Reinventing the Nation: Germany’s Post-Unification Drive Towards Becoming a ‘Country of Immigration’

Abstract

Germany’s leading role in responding to the current refugee crisis in Europe reflects a development of its approach towards migration and cultural diversity that would have been difficult to imagine 27 years ago. German unification was a decisive trigger for changing the country’s sense of nationhood and the popular narrative of what constitutes modes of legitimate belonging and inclusion. The hypothesis of this article is that over the two and a half decades Germany has shifted the coding of its national identity from an ethno-cultural framing to one that is primarily based on civic political principles. A comparison between framing strategies of the political elite in two periods (1990–95 and 2010–15) serves as an empirical indicator for the scope and nature of this transformation. The article identifies four factors to explain what has instigated this change and what is driving the long-term socio-political transformation of German society as a result of growing migration and cultural diversity: (a) the demographic change and transformation of civil society through migration; (b) the growing relevance of European communal belonging; (c) the dynamic of competitive party politics; and (d) the significance of the subnational level in addressing migration and diversity matters.