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In search of the German nation : citizenship and the challenge of integration
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Palmowski, Jan (2008) In search of the German nation : citizenship and the challenge of integration. Citizenship Studies, Vol.12 (No.6). pp. 547-563. doi:10.1080/13621020802450635 ISSN 1362-1025.
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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13621020802450635
Abstract
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.
| Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Divisions: | Faculty of Arts > School of Modern Languages and Cultures > German Studies | ||||
| Journal or Publication Title: | Citizenship Studies | ||||
| Publisher: | Routledge Journals, Taylor and Fancis Ltd | ||||
| ISSN: | 1362-1025 | ||||
| Official Date: | 2008 | ||||
| Dates: |
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| Volume: | Vol.12 | ||||
| Number: | No.6 | ||||
| Page Range: | pp. 547-563 | ||||
| DOI: | 10.1080/13621020802450635 | ||||
| Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||
| Publication Status: | Published | ||||
| Access rights to Published version: | Restricted or Subscription Access |
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