Migrants' rights and immigrant integration in German political party discourse

Abstract: "Meanwhile, immigrant integration is one of the top themes of the political and public discourse in Germany. The article explores – based on a content and argumentation analysis of policy documents and parliamentary debates – the political party conceptions of immigrant integration and asks for changing criteria of inclusion and exclusion and the redrawing of discursive as well as legal boundaries between citizens and non-citizens in Germany. By first applying Seyla Benhabib’s "paradox of democratic legitimacy" as a category of analysis and comparison of two parliamentary debates (concerning the 1990 Foreigner Law and the 2004 Immigration Law), it turns out that the formal "legitimacy quality" of arguments, in terms of justifying immigration and integration policies as balancing the interests of the national state with legitimate claims of immigrants, has decreased since Germany’s self-recognition as an immigration country. Second, by exploring how the term integration is defined

Object Details

• Location: Deutsche Nationalbibliothek Frankfurt am Main
• Extent: Online-Ressource, 31 S.
• Language: Englisch
• Notes: Veröffentlichungsversion

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: COMCAD Working Papers ; Bd. 90

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Politik

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (where): Bielefeld
• (when): 2010
• Creator: Gerdes, Jürgen
• Contributor: Universität Bielefeld, Fak. für Soziologie, Centre on Migration, Citizenship and Development (COMCAD)

Further information

• URN: urn:nbn:de:0168-ssoar-413763
• Rights: Open Access unbekannt; Open Access; Der Zugriff auf das Objekt ist unbeschränkt möglich.
• Last update: 25.03.2025, 1:54 PM CET