Challenging Ethnic Citizenship: German and Israeli Perspectives on Citizenship
Book by Daniel Levy, State University of New York, Stony Brook and Yfaat Weiss, Haifa University
Reviewed by David Abraham, University of Miami School of Law
Fall 2004

David Abraham of University of Miami School of Law reviews Challenging Ethnic Citizenship: German and Israeli Perspectives on Citizenship by Daniel Levy and Yfaat Weiss. Daniel Levy and Yfaat Weiss show tht in contrast to most other countries, both Germany and Israel have descent-based concepts of nationhood and have granted members of their nation (ethnic Germans and Jews) who wish to immigrate automatic access to their respective citizenship privileges. Therefore these two countries lend themselves well to comparative analysis of the integration process of immigrant groups, who are formally part of the collective “self” but increasingly transformed into “others.” The book examines the integration of these ‘privileged’ immigrants in relation to the experiences of other minority groups (e.g. labor migrants, Palestinians). Levy and Weiss offer rich empirical and theoretical material involving historical developments, demographic changes, sociological problems, anthropological insights, and political implications. Focusing on the three dimensions of citizenship: sovereignty and control, the allocation of social and political rights, and questions of national self-understanding, the essays bring to light the elements that are distinctive for either society but also point to similarities that owe as much to nation-specific characteristics as to evolving patterns of global migration.
Read the book review at https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1747-7379.2004.tb00235.xb.