GERMANNESS OR RIGHTS?

Second Generation Young Adults and Citizenship in

Contemporary Germany

Daniel Williams
Sociology and Anthropology, Carleton College

A BSTRACT
Scholarship on citizenshipin its definition as nationality or formal membership in the statehas been both the basis for evaluating and comparing
national citizenships as ethnocultural or civic, and used to imply the
meaning of citizenship to prospective citizens, particularly immigrants and
non-citizen residents. Doing so ignores a perspective on citizenship from
below, and oversimplifies the multiplicity of meanings that individuals may
attach to citizenship. This article seeks to fill this gap in scholarship by
examining young adult second-generation descendants of immigrants in
Germany. The second generation occupies a unique position for examining
the meaning of citizenship, based on the fact that they were born and grew
up in Germany, and are thus more likely than adult immigrants to be able
to become citizens as well as to claim national belonging to Germany.
Among the varied meanings of citizenship are rights-based understandings,
which are granted to some non-citizens and not others, as well as identitarian meanings which may depend on everyday cultural practices as well as
national origin. Importantly, these meanings of citizenship are not arbitrary
among the second generation; citizenship status and gender appear to
inform understandings of citizenship, while national origin and transnational
ties appear to be less significant for the meaning of citizenship.
K EYWORDS
citizenship; ethnicity; immigration; transnationalism; identity

Citizenship of Citizens

Scholarship on citizenshipdefined as nationality or formal membership

in the statehas been largely state-centered.1 Such state-centered scholar-

German Politics and Society, Issue 107 Vol. 31, No. 2 (Summer 2013): 3048
doi:10.3167/gps.2013.310204 ISSN 1045-0300 (Print) ISSN 1558-5441 (Online)

Germanness or Rights?

ship has been the basis for evaluating and comparing national citizenships
as ethnocultural or civic, by implying the meaning of citizenship to
prospective citizens, particularly immigrants and non-citizen residents, and
their supposed motives and reasons for becoming or not becoming citizens.
Doing so eliminates a perspective of citizenship from below, and potentially oversimplifies multiple meanings of citizenship. Previous scholarship
has shown that the meaning of citizenship to ordinary people can both
diverge from the meanings articulated in state policies and by state actors,
and that there are a wide range of meanings among ordinary people. As
Cynthia Miller-Idriss finds, a nation-states legal policies for citizenship
and naturalization cannot be automatically extrapolated to the understandings of citizenship among ordinary citizens in their everyday lives.2
Citizenship is fundamentally a status, which may be tied to both rights
and identities.3 In practice, this means that citizenship itself is not by
necessity tied to any particular right or identity; rather, it confers a given
right or identity only in specific times and places (e.g., the right to vote in
Germany in the year 2000).4 State-centered scholarship points to these two
dimensions of citizenship. Rogers Brubaker, in his well-known comparison of France and Germany, showed that citizenship policies of the state
could in large part be explained by understandings of nationhooda kind
of identity.5 Put simply, the self-understanding of the nation informed
who was considered a member of the nation and who was entitled to
membership in the state. Citizenship is also often associated by both states
and citizens with rights.6 Postnational scholarship on citizenship emphasizes the lack of rights associated with formal membership in the state, and
with it the notion that citizenship has lost its relevance.7 Yasemin Soysal
has illustrated that national states no longer are guarantors of social and
economic rights: guestworkers without formal citizenship status have
been incorporated into various aspects of the social and institutional order
of their host countries.8 Similarly, David Jacobson finds that [c]itizenship
has been devalued in the host countriescitizens have felt no compelling
need to naturalize even when it is possible.9 Tomas Hammar also points
to the blurred citizen-foreigner distinction, emphasizing that there are
non-citizens who have full access to the labour market, business, education, social welfarea group of persons he describes as denizens.10
Beyond this basic bifurcation of the meaning of citizenship, however, it
is critical to consider that the second generation is not equally situated in
relation to German citizenship and potentially also national belonging or
Germanness. This is both because of the range of rights and identities
that may be tied to citizenship, and that some may be more decisive and

