The Political Shift of the CDU in Citizenship and Immigration Policy from Reunification to the Implementation of an Immigration law in 2005 Open Access

Rhoads, William (2013)

Permanent URL: https://etd.library.emory.edu/concern/etds/zs25x905b?locale=en
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Abstract

The Christian Democratic Union is one of the largest and most influential Volkspartei (national people's party, or catch-all party) in Germany. Despite being a center-right party, the CDU has a broad constituency; thus, in order to be the representative of the German people as a whole and to be their voice, the CDU must be in touch with political discourses and opinions at the center of German society. Despite Germany's long history of migration and immigration, as late as 1998, the CDU was claiming that Germany was "not a country of immigration." However, following the legislation of Citizenship Law in 1999 and the implementation of Germany's first ever Immigration law in 2005, the CDU underwent political shift that acknowledged Germany's need for immigration. What were these issues that drove the CDU to make this policy change? Was this shift a genuine response to changing demographics and the need for immigrant labor, or was it a way to bolster its image to voters? This study explores the political, economic, and social factors from German Reunification in 1990 to the promulgation of the Immigration Law in 2005 in order to evaluate how the party has reacted to these pressures in respect to its shift on immigration naturalization policy.

Table of Contents

Introduction.....................................................................................................................1

Chapter I: Reunification, Migration, and National Identity......................................................8

Chapter II: The CDU and the 1999 Citizenship Law...............................................................22

Chapter III: The Beginnings of a Policy Shift? The CDU and the 2005 Immigration Law.............36

Conclusion......................................................................................................................57

Bibliography....................................................................................................................61

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