Citizenship and Identity

4.4. Identity and Citizenship among Second Generation South Asians with one South Asian Parents

Almost a third of the sample had one German and one South Asian parent. In most cases the fathers were the migrants either from South Asia or East Africa, who had come to Europe (not necessarily Germany, some met their German wives in England) in the 50s and 60s. In the cases where the mother was from India, the migration histories were quite diverse, one came as a nurse, another as a student, a third had met her husband in India. These differences in the parentage do, however, not seem to have much affect on the children's identity formation as one cannot find significant differences linked to these. It does not seem to have a major impact whether the mother or the father was of South Asian origin, although the presumption that mothers have more influence on their children's identity formation seems in general plausible.

Only one of the respondents still had Indian citizenship. He had been born before 1975 in Germany and his parents seem not to have bothered to get the German passport for him when this was possible, although they remained all his life in that country. In the interview he emphasised that he was Indian and that one should never change the citizenship one is born with. He had also no interest in dual nationality. The Indian citizenship, thus, seemed to have had a major impact on his self-definition.

For all the others who had been born before the change of law in 1975 of a South Asian father and had thus not acquired their mother's citizenship by birth, the parents (in particular the mothers) had immediately seized the opportunity of obtaining German citizenship when this was possible also for them. Knowledge about this act differed much among the respondents. One pair of siblings did not know that they had to be naturalised at the ages of 6 and 9 years, they believed that they were born with dual citizenship. Two others were very much aware of the fact, that almost, had not the law been changed and their parents acted on it, they had grown up with the status of foreigner and that things would have been very different then. Of all these bi-national respondents only one defined herself just as German, all the others qualified this somewhat with more or less reference to South Asia. The one who declared herself as German mentioned also that her parents had always told her that she was not less than others, that in fact she was more, that she was double. This positive definition by her parents might have made her more self-confident in claiming her Germanness than others, where in some cases bi-culturality was associated by the parents with potential problems. In any case it has to be emphasised that for most respondents their self-definitions were not stable in time. In the course of their life they had phases of being more or less close to either part of their identities. The majority of the respondents would welcome dual nationality as it alone would represent their identity, but only one made actually efforts to obtain it. Another had also made some efforts, but as he said purely for practical reasons, not because he felt the Indian citizenship would reflect his identity. Some others did not see any benefit of dual nationality, as they knew who they were without an official confirmation and one respondent was happy to be rid of her Pakistani citizenship as that had been always equated by her mother with danger.

Among those who were born as Germans almost half defined themselves as such, the others were not willing to do so either because they did not see themselves as such or because they argued that the normal Germans would never accept them as such. Even though many thus considered themselves German, all but two would have welcomed dual nationality as this could represent their identity. Of the two who were for theoretical reasons against the introduction of dual nationality, because they believed that one can be loyal only to one country, one would nonetheless have liked to claim dual nationality for himself. The German citizenship meant to some of the group a symbol of identity and belonging, to others it was a functional concept, providing them with a privileged and secure position.

Some of the sample were born not with a South Asian but rather with a form of British citizenship because their fathers were either from East Africa or were naturalised in Britain. All had very little emotional link to England or East Africa and only a limited feeling of belonging to India. One of them would have liked to have the Indian citizenship in order to have an own link to the country of origin rather than to need to define this via his father. Basically all considered themselves primarily German, but all with qualifications. One said that given the strong mixture of cultural influences his father had experienced, he did not want to define himself at all ethnically. He also had a well-developed interest in political matters and for that reason was happy to have the dual citizenship (British-German) as this could prove a point to the German public.

The responses of two brothers who had grown up in England, one with German, the other with British citizenship, showed that in their case the passports had some influence on their self-definition, although they both emphasised the irrelevance of 'that bit of paper'. In fact their friends hardly seemed to distinguish between them on the basis of their citizenship, accordingly the external definition in the immediate environment was not particularly shaped by the passport. Most important for themselves was in any case that they were of mixed parentage and had grown up in a third country.

Finally, an interview with a respondent of mixed parentage where neither parent was from Germany showed that decisive in her identity formation was the fact of being different from the Germans and the dominant influence of her South Asian mother. She consequently defined herself primarily as Pakistani, secondly as German and only thirdly as linked to the country of her father's origin.

Interestingly the attitudes of the bi-national respondents did not differ drastically from those with two South Asian parents. Only a few who were born with German citizenship evaded grappling with the bi-culturality of their roots. Most avoided a clear self-definition with the wish for dual nationality acting as symbol for this. Although all the respondents were rather light in their skin colour, most experienced external categorisation as other and thus felt different. Furthermore, most, with some interesting exceptions, had a rather functional interpretation of their German citizenship.

Content

Chapter 1 is the introduction.
Chapter 2 develops the British context, briefly describing the post-war migration history of South Asians to the Isles, the British citizenship law (as well as in a brief excursion the Indian rules) and then analysing the relevant literature on second generation South Asians in Britain.
Chapter 3 sets the scene for Germany, providing also a brief post-war migration history of South Asians, an overview of the citizenship law and rules on naturalisation, a description of the legal impact of being a foreigner in Germany and finally a brief look into the general literature on second generation migrants in Germany.
Chapter 4 is dedicated to the detailed analysis of second generation South Asians in Germany. It bases on the extensive fieldwork conducted in the preparation of this dissertation. After describing how the material was acquired through interviews, the material will be presented and analysed by distinguishing in a first step between second generation members with two and those with only one South Asian parent. In a second step the general features discovered by the fieldwork will be discussed.
Chapter 5 establishes the general conclusions to the topic by comparing the British and German situations. The discussion will centre on the interaction of external and internal definition in the formation of identity and belonging, and the role citizenship plays in this. Furthermore, it will be analysed how a foreign citizenship influences the relationship of second generation South Asians towards the state in which they live. From this questions for future research will develop.