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Daniel Williams

important than others for different individuals. Non-citizens from European

member states are entitled to dual citizenship and freedom of movement
across borders of European Union (EU) member states.11 In addition, individuals of certain nationalities may be viewed as less German or less
assimilable than others on the basis of a supposed greater difference and
distance from an imagined Germanness. In light of this potential diversity,
this article seeks to begin to answer the question of how ordinary people
specifically, second-generation descendants of immigrantsunderstand
German citizenship. Do second generation immigrants frame their own citizenship or non-citizenship in terms of rights, national belonging, both, or
neither? Do the meanings of citizenship vary among them, and if so, how?
I consider ten second-generation young adults of immigrant background
of various national origins and citizenship statuses and the meanings they
give to German citizenship. I subsequently consider their self-identification
as German, as a way of testing the relationship between Germanness and
citizenship for these individuals. All of these young adults ranged in age
between eighteen and twenty-three, and, with the exception of one, were in
secondary school in Berlin and Munich. They were all eligible for German
citizenship, whether they were citizens or non-citizens. In terms of age,
social class, and citizenship status, therefore, they comprise a small and
specific sample of second-generation young adults. As second-generation
immigrants, or individuals who were born in and/or have grown up in
Germany, they represent the potentially wide range of meanings of citizenship and Germanness. On the one hand, by virtue of their long residence
and/or birth within the state, they may make a claim to territorial as well as
cultural belonging more easily than most first generation immigrants. They
are also more often eligible to become citizens. On the other hand, ethnoculturally defined citizenship and Germanness, transnational orientations,
and racial formation may all constrain their tendency to both identify as
German and become German citizens.12

Framing Citizenship: Germanness or Rights?

German citizenship has historically been marked by an ethnoculturalist
tendencyor a privileging of descent over residence in conferring citizenship. It has often been contrasted with French and American territorial or
civic traditions, where place of birth has been more important to citizenship status.13 In 1999, however, with the passing of a new Citizenship Law,
birthright citizenship (jus soli)based on birth within the territory of the

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Germanness or Rights?

statewas introduced for the first time in modern German history. With
the same law, naturalization requirements were reduced. Though these
changes in German citizenship were remarkable from the state-centered
and comparative perspective, they tell little about how individuals understandings of citizenship, or tendencies to naturalize, changed. Using measures such as naturalization rates to draw conclusions about inclusion or
identification misses a critical aspect of citizenship: that its meaning can
vary, even while always informing the decision to naturalize as well as not
to naturalize. If a given individual identifies citizenship with national
belonging and Germanness but does not identify as German, they will
most likely decide not to become a citizen. In contrast, another individual
who also does not identify as German, but views citizenship in terms of
rights, would be likely to become a citizen. Thus, citizenship rates alone
reflect nothing about why people become citizens, only that they do so.
Among the ten second generation individuals I consider below, three
different frames of citizenship were articulated. Two of these frames were
based on national belonging: an ethnocultural Germanness frame and a
civic Germanness frame. A third frame was based on rights. These frames
were not only cognitivein the sense of being orientations towards citizenshipbut also practical, as I show. They were related to whether individuals were or were not citizens.
Citizenship as Ethnocultural Germanness
The legacy of German citizenship has been its ethnoculturalist character
the refuting of being a citizen based on territorial or civic criteria. Implicit
within the ethnocultural understanding of citizenship is the idea that
descent confers culture and ethnicity, and that citizenship should be based
on such a descent-based ethnicity. These two assumptions of the ethnocultural frame are summarized clearly by Brubakers seminal work on citizenship and nationhood:
The ethnocultural inflection of German self-understanding and German citizenship law makes it difficult to reconcilein the political imagination of
Germans and immigrants alikethe preservation of Turkish cultural identity
and autonomy, for example, with the acquisition of German citizenship.14

Such an understanding was important for the way that two individuals of
immigrant background made choices about citizenship. One Italian-German student, M., articulated the meaning of citizenship to him:
I: Have you ever thought about getting German citizenship?
M: I dont want to.
I: Can you tell me more?

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Daniel Williams

M: My parents are both Italian. Yes, I was born here, but when I was little
was always in Italy for half a year or so. And then starting in Kindergarten I
was really here, but always in Italy for vacation. I speak Italian at home. I
dont want to be a German citizen.
I: Why not?
M: Because my parents are Italian. And I consider myself Italian. I dont
want to lose my roots.
(Italian/Italian)15

M. sees citizenship as a means to maintain his roots, and as reflective of

his national belonging to Italyrather than Germany. Another individual,
G., who was born in Germany, and had the option of becoming a German
citizen, described how his citizenship was tied to his being Turkish, which
he wished to express through military service in Turkey:
I: What does citizenship mean for you? You said you will keep your Turkish passport. What does that mean for you?
G: For me, first of all, I want to do my military service in Turkey, though
its not clear if I will do just one month or the full 18 months. It depends.
But thats one of the most important reasons for me to keep my Turkish citizenship. I would be happy to serve my country and make my mother and
father proud by doing so.
(Turkish/Turkish)

Most clear in his statement is that his country is Turkey, not Germany.
Both individuals chose to keep their respective non-German citizenship,
and foresaw no change in their plans for the future. Their statements also
show that for them a conversation about citizenship was simultaneously a
conversation about national belonging. They were not ambivalent about
which citizenship they would choose or keep. Finally, they also made no
mention of how they were perceived by others, or of any experiences that
may have confirmed their sense of national belonging. In this way, they
differed from most other interviewees that I consider below.
Citizenship as Civic Germanness
The ethnocultural frame expressed above, though historically part of the
German tradition, nonetheless represents only one way in which Germanness was framed. National belonging and nationness do not necessarily
mean belonging in a descent-based, or even ethnic, sense. Two other
young adults saw citizenship as civic Germanness in which citizenship
conferred belonging, regardless of whether they gained rights, or felt German culturally. These individuals saw their citizenship as a means by
which to claim Germanness. B., who was of Pakistani descent, articulated
this sense of citizenship:

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Germanness or Rights?

