The Better German Asylum and the Construction of German National Political Identity, 1949-1993

Date of Award

2010

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Humanities

First Advisor

Cuomo, Glenn

Keywords

Germany, Basic Law, Immigration, Refugee, European Union

Area of Concentration

Political Science

Abstract

The 1949 German Basic Law represented a conscious repudiation of the ideologies of the Nazi regime in its commitment to fundamental civil rights and democratic principles. Article 16(II)(2) of the constitution guaranteed politically persecuted individuals, irrespective of race or nationality, asylum in the Federal Republic of Germany. The asylum provision was decidedly more generous than contemporary international law and made Germany one of the few nations with a constitutional right to asylum. However, substantial political and economic pressures in the early 1990s, engendered by German reunification and steady international economic decline, created an inhospitable atmosphere for the rising number of asylum seekers applying to Germany. In 1993, Germany amended its asylum provision to restrict entry. This thesis examines both the 1949 and 1993 asylum debates, focusing on how political leaders constructed membership claims advocating for the restriction or expansion of asylum based on particular narratives of German �peoplehood.� These membership narratives reveal two dominant tensions. First, Germany has struggled to define itself as a �civic� or �ethnic� nation. Despite explicit commitments to civicpolitical ideals in the Basic Law, Germany retained a citizenship law based on blood descent and ethnocultural notions of national membership emerged in the 1990s to influence national asylum policy. Second, a profound disagreement exists between Germany�s liberal and democratic commitments to asylum. Universal, humanist arguments to protect an unconditional right to asylum for foreigners appear in both 1949 and 1993. However, in 1949, there was disagreement over whether asylum seekers must demonstrate a commitment to democracy, and in 1993, the amendment was advocated as serving the interests of German citizens.

Rights

This bibliographic record is available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication. The New College of Florida, as creator of this bibliographic record, has waived all rights to it worldwide under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights, to the extent allowed by law.

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