From: poser@vxcrna.cern.ch (Till Poser   ZEUS Offline)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.german
Subject: Re: German Blood
Date: 11 Apr 92 16:57:08 GMT
Reply-To: poser@vxdsyc.desy.de
Organization: Deutsches Elektronen Synchrotron, Experiment ZEUS bei HERA

In article <1992Apr10.184331.1@rikvax.riken.go.jp>,
lencinas@rikvax.riken.go.jp writes in soc.culture.german:
> 
> extract from:
> 
> 	  "The inmigration Challenge is harder for Germans"
> 
> (International Herald Tribune) 10.4.92
> 
> ..The bad problem Germany faces is the tension provoked by the inmigration 
> issue. This has a particular character in Germany because Germany bases
> nationality on "blood" rather than on residence. You are not a German by being
> born in Germany, but rather by possessing German "Blood".

The author should have been advised to do a modicum of research instead
of falling back on comforting and familiar stereotypes.

The basic concept of the definitions of what is German circles around
the concept of the 'Ethnie', which is a group of people, which
culturally, socially and historically form a unity of sorts. Groups
defined as such are normally referred to as tribes or peoples.

The application for citizenship is reviewd in these terms, i.e. whether
those applying not only label themselves German, but follow customs,
culture and, most importantly, speak German. This is independed of
whether the applicant is Palestinian, Indian, Turkish or Polish. The
German laws on immigration favour cultural assimilation, and they favour
those who can "prove" that they belong to whatever passes as German
"Ethnie".

(Not that I personally particularly favour these criteria, but that's
the way it is. The evocative use of the word "blood", however, conjures
images of endless streams of "Ahnenpaesse". This is patently unfair.)

One major hurdle for the would-be German of whatever origin is the
relinquishing of hir older citizenship. For most people this amounts to
cutting the umbilical to their origin. Most people shy from this
traumatic step.

> This writer, who speaks no German, who has never lived there and whose only 
> connection with Germany is that his paternal grandparents left Baden for the 
> United States a century aago, has a better legal claim  on German citizenship
> than the child of a Turkish worker in Germany, born in Germany, educated
> there, culturally German and speaking no other language than German.

And exactly that is wrong. Since the writer is not anymore a part of what
might conceivably called the German Ethnie, culturally, socially and
languagewise, he has nary a chance. That holds true for almost all 2nd
generation Germano-USAmericans since WW1.

> This is the East European conception of nationality, based on ethnic origin 
> rather than on secular citizenship, and the source of much grief in that part
> of the world. ....

That is quite true. However, the migration and cohesion of large groups
of people, tribes, if You will, such as the Banater Schwaben, the
Siebenbuerger Sachsen, the Wolga Deutschen et al, and their
selfdefinition as _Germans_ over long periods of time, not to speak
about their being viewed and treated as such by their neighbors, poses a
unique problem not experienced by many other European states.

But then I'd like to remind people of the end of WW2, where ~3 million
people were expulsed from Eastern Europe (I am _not_ talking about
Poland here), where they had been living for generations, because they
were defined as Germans and considered themselves to be German. _This_
is the basis for our current legislation. Considering that there were
~30 million displaced persons in Europe at that time, 60% of which were
considered German, there had to be some sort of criterion.

This legislation is, by now, carefully aged and must be reevaluated and
most probably changed.

> There is little to be done to alter the German position, deeply imbedded
> in its history and in German cultural assumptions. 

Preposterous balderdash, but quite catchy. No doubt the ensuing
discussion about revised immigration laws and the redefinition of
Germany as a country of immigration will be quite acrimonious, since it
will touch dearly beloved German proconceptions. The snide insinuation
of German intractablility, however, in this respect is a ingenious piece
of demagoguery. It's playing to the crowds and it is intellectually
dishonest.

  Till Poser (F35/ZEUS OFFLINE)   Tel.: -49-40-8998-2004
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