I: And what does it mean for you to have a German passport? Or German citizenship?
B: On the one hand, it...identifies me. It says you are part German. And
when I have a passport, I have something. I have security. No one can kick
me out of the country or something. And Im German for them actually. I
just dont look German, but generally on the inside and in terms of my character, how I talk, I am. It gives me identity, on the one hand, and security
on the other.
(Pakistani/German)

Importantly, she makes a distinction between being a German citizen and

being really German. At the same time, she both recognizes that she
may not look German, but that that is offset by her official Germanness as a citizen. Another student, S., made this distinction as well:
I: What does citizenship mean for you? Not the laws from the government, but for you, what does it mean to have a German passport?
S: Not that much. But I think, when you have a German passport you feel
recognized. You have the feeling you are accepted by the country and that is
an assurance, that really guarantees and confirms that you are, and are recognized as, German.
(Afghan/German)

Importantly for both of these individuals, citizenship confers a sense of

Germanness.
Beyond this sense of German citizenship as recognition and acceptance, both of these individuals also felt that they were German in a cultural sense. B., for instance, articulated her sense of cultural belonging,
though she emphasizes that this falls short of making her a real German:
I: Can you say that you feel German in any way?
B: Well, somehow yes, I do say I am German because you have to realize
I live here. And I speak the language. I know what makes people tick here,
and its the same as what makes me tick. But at the same time, I have my
own culture. Thats the thing. I say Im not really German, not a real German ... but that I have some part of me that is German.

S. also talked about her cultural belonging in Germany:

S: I do [feel German]. I dont think of it in terms of I would rather be this
than that ... I am [culturally] half Afghani, half German. But I was born
here, I am integrated, I feel at home here. I dont have a problem with German culture or whatever. I accept both cultures.
I: So you feel like you are Afghani also?
S: Exactly. It just depends. For example, when I go to an Afghani event,
then I conform to Afghan culture ... I try to speak Afghani to people, et
cetera, and when I am at a German event, I do the same with German. It all
depends on the situation.

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Daniel Williams

These two young adults claimed a cultural Germanness through residence,

language, and place-based familiarity. Yet, importantly, they did not identify as only German, but rather as German in a hybrid or situational sense.
B.s statement in particular shows ambivalences and contradictions through
her first asserting that she is the same as Germans in a deeply cultural
sense, but then qualifying it by saying she is not really German. S. calls
herself Afghani and German, choosing to identify with each situationally.
Citizenship as Rights
For all other second generation interviewees, having German citizenship
meant having particular rights. The majority of second generation young
adults, in fact, framed citizenship in this way rather than in terms of Germanness. Bearing in mind the postnational critique of national citizenship
as decoupled from rights, the fact that a majority of young adults viewed
rights as the primary meaning of citizenship is significant. Most social and
economic rights in Germany are accessible with residence without citizenship, as postnationalists argue. Under the current citizenship policies, citizenship confers only two national rights: the right to vote, and the right to
work in civil service, or public sector occupations. Still, even though few
rights are conferred by citizenship, rights remained not only the dominant
association with citizenship, but also were important enough for most
interviewees to prefer German over other citizenships.
While focusing on the role of supranational institutions in guaranteeing
particular rights, the postnational critique tends to de-emphasize and miss
the way in which certain rights are conferred by supranational citizenships, in which national citizenship is nested.16 In the case of German
citizenship, the European Union is critical in this respect. Citizens of European Union member states share common rights denied to non-EU citizens. In some Lnder, EU citizens who are not German citizens have
voting rights in local elections. EU citizens are also allowed to have dual
citizenship.17 Finally, EU citizens have the right of free movement across
borders of other EU member states. These rights are neither universal nor
guaranteed to citizens of non-EU member states.
Among the rights associated with citizenship by interviewees, travel
was nearly universally mentioned. D., a Gymnasium student who became
a citizen in her teens, talked about travel through the difficulties of not
having a German passport:
I: And what does it mean for you to have a German passport?
D: To be honest, on the one hand, not much. Because its not very important to me what is on a piece of paper, if I am German, Turkish ... I dont

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Germanness or Rights?

