Mortara Research Seminar – A Conversation with Professor Fiona Shen-Bayh

By Anay Shah (SFS ‘29) –

On Monday, April 12, the Mortara Center for International Studies welcomed Professor Fiona Shen-Bayh of the University of Maryland to present her working paper, “Dual Citizenship & Dueling Loyalties: Evidence from West Africa.” Co-authored with Professor Justine Davis of the University of Michigan, the paper examines how single-citizenship holders perceive dual citizens and their eligibility to hold public office. While existing scholarship has largely focused on how host-country citizens view dual nationals, this paper shifts the lens to citizens in countries of origin, bringing that largely overlooked perspective into focus through the West African case.

The project was inspired by two high-profile cases at the intersection of dual citizenship and public office. Tidjane Thiam, leader of Côte d’Ivoire’s main opposition party, was barred from the 2025 presidential election when a court ruled he had forfeited his Ivorian nationality upon acquiring French citizenship, even though he had renounced that citizenship earlier that year. Meanwhile, Madagascar’s President Andry Rajoelina was stripped of his Malagasy citizenship following a 2025 coup after it emerged he had secretly obtained French nationality in 2014. Both cases reflect the “loyalty-competency dilemma” that Shen-Bayh and Davis place at the center of their framework: while dual citizens who return home often bring valuable financial and human capital acquired abroad, that second citizenship raises suspicions among mono-citizens about where their loyalties truly lie. The paper asks whether, and under what conditions, citizens believe these concerns should affect the political and economic rights of dual nationals.

To examine this question, the authors have developed a pre-analysis plan for face-to-face surveys to be fielded this summer in Liberia and Côte d’Ivoire — two post-conflict West African states where dual citizens are currently barred from holding public office. Working in collaboration with local universities in both countries, the team used focus groups to shape the final instrument and ensure the questions are grounded in local context. Once deployed, the surveys will reach 1,200 respondents per country with a 50% gender quota, capturing a range of demographic, political, and migration-related variables. At the heart of the design is a conjoint experiment in which respondents will evaluate profiles of dual citizens varying across attributes of migration status, competency, and loyalty — allowing the authors to isolate which factors most powerfully shape public attitudes toward dual citizens as candidates and community members.

The event was hosted by the Mortara Research Seminar, a forum that brings together scholars in International Relations, Comparative Politics, and Global Development to share work-in-progress and engage with feedback from Georgetown faculty and the broader university research community. During the Q&A, attendees raised the question of whether occupation might mediate the loyalty-competency tradeoff. For instance, they noted that a dual citizen who represented the national football team abroad may be perceived as having demonstrated loyalty through athletic service to the nation, and could face fewer barriers to political candidacy than one who pursued education or a career abroad. This dimension and others were flagged as promising avenues to incorporate before the instrument is deployed.