.

The paper argues that there are dual types of citizenship for Southern Sudanese communities in Khartoum currently (i.e. legal citizenship and "community citizenship") which has allowed considerable numbers of people who do not enjoy legal citizenship to survive and sustain their social life by using community citizenship. But to what extent is this community citizenship giving the people what they need? And to what extent can it protect them? These are the questions this paper will try to answer.