place much value on that. But Id say, its not totally unimportant. Because
you wont get very far if you dont... for example if I had a Turkish passport,
Id have more problems. And based on that I cant say its totally unimportant. But ... if I have a German passport, for example, if I want to go to the
USA later, its easier, I think, when you apply for a visa.
(Turkish/German)

By stating that citizenship isnt important to her, D. suggests that citizenship does not say very much about who she isin contrast to the young
adults who viewed citizenship in ethnocultural and civic national terms.
When asked to elaborate on the problems encountered when one does
not have German citizenship, she explains that not only is it easier to
travel with a German passport, but it is easier to travel to her parents
country of originTurkey:
I: And thats what you mean by problems? You just mentioned problems ...
D: Yes, exactly. If I go to Turkey, with the embassies, on the border. Thats
just been my experience. They used to always make us wait longer. They
look for problems. Make endless calls to Germany, how it is in Turkey or
something ... so, yeah its pretty bad.

D.s rights-oriented citizenship was also expressed in her lack of interest in

dual citizenship. As she articulated, having Turkish citizenship in fact
made her ability to travel to Turkey more rather than less difficult.
For F., who was a German citizen of Palestinian background, rights
were also important, and the only benefit or meaning of citizenship:
I:
So what does this passport mean for you?
F: Its just a piece of paper. For me, its good. ... if you have a Palestinian
passport, you cant go to Palestine, Jordan, the USA, you cant go anywhere.
With a German passport you can go everywhere! Its positive. But its just a
piece of paper that lets you travel everywhere.
(Palestinian/German)

Another student, K., who was not yet a citizen but intended to naturalize,
articulated a strict difference between German citizenship and being German while describing how citizenship was only useful to him in terms of
the rights he would gain:
K: I have more advantages with a German passport. For example, this
summer Im going to Canada for three weeks, but its really difficult with my
Bosnian passport because of the visa, etc. With a German passport I get a
visa immediately and there are no problems. And things are just easier with
a German passport.
I: What does citizenship, and having a passport mean for you?
K: Well, I wouldnt attach anything emotional to it. I wouldnt say wow,
Im a citizen, I would just say, great, advantage for my career, and I cant be
deported. Ill only have more advantages with the [German] passport here.
(Bosnian/German)

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Daniel Williams

One of the provisions of the new Citizenship Law of 2000 was that it was
made retroactive to persons born starting in 1990. These same individuals
could be dual citizens up until the age of twenty-three. O., a Gymnasium
student who was part of this first generation of jus soli citizens described
his reason for choosing German over Turkish citizenship:
I: How did it happen? Did the German authorities notify you and say
you have to give up one of your two citizenships, or ...?
O: We got a letter in the mail saying I was at the age where I should
decide. I talked about it with my parents and it was clear right away, German [citizenship]. As I was saying, traveling in and out is just easier with a
European passport.
I: Did you talk about which citizenship you would choose? Or was it
pretty clear you would take the German one? Did you discuss it at home?
O: Well, I have to say. Until recently, it wasnt really an issue for us. My
father told me he thought I should take German citizenship, I asked him
why. And he named the advantages, for the future, for travelling abroad.
And then I asked my mother. German is probably better, she said. When
you get older, or retire, or spend the last years of your life, whether in Germany or Turkey, you can change it again, she said.
(Turkish/German)

Here again, travel is mentioned first and foremost as a reason for choosing
one citizenship over another. But, just as importantly, O. associates this
right with a European passport, rather than a German passport specifically, implicitly referencing the nested nature of national citizenship.
Others framed citizenship as rights, but found the rights attached to citizenship not to be important enough to actually become a citizen. E., a
clerical worker in her early twenties in a Turkish organization, who was
born and grew up in Germany, and was married to a German citizen of
Turkish descent, found citizenship largely unimportant for her:
I: Have you thought about getting German citizenship?
E: No, not at all. I never even thought about it.
I: What does the passport mean to you? Is it important?
E: Not that important. Regardless of whether I have a German ID or a
Turkish passport, it doesnt matter. Mainly you can travel with a German
ID. Thats the only thing it matters for. Otherwise its not important.
(Turkish/Turkish)

The relative unimportance of her citizenship was reinforced when she was
asked about whether she would like to have dual citizenship:
I: Would anything be different if you could have dual citizenship?
E: I dont know what advantages Id have, if I applied for German citizenship. My husband has it, but he needed it to study overseas. So he has that
advantage. I just dont know what advantages Id have.
(Turkish/Turkish)

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Germanness or Rights?

