German Nationality

Given that citizenship laws in Germany have§historically been §discriminatory, the 1999 law could have been an§opportunity for real §reform. Instead, mired in the populist politics of§conservative forces §playing on ethno-cultural fears, the 1999 Citizenship§law deepened §the discriminatory nature of citizenship by§institutionalizing §stratification based on nationality. Instead of§fostering a culture of §civic virtue wherein citizens are encouraged to§participate by the §nature of being included as citizens, the new law§created an obstacle §course wherein the prize became the legal status of§citizen. This §demonstrates injustice in so far as that these§hurdles do not apply to §other Europeans. In Germany, because its largest§ethnic minority §population is made up of third-country nationals,§citizenship §stratification is all the more evident. This book is§an analysis of the §most recent citizenship law in Germany embedded in§the context of §the construction and development of such laws.§Analyzing German §citizenship laws allows us as political scientists to§study the salient §social, legal and political impact that citizenship has.