Germany: The Nationality debate
01 January 1991
Germany: The Nationality debate
artdoc June=1993
The Green Party and the East German Bundnis 90 have started a
national petition calling for nationality to be based on jus soli
rather than jus sanguines as is presently the case. Whoever is
born in Germany should have the right to citizenship, although
dual nationality is an option.
In order to show the absurdity of the present system, the
Volkskrant (10.2.93) cites the case of a Czech art director of
a German newspaper who had lived in Germany for twelve years and
had published in the German language several books about German
history. When she reported to the German Immigration Service in
1990, she was asked to do a spelling test and to write or recite
the third verse of the German national anthem. Other questions
asked included `who takes over from the chancellor during his
holiday', as well as questions about voting, taxes and the
federal structure of the Republic.
The Christian Democrats are vehemently opposed to the national
petition. And, according to the Volkskrant 'Conservative
spokespersons are already using exactly the same arguments as
those of their colleagues in 1913 when a law which is still in
force was adopted: `a German is someone descended from other
Germans; Germany belongs to the Germans; the "Deutschtum" is
threatened' (Volkskrant 10.2.93)
Enforced repatriation of guestworkers planned
On 26 June, all regional ministers of the interior will come
together to discuss a new bill to regulate the rights of an
estimated 15,000 former GDR-contract workers to stay in Germany.
The proposals would mean that all people who came to Germany in
1989 or later, all people who already applied for political
asylum and were refused, and finally all people who can't prove
that they have permanent jobs and proper housing would be
deported.
The Students Union at the Free University in Berlin has put out
a statement highlighting the situation of guestworkers from
Angola, Mozambique and Vietnam, most of whom, under the new
proposals to be discussed, will be deported. The students say
that the number of guestworkers, some of whom have lived in the
country for ten years, is small and that `they have been exposed
to very hard and dangerous working conditions, therefore they
will not find in their country of origin the medical care they
need in the future. They were the one's that endured serious
harmful working conditions, that the former GDR government didn't
want their citizens to face'.
The students are calling for organisations across Europe to
initiate a letter writing campaign to the German government in
support of the threatened workers (letter from Freie Universitat,
Berlin, 30.3.93, Die Tageszeitung [TAZ] 5.4.93, 8.4.93).
Roma protest at Neuengamme
Police used force in an attempt to break up a demonstration
organised by the Roma National Congress at the former nazi
concentration camp Neuengamme close to Hamburg. According to a
press release issued by the Congress `more than a 1000 police
officers took part in the operation, during which ten Roma were
wounded, one of them severely.'
180 Roma, whose demonstration coincided with the 53rd
anniversary of the first nazi deportations of Roma from Germany
to Poland, are now occupying the site of the former concentration
camp. The Congress have written to the Ministry of Interior,
Rudolf Seiters, demanding that Germany recognise the Roma as an
ethnic and cultural minority and to sign resolution 62 of the
United Nations Convention on Human Rights entitled `Protection
of Roma' which was adopted in May 1992 and signed by all European
governments except Germany. The Congress is also protesting at
the deportation agreement signed between Romania and Germany and
the treatment of Roma refugees from the former Yugoslavia.
Following incidents at Neuengamme, 50 Roma occupied the site of
the former concentration camp, Dachau, near Munich. The president
of t