liberal citizenship: ambiguities and inconsistencies27 And this brings us to the fourth feature of such a reading of citizenship, namely, that it is a statement of equality among its members in a manner where rights and responsibilities are balanced within the social order. The final and most important feature of a liberal theory of citizenship is the emphasis on individualism. Indeed, the emphasis on the individual is a bedrock of liberal theory, and is present in its approach to all other social arrangements. The primacy of the individual and her/his liberty is mainly realized as “freedom from state interference with one’s personal development and projects … [along with] a deep suspicion of state power over individuals” (Schuck 2002, 134). With this caveat, liberal models of citizenship often reveal a certain tension when group or collective rights and obligations are introduced into social aggregations in a manner that trumps or challenges individual rights. As subjects of citizenship, collectives marked by religious, cultural, ethnic and national identities can influence the process, practices and other aspects of a liberal state, thereby also affecting the citizens and noncitizen Others in the social order (Schuck 2002, 135). Now despite this, classical liberal theory depicts a state that remains disinterested vis-à-vis these different groups, does not take sides, and maintains a certain neutrality. Of course, such normative neutrality has proved impossible for liberal states in the face of increasing identity-specific collectivities, resulting in the “entangl[ing of] the state, groups and individuals in ways that may threaten the autonomy and integrity of individuals and groups and hence endanger the liberal project itself” (Schuck 2002, 141). In the end, discourses and debates around the function of the state with regards to individual and group claims and obligations continue to (re)draw the boundaries of liberal citizenship. Manifestations of liberal citizenship also posit a certain connection between a distinct geographical and territorial entity, or a sovereign nation-state, and the practice, rights and obligations of citizenship. Here the ownership of a passport serves as the main feature of citizenship, allowing individuals the right of mobility in and out of the geographical space with the formal sanction of the state (Ben-Porat and Turner 2011, 5). But increasing globalization and post-modernist approaches to state-­ citizen relations have both redefined and reshaped the key axes of citizenship (Isin and Turner 2002, 2). Isin and Turner explain that … various struggles based upon identity and difference … have found new ways of articulating their claims as claims to citizenship understood not simply as a legal status but as political and social recognition and economic redistribution (Isin and Turner 2002, 2).