E. articulates that if she in fact would become a citizen, it would be for the
rights that citizenship would afford her. Her lack of need for German citizenship, however, may also be partly explained by her marital status and
gender: her husband does have German citizenship since he travels, while
she made no mention of travel, or traveling to Turkey. She apparently
does not need German citizenship for her work or in her everyday life, or
is unaware of how it would help her.
N., a student in Munich whose parents came from Serbia to work in
Germany thirty years earlier, had no immediate intention of becoming a
citizen, but thought that he would soon. He emphasized that citizenship
had little to do with who he was:
I: So as of now you have a Serbian passport. What will you do? Do you
think you will become a citizen?
N: Well, I dont see any problem with that. Its kind of too bad, I have to
say. But if it does something for me, you know, I know who I am, a piece of
paper doesnt say anything. Im not going to change my name or something
to Hans Dieter: Its just citizenship, no big thing.
(Serbian/Serbian)

Rights-Based Citizenship and Germanness

The individuals above all frame citizenship in terms of rights. Though citizenship is often linked to national belonging by the state and state actors
through citizenship policies which attempt to ensure the Germanness,
however defined, of those of immigrant backgroundnational belonging
appears to play no role in the decision to become or not become a citizen
for this group. I now consider whether these young adults saw themselves
as German, as well as how they defined Germanness.
D., a German citizen who spoke of the easing of border crossing into
Turkey, whose parents were from Turkey but were ethnically Persian,
emphasized her cultural and territorial Germanness as a basis for identifying as German:
I: Would you say that you feel German in any way?
D: Of course. I was born here. I live here and Id like to keep living here. I
have German friends, I am integrated here. I dont know, sometimes I say I
am German with migration background. That I have Persian roots, I
speak two other languages plus German somehow its a part of me it
just is. I belong to many cultures, and Im also part of the German one
somehow. Im a mix.

E., who was not a citizen described how she would rather live in Germany, though she was of Turkish descent and still had a Turkish passport:
I:

Do you feel German in any way?

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Daniel Williams

E: Well, lets put it in a way that Turks say: when were in Turkey, we are
called German, and when we are here, were called foreigner. Of course its
that way. If someone asks me whether Id rather live here or in Turkey, Id
choose here, because Ive also grown up here. I dont know if I could spend
the rest of my life in Turkey, because where you are born and grow up is the
most important thing, Id say.

Importantly, E. articulates a common narrative of being always a foreigner. Rather than talking about Germanness, she shifts her answer to
talk about where she would rather live. Her sense of belonging is territorial, based on where she was born and grew upGermany.
One distinction among all second generation young adults was between
those who understood Germanness as a self-asserted identity, and others
who saw it as an externally-imposed ascribed identity.18 D.s self-identification with a hybrid Germanness resembles the self-identification of B. and
S., who viewed their own Germanness in hybrid, cultural and territorial
terms. In contrast, those who framed citizenship in ethnocultural terms
(M. and G.), not only kept their respective non-German citizenships, but
also talked about their lack of Germanness in an asserted sensethey
believed that they were fundamentally different from Germans, and that
this difference had little or nothing to do with how they were perceived or
treated by others in everyday life in Germany. For others who framed
Germanness in terms of rights, however, Germanness was an externally
ascribed category which was imposed on them regardless of not only their
German citizenship, but even of their own self-understanding and identification as German. F., who was Palestinian-German, described the fact that
she would never be German to others, regardless of what she would do:
I: Do you feel German in any way?
F: Hm ... no. Actually not at all. Maybe a little bit... what does German
even mean? I mean... I feel Arab, not German. German is just what is on the
piece of paper. How I really feel is Arab. Not even a little German! (laughs)
I: Is there any special reason why?
F: Ok, for example. I just know a few Germans. I know nice Germans and
not so nice ones. I live in Treptow, which is a German neighborhood. And
when you go to East [Berlin], Kpenick or places like that, people look at
you strangely, its not very nice. For instance, when a German comes to our
country, we look at them nicely. But here you notice, that people dont like
having you here. So you really feel like a foreigner. I cant feel German
because Im not shown that I am German, thats it.

She expanded on this externally-defined Germanness by pointing to other

markers of difference that she experienced:
I:

Why do you think people see you immediately as a foreigner?

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Germanness or Rights?

F: (Pointing to head scarf) The way I look. But even so my friend, who has
black hair but dresses normally, they still say oh look at that foreigner.
Why? Because she has black hair, thats it. Its really too bad.

Importantly, she states that it is not only the head scarfas a marker of being
non-German along differences of religion, ethnicity, and national origin
which excludes someone from Germanness, but race, as elicited through
how one looks and phenotype. Many others described this racialized Germanness. O., for instance, talked about how he did not feel that Turks and
Germans were as different as everyone thinks. Yet, he described his inability to become German as based on his not looking German:
O: I mean, we are foreigners here. That doesnt change with a passport.
Just like you cant change skin color or other things ... religion for example.
You cant cash it in. In the end you dont belong 100 percent to this country.
You arent Germanic or really German. Yeah you have the German passport, formally, German. Maybe you feel (German) culturally a little. But,
you are not really German. At the very least in an argument with a German
suddenly he will say what do you want you stupid foreigner? So you get
back into that situation and say ok I dont completely belong here.
I: And why not? Why do you say you cant be completely Germanic?
O: The problem is simple. When you see me, I dont look very German,
as people imagine German to be.

