Two discourses of citizenship in Germany. The difference between public debate and administrative practice

Abstract

The recent policy changes concerning immigration and citizenship in Germany are interpreted as outcomes of the conflicting interaction between public deliberations and administrative practices. While these changes were viewed by both the public and the state as responses to an emerging crisis of the stability of German nationhood, the public and the state placed the problems of migration and citizenship in a different context. The public debated these issues in the context of moral obligations resulting from a xenophobic past; the administrative system treated them in the context of the constitutional imperative to further the social integration of the residents of Germany. Further conflicts over these issues seem likely in Germany which has yet to adjust to a situation of continuous future immigration. This will put pressure on the public and the state to find new solutions to the problem of membership in the nation‐state.