Being German and Jewish in Kazakhstan and Germany

Abstract

How can close to 200,000 people, in this instance categorical Jews from the former Soviet Union, be allowed to move to Germany, receive generous state benefits from a state that hopes they will settle permanently and yet not be considered immigrants, but instead find themselves labeled “contingent, quota refugees,” a category generally reserved for those fleeing war-torn regions? By the same token, how can categorical “Germans,” numbering 1.5 million, from the same territory of the former Soviet Union as the Russian Jews, albeit categorical Germans who for the most part speak no German and only some of whom can trace descent from eighteenth-century settlers in Russia, be allowed to enter Germany, also not as immigrants, but instead as Aussiedler (“resettlers”), and be able to instantly to claim all rights as citizens? By contrast, consider the 2.5 million Turks in Germany, part of a community that began to arrive more than 40 years ago as “guest workers”: only since January 2000 have Turkish children born to long-term residents in Germany been permitted to assume German citizenship, thanks to a legislative landmark, giving them a path out of decades of chronic disenfranchisement and marginalization. But this is permitted only if they meet a set of sometimes impossible criteria, including the renunciation of claims to Turkish nationality upon reaching their majority.KeywordsJewish CommunityJewish LifeGuest WorkerGerman CitizenshipJewish ImmigrantThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.