6236-001-005.3d Pages: [133–158] Date: [April 7, 2012] Time: [18:17] State, Migrants, and the Negotiation of Second-Generation Citizenship in the Israeli Diaspora Nir Cohen Bar Ilan University Using second-generation Israeli migrants in the United States as a case study, this article explores one unusual site in which the politics of diasporic citizenship unfold. It examines the North American chap- ter of the Israeli Scouts (Tzofim Tzabar) as an arena of negotiation between representatives of the sending state apparatus and migrants over the meaning (and practices) of citizenship outside national terri- tory. This quotidian space is important to migrants’ contestation with the state concerning their claims for a form of membership that is nei- ther territorial nor contingent upon the fulfillment of traditional civic duties (e.g., military service). Challenging the state-supported model of republicanism, in which presence in territory and the fulfillment of a predetermined set of civic duties are preconditions for citizenship, Israeli migrants advocate instead an arrangement based on a strong cultural identity and a revised set of diaspora-based material prac- tices of support. Keywords: sending state, migrants, second generation, diasporic citi- zenship, Israel The exponential growth in volume and intensity of cross-border mobility has significantly challenged the territorial foundation of the state (Castles and Davidson 2000; Jacobson 1996; Joppke 1999). The emergence of sizable ethno-national, ethnic, and religious diasporas has loosened the traditional, post-Westphalian symmetrical relations between state, territory, and nation, subjecting the former to numerous claims for cultural recognition, rights, and benefits from these and other so-called deterritorialized groups (Soysal 1994). Such quests have challenged states and, in some cases, altered classic forms of national, territorial citizenship (Bauböck 1994). As Aihwa Ong (2006) argued, “The difference between having and not having citizenship is becoming Diaspora 16:1/2 2007 Nir Cohen, “State, Migrants, and the Negotiation of Second-Generation Citizenship in the Israeli Diaspora,” Diaspora 16, 1/2 (2007): 133–158. © 2012 Diaspora: a journal of transnational studies. 133