Ethics of Citizenship: Immigration and Group Rights in Germany - Softcover

Barbieri, William A.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0822320711 ISBN 13: 9780822320715

Verlag: Duke University Press, 1998

Inhaltsangabe

Who is to be included in a political community and on what terms? William A. Barbieri Jr. seeks answers to these questions in this exploration of the controversial concept of citizenship rights—a concept directly related to the nature of democracy, equality, and cultural identity. Through an examination of the case of Germany’s settled “guestworkers” and their families, Ethics of Citizenship investigates the pressing problem of political membership in a world marked by increased migration, rising nationalist sentiment, and the ongoing reorganization of states through both peaceful and violent means.
Although some of Germany’s foreign workers have gradually attained a degree of social and economic legitimacy, Barbieri explains how they remain effectively excluded from true German citizenship. Describing how this exclusion has occurred and assessing current attitudes toward political membership in Germany, he argues for a just and democratic policy toward the tax-paying, migrant worker minority, one that would combine the extension of the individual rights of citizenship with the establishment of certain group rights. Through a dissection of ongoing public “membership debates” over issues such as suffrage, dual citizenship, and immigration and refugee policy, Barbieri identifies a range of competing responses to the question of who “belongs” in Germany. After critiquing these views, he proposes an alternative ethic of membership rooted in an account of domination and human rights that seeks to balance individual and group rights within the context of a commitment to democracy and equal citizenship.
Indispensable for scholars of German studies, Ethics of Citizenship also raises questions that will attract moral philosophers, constitutional scholars, and those interested in the continuing, global problems associated with migration.

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

William A. Barbieri Jr. is Assistant Professor of Social Ethics at the Catholic University of America.

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"Barbieri's book explores theoretical issues about citizenship and political community in the context of a specific case: long-term resident aliens in Germany. Thus it establishes fruitful links between comparative politics and political theory and should be of interest to scholars from both fields. The work makes a significant contribution to an important debate whose theoretical and political salience is likely to increase over the next several years.--Joseph H. Carens, University of Toronto

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Ethics of Citizenship

Immigration and Group Rights in Germany

By William A. Barbieri Jr.

Duke University Press

Copyright © 1998 Duke University Press
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-0-8223-2071-5

Contents

Preface, 
Introduction: "Guestworkers" and the Ethics of Political Membership, 
Chapter One: The Making of Boundaries, 
Chapter Two: Membership Debates, 
Chapter Three: Political Anthropologies, 
Chapter Four: Inequality, Nondomination, and Human Rights, 
Chapter Five: Citizenship and Group Rights, 
Notes, 
References, 
Index, 

CHAPTER 1

The Making of Boundaries

Although they are as a rule born and raised in Germany and fluent in the language, the children of migrant workers are in many ways less than the equals of their classmates. A class field trip to Switzerland, for example, may be out of bounds for them for reasons having to do with citizenship, residence permits, and visas. Their history and cultural heritage receive little or no attention in textbooks that chronicle the accomplishments of the German Volk. Their chances of eventually finding an apprenticeship or winning a spot at a university, statistics show, are slim. Beyond the classroom, the subtle and not-so-subtle forms of discrimination, the poor social and economic possibilities, and the administrative hurdles and legal barriers do not cease. In the only world they know, these children remain outsiders, their existence marked indelibly by the marginalized status of the foreign resident.

Any attempt to understand how and why this marginalization has occurred must begin in a historical vein. The boundaries that have come to separate migrant worker families from other German residents have emerged through the conjuncture of two processes: the complex definition over the past several centuries of what it means to be German, and the more recent formation of the migrant worker minority in German society. Through an analytical treatment of these two processes and the forms of human agency they have involved, we may gain a picture of the norms and structures that have enabled the establishment of a subordinate status for Germany's foreign residents.

Toward a History of German Membership

An analysis of the historical process through which membership in the German context has been defined necessarily begins with the question, What is German membership? In answering this question, the first step must be to establish the meaning of its terms. Logically, the notion of membership suggests an entity in which membership is held by a group of persons satisfying a given set of criteria. Much depends, therefore, on which entity one specifies and on which criteria, as well as on who does the judging. Membership may be ascriptive or voluntary; it may also be a matter of degree. The case of German membership provides an excellent illustration of these inherent complexities. Is a German one who speaks German as his or her native language? One who has German forebears? One who was born on German territory? One who lives in a German society? One who identifies him or herself as German? One who possesses German citizenship?

Each of these criteria plays an important role in the context of this study, for each points to a crucial aspect of what we might call German belongingness – the normative basis for the distribution and denial of those goods and burdens associated with being German. Historically, who has counted as German has been shaped by a number of diverse factors, among them the development of an ethnic and eventually a national German consciousness, the formation of a succession of distinct German political entities, the economic transformations and migrations associated with the transition to industrial capitalism, religious conflicts, the establishment of compulsory education and the standardization of a German national culture, the growth of a German citizenship with an accompanying administrative apparatus, the presence at times of other ethnic minorities in German states, and the construction of a modern welfare system. A full account of the complex interplay of these factors, in short, a history of German membership, would take us far afield. Nonetheless, some such account is essential for an inquiry into the nature of membership in Germany today. What follows is an outline of a set of historical theses regarding German membership and then, to illustrate the theses, a selective overview of developments bearing on membership in the last two hundred years of German history.

1. German membership is best understood for political purposes in terms of three overlapping but distinguishable communities: the German ethnic group or Kulturnation, the German state society, and the German citizenry. These three strands of German membership have informed one another considerably and at the same time have remained distinct. Their distinctness is perhaps best captured with reference to one of the distinguishing aspects of the concept of membership itself: Membership implies both inclusion and exclusion, and we may always ask, of whom and on what basis?

- The first membership group, the ethnocultural nation, differentiates among persons on the basis of ethnicity. Although ethnic identity is a notoriously intractable topic, we may say provisionally that this group includes those who speak German, have a German heritage, are of German stock, and are identified by others and by themselves as Germans. Excluded as a rule are those of other ethnic or national groups: the French, Russians, Turks, Native Americans, Kurds.

- The second membership group, the state society, differentiates on a structural basis. Its members are included in various ways and to different degrees, but in general they participate in society, enjoy rights, and receive benefits, all in economic, social, and political ways. State societies are administratively and territorially distinct from other states and may deny admission and residence to members of other states.

- Membership in the German citizenry is defined in terms of both ascriptive identity and common political commitment. The community of German citizens has the character of a club open only to persons belonging to both the ethnocultural nation and the state. Eligible are those who take part in the life of the state society, who belong to the German cultural group, and who are prepared to assume the responsibility of political control and to sacrifice their lives if necessary for the defense of the German state. This group excludes German ethnics in other countries and members of German society who lack the requisite German ethnocultural membership. The definition of German citizens is, as we shall see, in some ways an unhappy compromise between the other two groups.

2. Historically, these three groups have been formed through interrelated yet analytically distinct processes. The context in which these groups interact is the modern system of nation-state capitalism, and it follows that their nature and scope have been decisively shaped by the political, social, and economic processes through which our present global society of sovereign nations has emerged. The rise of nation-states has been the topic of a considerable body of scholarship, which may be drawn from to show how each of the three German membership groups has undergone its own process of development – for the first group, a process of nation-building, for the second group, of state-building, and for the third group, of what I call...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Duke University Press
• Erscheinungsdatum: 1998
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0822320711
• ISBN 13: 9780822320715
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 248
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Nicht verfügbar