K., who was born in Bosnia but had lived in Germany since age three
and was planning to get his German citizenship in the next year articulated his non-Germanness also in terms of being excluded by others, however he also described his non-Germanness in an asserted sense, based on
his ethnicity which he defined in racial and cultural terms:
I: Do you feel German in any way?
K: Not at all. Im not German.
I: Why not?
K: Because Im not German ethnically.
I: What do you mean ethnically?
K: If I have a German passport, Im only a member, according to my definition, of the Federal Republic of Germany. I belong to this state but not to
the population.
I: Why not? Can you tell me more about this ethnic ...
K: I cant identify with Germans. I dont have blond hair, Im not Christian, nor is German my native language. And I have a completely different
culture. Thats the point. I dont feel German at all. And Im also not seen as
German by the Germans.
I: Have you experienced that?
K: Mm hm ... when I go anywhere here, they say, where are you from?
When I say Kreuzberg, Berlin, then they say, No, what country are you
from originally? ... they never mean what part of Berlin are you from. It

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Daniel Williams

doesnt matter if you were born there or have lived here for three generations, like most Turks, they only ask what country you are from.

Similarly, N., who was ambivalent about becoming a citizen, also saw
himself as not German:
I: And, do you feel German in any way?
N: Well, its kind of strange. Here in Germany youre basically labeled Serbian; but over there in Serbia you are basically the German. I personally
feel Serbian. During the Eurocup, I was a fan for Serbia. (laughter) Well, not
exactly labeled. But no one would say Im German or something like that.
I: Why not?
N: I dont really look like it, first of all ... and I dont consider myself German. I feel more Serbian, and more identify that way than as German.

Among those who framed citizenship as rights there were strong similarities. The particular emphasis on travel and access to other EU countries
is critical and clearly contradicts the importance of citizenship as access to
rights within the state; these individuals said little or nothing about rights
within Germany, even in a future hypothetical sense. That travel was the
most important of rights is quite significant and revealing of the importance of national origin and citizenship options of these young adults who
were all of non-EU descent. If their countries of origin were member states
of the European Union, they would already possess the travel rights that
they seek with German citizenship. Many of those in the rights-based
group also appeared to be quite casual about citizenship and the rights
they attach to it. Though somewhat conjectural, both the casualness of
their statements and the almost singular emphasis on travel may be effects
of age. The two rights still clearly tied to German citizenshipvoting rights
and the right to work in civil service occupationscould quite conceivably
become more important with age and as these young adults leave school
and enter the labor force.
Perhaps most interestingly, these young adults talked about how they
were excluded from Germanness, largely based on phenotype and not
looking German, more clearly and emphatically than all of the others.
Though this was not true for all individuals who viewed citizenship as
rights, it was true for four of the six. Finally, most of these individuals were
citizens, and two expressed an openness or intention to become a German
citizen. This suggests that the rights they seek, however trivially they are
articulated, outweigh reasons for choosing non-German citizenship.

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Comparing Citizenship and Germanness Across Groups

The second generation individuals considered here are clearly differentiated by understandings of citizenship and Germanness, but they also differ
by national origin and gender. At the same time, they share common
experiences across these differences as second generation individuals,
many of which are often hypothesized as being significant for citizenship
as well as national belonging. I now briefly consider whether or not differences of national origin or gender were patterned in any way across
understandings of citizenship and Germanness. I then turn to two emergent variablestransnational ties and family and parental influence
which were commonly mentioned by interviewees, to see whether they
were related to particular understandings of citizenship and Germanness.
National Origin and Gender
Perhaps surprisingly, the particular national origins of these young adults
seemed to matter little to how they viewed citizenship, though the very
small sample size limits the conclusiveness of this statement, as does the
overrepresentation of some nationalities. For instance, not looking German was not confined to Turkish-Germans, or non-Europeans, nor was it
true that all persons of Turkish descent articulated this narrative of exclusion from Germanness (e.g., D., E., G.). Nevertheless, that such racial narratives about exclusion and looks would apply to individuals of
non-European national origin as a group suggest a pattern. A more inclusive sample with different European-origin individuals represented might
bear this out.
In contrast, an observable pattern gleaned from this small set of interviews is the way in which the gender of interviewees was correlated to
particular frames of citizenship and Germanness. Though the sample was
divided evenly between male and female individuals, no male identified
citizenship as a path to German identity through either an ethnocultural
frame or a civic Germanness frame. On the other hand, three of the four
narratives about racialized exclusion were articulated by young men,
while the two civic Germanness interviewees, who also self-identified
as culturally German in a hybrid sense, were both women. Recent scholarship on gender and nation has suggested that immigrant, Muslim, and
foreign men in particular occupy an important and stigmatized position in relation to German national identity, by which some men may
feel or be equally or more excluded from national membership than
foreign women.19

