Back to Search Start Over

Citizenship and Integration: The Enduring Legacy of National Definitions.

Authors :
Blau, Jessamyn
Source :
Conference Papers -- Midwestern Political Science Association. 2007 Annual Meeting, p1-34. 0p. 2 Graphs.
Publication Year :
2007

Abstract

This work revisits scholarship on immigration, integration and the nation-state, including the research of Rogers Brubaker, Adrian Favell and Christian Joppke. It challenges those suggest that recent immigration to European countries, and the resultant responses, have changed the fundamental philosophy of the nation-state. I focus specifically on Germany and France because political-theoretical studies of citizenship often characterize these two countries as extremes on the ius sanguinis-ius soli axis (Brubaker). In the past decade, several prominent scholars have attempted to show that policy change is a direct result of changing values. This work takes issue with these scholars who, noting the rapprochement between France and Germany in terms of citizenship policy have suggested that the philosophies of citizenship in these countries are not only mutable but changing. My theoretical research and interviews conducted in these two countries show that while the European Union has brought about a significant change of the two countries' policies, it has not affected their perceptions of citizen and foreigner - it has not, that is, impacted their understanding of the term "integration." I first establish the policy basis for the discussion by evaluating recent developments in the integration (and, more generally, immigration) policies of France and Germany, as well as those of the EU. I submit that there has been a very pragmatic recognition, especially at the political level, that European countries have become "countries of immigration." And yet, my research shows that there has not been a corresponding ideological shift to some form of encompassing multicultural citizenship. After reviewing the legal and political frameworks in these two countries, I show that both maintain very traditional conceptions of the ideal-type citizen. In France, the assimilationist model, which has long been assumed to have fallen out of favor, remains an extremely dominant underpinning of French ideology. In Germany, the political and ideological trajectory of citizenship and integration values at least partially substantiate the claim that German state citizenship and German nationality remain two different, yet salient, concepts. In both cases - albeit for different reasons - these traditional definitions are the latent cause of the "crisis of integration." ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Details

Language :
English
Database :
Academic Search Index
Journal :
Conference Papers -- Midwestern Political Science Association
Publication Type :
Conference
Accession number :
26956408