Dual Citizenship: A European Norm? 1

Abstract

Since the mid-1970s, when it became clear that some three million of the eleven million foreigners recruited to work in Germany from 1955 to 1973 would not be returning home as expected, German democracy has faced a difficult problem. What would (and should) be the political status of long-term alien residents living in a democratic society that did not consider itself an immigration land? Although it was evident to some that a major consequence of postwar guestworker policy was the creation of a difficult-to-resolve political question, the contention seemed arguable in the mid-1970s. It no longer is so today. The convening of this conference on dual nationality offered incontrovertible evidence of the long-term significance of the political dilemma to German democracy posed by guestworker recruitment.