In this novel account of global
citizenship, Luis Cabrera argues that all individuals have a global duty to
contribute directly to human rights protections and to promote rights-enhancing
political integration between states. The Practice of Global Citizenship blends
careful moral argument with compelling narratives from field research among
unauthorized immigrants, activists seeking to protect their rights, and the
'Minuteman' activists striving to keep them out. Immigrant-rights activists,
especially those conducting humanitarian patrols for border-crossers stranded in
the brutal Arizona desert, are shown as embodying aspects of global citizenship.
Unauthorized immigrants themselves are shown to be enacting a form of global
'civil' disobedience, claiming the economic rights central to the emerging
global normative charter, while challenging the restrictive membership regimes
that are the norm in the current global system. Cabrera also examines the
European Union, seeing it as a crucial laboratory for studying the challenges
inherent in expanding citizen membership.
