‘What about it is unclear? I mean I was born here:’ Ungeklärte Staatsangehörigkeit and the (re-)production of de facto statelessness in Germany
Year: 2022
Type: article
Abstract: This paper examines the administrative category ‘ungeklärte Staatsangehörigkeit’ (‘unclear nationality’) and its implications for citizenship rights in Germany. An unclear nationality represents a de facto statelessness but does not concede the rights established for de jure stateless people. It impedes naturalization in Germany and complicates access to a travel document and settlement permit. The paper analyses the (re-)production of unclear nationality and traces its effects on the life of a woman born in Germany with an unclear nationality since birth. Her experiences disclose the difficulty of navigating the German bureaucratic system and its discretionary power. Her experiences also reveal how a state of limbo is perpetuated over generations, confining individuals in a territory whose bureaucratic apparatus views them as foreign. Unclear nationality thus functions as a technology of exclusion: by placing the person in a yet-to-be determined nationality, it interpellates them not as subjects of rights but objects of clarification.
Source: Citizenship Studies
Author: Margarida Farinha
Institution: University of Amsterdam
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W4288042026