Germany at the Crossroads: National Identity and the Challenges of Immigration

Abstract

In both the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, German history was characterized by shifting political borders and territorial expansions and contractions. These changes correlate with extreme phases in the definition of nationhood: very broad, inclusive ones and very narrow, exclusive ones. Current problems with immigration and nationhood date back to the origins of the nation-building. They reflect unresolved contradictions between exclusive ideas of the nation-state and inclusive ideas of republican and universal principles of individual human and civil rights; between rigidly interpreted citizenship regulations and a liberal asylum law; and between the official notion of national homogeneity and increasing diversity created by immigration and refugee movements. The unforeseen consequences of unification, particularly increased immigration, have exacerbated existing tensions between exclusive and inclusive notions of nationhood. German democracy and political culture is challenged to readjust and redefine national interests and identity in the 1990s. In this process Germany must adapt to its status as an immigration society and the unavoidable consequences of increasing ethnocultural diversity.