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Daniel Williams

Transnational Ties and Being At Home in Germany

Nearly all second-generation young adults had the experience of visiting
their parents country of origin, usually annually and often for visits of several weeks or longer during the school breaks. As several interviewees
attested, the nearly universal experience during such visits was of being
called German or the German. But importantly, this particular experience had no clear impact on the tendency to view citizenship in one way
or another, nor to identify as German in any particular way. Among those
who mentioned or talked about travelling back to their parents countries
of origin were at least one individual from each group. The more universal impact of such an experience on most was to confirm that they would
prefer or choose to live in Germany, as N. and E., who framed citizenship
as rights, stated. Moreover, the value placed on ease of travel was not usually about ease of travel back to their parents countries of origin (though
in one case, it was), rather, it was about travelling to other countries within
Europe or farther abroad. For some others, the experience solidified both
their choice to live in Germany and a sense of belonging and being at
home there, as for B.:
I felt much, much better [when I came back to Germany]. I thought Im
really at home now. While I was in Pakistan, I really thought a lot about it,
and I realized how attached I am to Germany, and my homeBerlin I
would say my home is now Germany-Berlin. Just that Im of Pakistani
descent somehow I cant say that Im a German and I also cant say Im
Pakistani. Im an in-between person.

The sense of familiarity with life in Germany also extended to those who
did not identify as German. In spite of this narrative about exclusion from
Germanness, K., for instance, saw his future in Germany and not in
Bosnia, articulating his sense of place in Germany through an analogy to
African-Americans:
I do have a relationship to this country. Its my home, I can definitely say.
Im from another country originally, but I am happy here. And I want to
spend the rest of my life here. So, its my state... I just dont feel connected
to the people. Maybe you can compare it to the usa. Because African-Americans dont feel connected to White Americans either.

Family Influences
Notably, several individuals (M., G., O.) also talked about the involvement of parents and families in their decisions about citizenship. One of
the arguments utilized by political parties in favor of dual citizenship in
the citizenship debates of the late 1990s was that forcing the second generation to choose one citizenship (presumably German) over another would

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Germanness or Rights?

lead to an emotional disconnection and distress with their parents.20 This

may be the case for the two ethnoculturally oriented respondents, but it is
notable that the third respondent, O., described how both of his parents
urged him to choose German citizenship, and that it was clear right
away that he should do so. The larger implication of such a response is
that families and parents have different expectations for their children
related to citizenship.

Conclusion: Multivocal Citizenship and Germanness

Though state-centered scholarship on citizenship has been used as a basis
for making claims about both the rights and the identity dimensions of citizenship, doing so has eliminated the perspective of citizenship from
below. Given the very small sample size considered here, broad conclusions about the second generations understandings and meanings of citizenship and Germanness are limited. The statements of these interviewees do
illustrate, however, that a wide variety of understandings of both citizenship
and Germanness exist among second generation young adults of immigrant
background. The meaning of citizenship among second generation young
adults included both rights-based and identitarian understandings. That
there is a diversity of understandings points out that citizenship and Germanness are not univocal even among a specific and small subset of individuals of the same generation, education, and urban residence/location.
Most second-generation individuals saw German citizenship in terms of
rights, specifically the right to travel. Four individuals viewed citizenship
in identitarian terms. Of these, two viewed their citizenship and national
belonging as synonymousthose who framed citizenship ethnoculturally
with each individual choosing to keep their non-German citizenship. Two
other individuals saw citizenship as a recognition and confirmation of
their national belonging; they believed that they would be viewed as
belonging to the nation based on their membership in the state.
Understandings of Germanness also varied among second generation
young adults. Interestingly, differences in understandings of citizenship (as
ethnocultural, civic cultural, and rights) did correlate with particular
understandings of, and self-identification as, German. For the ethnocultural group, there was no distinction between their sense of national
belonging and their citizenship. They also did not mention any distinction
or tension between their own sense of national belonging and how others
viewed them. They viewed being German as clearly distinct from being

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Daniel Williams

some other nationality, both culturally and in terms of citizenship. In contrast, those who saw citizenship as civic Germanness, each claimed a
cultural Germanness as well, while also viewing Germanness in hybrid or
situational terms. They articulated some tension between how they viewed
themselves and how they believed others viewed them. Finally, those who
viewed citizenship as rights predominantly viewed themselves as excluded
from Germanness.
Though some individuals identified as culturally Germanthrough
everyday life, language, and feeling at home in Germany, none identified as only German and nothing else. Those who did identify as German
qualified their identities, stating they were not real Germans. Germanness, then, appears to have multiple dimensionsone cultural and achievable, and another ethnoracial and ascribed. Without both, or perhaps only
the latter, it still appears to be difficult for the second generation to imagine a Germanness without descent.
Table 1: Interviewees
Interviewee

