This edited volume explores the complex and varied pathways to citizenship that migrants navigate in both sending and receiving countries. By examining the diverse strategies which migrants employ to handle uncertainties and global disparities, this work highlights how citizenship pathways evolve across national and transnational spaces, as well as over time. Citizenship pathways are defined as the routes and processes through which migrants achieve citizenship recognition and redistribution, influencing their pursuit of personal and family goals. This approach reveals how different migrant groups experience membership and access economic opportunities, with some gaining political and social rights while others face denial. Additionally, migrants’ responses to policy changes and their adaptive strategies reshape citizenship practices. This volume underscores the dynamic interplay between migration and citizenship, illustrating how power relations among states, migrants, and non-migrants are continuously renegotiated, affecting societal structures and individual life choices.

This book was originally published as a special issue of Ethnic and Racial Studies.