"Reconsidering Citizenship and Nationhood in France and Germany: The Integration of the 21st-century Gastarbeiter"

Blau, Jessamyn (2006) "Reconsidering Citizenship and Nationhood in France and Germany: The Integration of the 21st-century Gastarbeiter". In University of Pittsburgh, European Union Center of Excellence > 2006 (1st) Graduate Student Conference on the European Union, pages 18, Pittsburgh, PA.

Abstract

In the generous welfare states of Europe, one of the most obvious benefits of citizenship is participation in national health insurance plans. With academics and politicians discussing the possibility of a “European welfare state,” it has become crucial to examine the types of definitions the Union might use to create this supranational institution. Rogers Brubaker has opposed the French and German conceptions of citizenship, with German citizenship being transmitted almost exclusively by blood relation (jus sanguinis) and French citizenship being extended to those having proven residence in France (jus solis). Although the immigration reforms of 2003 have permitted second-generation Turkish immigrants in Germany to more easily achieve citizenship status, it remains that many German Turks are excluded from many of the benefits of citizenship. By contrast, France strives to remain the model of jus solis par excellence. Recently, these two countries have progressively begun to extend welfare state benefits to immigrants; movements on behalf of this type of measure have increased in prominence in France since the riots of 2005. This paper develops a mechanism to explain how national models of citizenship have recently granted or limited access to the welfare state; and, conversely, how access to the welfare state can serve to define the citizen. Using the data of the major public opinion surveys and interviews with immigrant communities as well as French and German nationals, it will attempt to construct a model of the public conception of citizenship as based on access to the welfare state. Most importantly, however, the results of these findings will be used to comment on the possibilities for the use of the welfare state as a tool of integration, both nationally and at the EU level.