In search of the German nation

Citizenship and the Challenge of Integration

Bibliographic Data

ID4525469
AuthorsJan Palmowski (0000-0001-6308-5775, King's College London, corresponding author)
Year2008
Volume12
Issue6
Pages547-563
Publication date2008-12-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueCitizenship Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1362-1025 • E-ISSN: 1469-3593
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/13621020802450635
OpenAlexW2124834111
LanguageEN
Citations received15
References cited34

This article argues that, with the notable exception of the Third Reich, citizenship in Germany was never intrinsically related to race, nor was it essentially distinguished by ethnicity. Defining citizenship by descent while maintaining cultural ideals of nationhood did not represent some idealistic clinging to a mythical Volk, but instead constituted a successful means to define a national community during the ‘short’ twentieth century, when the German polity experienced a series of existential transformations. This makes the subsequent reconstitution of citizenship and nationhood all the more remarkable. Since the mid-1990s, Germans have overcome their scepticism about dual citizenship in an EU context, and jus soli has been included in the 1999 citizenship law as providing a legal entitlement to citizenship. While the practical impact of this law has been modest, the law is best considered as a milestone in a national debate about integration and cultural specificity. This debate was no longer about whether, but about how to integrate the foreign nationals living in Germany. Germans have accepted that theirs is a country of immigrants

Citizenship · German · Linguistics · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Diaspora, migration, transnational identity · Law · Migration, Refugees, and Integration · Philippine History and Culture · Philosophy

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