"Rossianin"

[Serguei Glebov]

Generalizations are not useful anyway. In Germany a German born child of a
Turkish immigrant CANNOT become German citizen even today, so it IS the
practice right now. Or is Germany not a Western country? As far as France is
concerned, of course, there are many French citizens of foreign descent, but
language plays an important role in defining one's Frenchness, which is
already not a civic component.

SG

> >It is hardly a sign of "westernization" since definition of citizenship
by
> > "blood" or ethnicity is absolutely not exclusively "eastern" invention.
>
> But not a western practice for quite some time. Anyone born in a given
> Western country can become its citizen unless the parents choose
otherwise.
>
> > Such
> > definition of citizenship is still the law of the Bundesrepublik. Does
> > "German" refer to ethnic Germans or all citizens of the Bundesrepublik?
>
> Germans have a hard time dealing with race or what they perceive as
> outsiders (remember the incident of 60 years ago?). There are Black
> Germans, born and raised in Germany, and most Germans upon meeting one
> usually ask in a friendly way, "So when are you going home?" Germany
> despite having so many immigrants doesn't let them assimilate properly,
> excludes them. Many Black Germans emigrated to the US, as so many other
> ethnic subgroups, always telling the stories of how they felt excluded.
>
> Some Italians also had a hard time accepting a Black Miss Italy, but she
> was Italian all right, no one argued about that.
>
> France, in addition to the mainland, has its oversees departments
> (Martinique etc.). Its inhabitants are French citizens but not ethnically
> French, in a traditional sense of the word.
>
> In Russia, the citizenship is also not quite blood or ethnicity based.
Just
> look at the plight of (ethnic Russian) refugees from former central Asian
> Soviet republics. Russian media reports that they cannot get citizenship
> rights, propiska etc. and even children spend years without attending
> school in a new place (while living in some shack and acquiring a TB).
>
> _____________
> Alina Israeli
> LFS, American University
> 4400 Mass. Ave. NW
> Washington, DC 20016
>
> phone:  (202) 885-2387
> fax:    (202) 885-1076
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------
>  Use your web browser to search the archives, control your subscription
>   options, and more.  Visit and bookmark the SEELANGS Web Interface at:
>                   http://home.attbi.com/~lists/seelangs/
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------
>

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Use your web browser to search the archives, control your subscription
  options, and more.  Visit and bookmark the SEELANGS Web Interface at:
                  http://home.attbi.com/~lists/seelangs/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------