National
Origin

Citizenship

Gender

M.
G.
B.
S.
D.
F.
K.
O.
E.
N.

Italian
Turkish
Pakistani
Afghani
Turkish
Palestinian
Bosnian
Turkish
Turkish
Serbian

Italian
Turkish
German
German
German
German
Bosnian*
German
Turkish
Serbian

M
M
F
F
F
F
M
M
F
M

IdentityEthnic

IdentityCivic

Rights

x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x

* intends to naturalize

Finally, what remains ambiguous from these second generation individuals is the extent to which the meanings they give to citizenship and Germanness, respectively, are framed nationally, postnationally, or transnationally.
In regards to citizenship, few individuals preferred or chose their citizenship
through consideration of one nation-state. Arguably, only the two young
adults who viewed citizenship as civic Germanness did so. Those who
viewed citizenship as instrumental for rights referenced the experience of
crossing borders, and the limitations of holding a non-EU citizenship. Those
who chose non-German citizenships based on their national origin though
they lived in Germany clearly were making a transnational choice.

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Germanness or Rights?

The same variations can be seen when considering Germanness. On

the one hand, the ethnocultural, hybrid, and racialized senses of Germanness, seem to be framed in diverse ways. Those who described a racialized
exclusion from Germanness referenced experiences within Germany. This
was in stark contrast to the ethnocultural group, who made no mention of
experiences of exclusion, but showed their transnational orientations by
highlighting their commitments to or experiences in the countries they
identified with. Finally, those who identified in hybrid terms articulated
clearly transnational narratives of national belonging.
DANIEL WILLIAMS is Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of
Sociology and Anthropology at Carleton College. In addition to citizenship and immigration in contemporary Germany, he also does research
on and teaches in the areas of comparative ethnic studies, gender, religion,
and popular culture, in both Europe and the U.S.

Notes
1. See Rogers Brubaker, Citizenship and Nationhood in France and Germany (Cambridge,
1992); Yasemin Soysal, The Limits of Citizenship (Chicago, 1994).
2. Cynthia Miller-Idriss, Everyday Understandings of Citizenship in Germany, Citizenship Studies, 10 (2006): 542.
3. Christian Joppke, Transformation of Citizenship: Status, Rights, Identity, Citizenship
Studies, 11 (2007): 37-48.
4. Christian Joppke, Citizenship Between De- and Re-ethnicization, in Migration, Citizenship, Ethnos, eds., Y. Michal Bodemann and Gke Yurdakul (Houndmills, 2006), 63-91.
5. Brubaker (see note 1).
6. See Claudia Diehl and Michael Blohm, Rights or Identity? Naturalization Processes
among Labor Migrants in Germany, International Migration Review, 37 (2003): 133162.
7. Tomas Hammar, Democracy and the Nation-State: Aliens, Citizens and Denizens in a World of
International Migration (Aldershot, 1990); Soysal (see note 1)
8. Soysal (see note 1), 2.
9. David Jacobson, Rights Across Borders: Immigration and the Decline of Citizenship (Baltimore, 1997), 9.
10. Hammar (see note 7), 13.
11. Simon Green, Between Ideology and Pragmatism: The Politics of Dual Nationality in
Germany, International Migration Review 39 (2005): 921-952.
12. See Steven Vertovec, Conceiving and Researching Transnationalism, Ethnic and Racial
Studies, 22 (1999): 447-462; Stephen Castles and Mark J. Miller, The Migratory Process
and the Formation of Ethnic Minorities, in The Age of Migration: International Population
Movements in the Modern World, Stephen Castles and Mark J. Miller (New York, 2009),
19-47.

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Daniel Williams
13.

Simon Green, Beyond Ethnoculturalism: German Citizenship in the New Millennium, German Politics 9 (2000): 105-124.
14. Brubaker (see note 1), 178.
15. Notation for Interviewees: (National Origin/Citizenship).
16. Peter Kivisto and Thomas Faist, Beyond a Border (Thousand Oaks, 2010), 245.
17. See Green (see note 11).
18. See Stephen Cornell and Douglas Hartmann, Ethnicity and Race: Making Identities in a
Changing World, 2nd ed. (Thousand Oaks, 2007), on the ascribed/asserted distinction.
19. Katherine Ewing, Stolen Honor: Stigmatizing Muslim Men in Berlin, (Palo Alto, 2008), 5.
20. Green (see note 13).

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