The difference between French and German definitions of citizenship is instructive-and, for immigrants from North Africa, Turkey, and Eastern Europe, decisive. Brubaker shows how this difference-between the territorial basis of the French citizenry and German emphasis on blood descent-was shaped by sharply differing understandings of nationhood.
The difference between French and German definitions of citizenship is instructive--and, for millions of immigrants from North Africa, Turkey, and Eastern Europe, decisive. Rogers Brubaker shows how this difference--between the territorial basis of the French citizenry and the German emphasis on blood descent--was shaped and sustained by sharply differing understandings of nationhood, rooted in distinctive French and German paths to nation-statehood.