| Deutsche Leitkultur and American Dream: Integration and Citizenship | | Projekt - Fak. 1 - Institut für Humanwissenschaften - Soziologie |  | | Status: | abgeschlossen | | | Kurzinhalt: | Questions of diversity and identity have become prime topics of political contention and social concern over the last decade. This is particularly true for a country like Germany, which has still difficulties in assuming its status of county of immigration. A simple look at the numbers would reveal that Germany is not so much a country of immigration as a country of immigrants. While net immigration is low, around 15 per cent of its population has a migration background. Consequently, issues of social integration are at least as important as immigrant admission into the country. Yet, the question of what “integration” means in the context of Germany is still unresolved, and the polemics created from time to time have created more confusion than clarification.
It has been traditionally accepted that the key ingredient of immigrants’ integration into Germany was the acquisition of German nationality. The German approach to citizenship originates from the traditional nation-state idea of homogeneity regarding ethnicity, citizenship, culture, and community. However, this “homogenous model of belonging and citizenship” is now questioned by the fact that many immigrants have not been integrated as expected into the dominant culture.
A comparative analysis of other countries might shed light into this complex issue, and explore possible alternatives and/or modifications to the German citizenship and integration model. The case of the United States might offer a valuable lesson to understand this fundamental issue for contemporary German society. Building on previous research on transatlantic differences and similarities, this study group analyzes questions of citizenship, defined as sense of “belonging” and “being accepted,” in the US and Germany, and how the U.S. idiosyncrasies, such as the “American dream” and the cultural practice of hyphenation could inform the German immigration experience.
Our research intends to overcome the divide between European and North American approaches to social integration. Instead of putting Germany and the United States in distinct and opposing regime categories, as it so frequently done in the comparative literature on immigrant’s integration, we compare micro processes of integration while analyzing transatlantic differences in national identification and prejudice. This will include an evaluation of existing literature, a secondary analysis of cross-national surveys, a document analysis, and in-depth, semi-structured individual interviews.
[kürzen] | | | Projektdauer: | 01.07.2011 bis 31.07.2013 | | | Projektbeteiligte: |
Prof. Dr. Immerfall, Stefan (Leitung) [Profil]
Prof. Dr. Stefan Immerfall (University of Education at Schwaebisch Gmuend, Germany, and Prof. Antonio Menéndez-Alarcón, Ph.D., Butler University, Indianapolis, USA, and Prof. Dr. Hermann Kurthen, Grand Valley State University, Grand Rapids, USA.
| | | | In Zusammenarbeit mit: | Gefördert von Stiftung Deutsch-Amerikanische Wissenschaftsbeziehungen (SDAW/Foundation German-American Academic Relations | | | | | Verweis auf Webseiten: | | | | Angehängte Dateien: | | |
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