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Who are Germany's immigrants? This would appear to be a simple question. But there is no simple answer, since the main criterion used by the German administration and reflected in the available statistical information is citizenship, not place of birth. This has to do with the fact that Germany has not viewed itself as an immigration country. Both the political and administrative apparatuses in Germany use the criterion of nationality as a point of orientation. This same criterion of citizenship is used in official statistics. The National Statistical Yearbook and similar state publications provide information about the German and foreign populations in Germany according to age, sex, marital status, birth rate, and so on. But no information can be found about place or country of birth for either Germans or non-Germans. Using nationality as a central defining criterion increases the tendency to see non-Germans regardless of their place of birth as the "true immi-grants," whereas ethnic Germans from Central and Eastern Europe (Aussiedler) are not readily identified as such. Another reason for this is that most Germans view themselves as members of an ethnic nation defined by descent, rather than as members of a republican nation state.

DOI: 10.1057/9780230608825_2

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