this is what makes the SDMB so great - a dedication to knowledge and understanding, a sense of decency and respect among members, a place where the silly can share space with the truly significant, an opportunity to be part of a community of folks who are committed to the same lofty ideals, and lots more. I think that at times, this website is among the very very best.
I was under the impression that Germany still has some kind of race requirement for nationality. All those Turks who live there are classed as “guest workers” and they cannot ever gain German nationality because they don’t have the correct racial background.
Can anyone confirm/debunk this?
It was called ‘the bloodline law’ and it was repealed in 2001. Nationality is now available for long-term residents. It is however still quite grueling to go through the naturalization process.
Sparc
Thanks for confirming the existence of that, sparc. I knew I didn’t just dream it.
Hang on I read the question regarding naturalization wrong, and I made a mistake.
a) It was 2000- mea culpa
b) It has always been possible to become a German citizen as long as you were born on German soil or had one German parent, or had ‘lost’ your original citizenship, due to for instance fleeing an oppressive regime. In the case of being born on German soil it was hellishly complicated if both your parents were foreign.
The major change as of 2000 is that you can have double citizenship and you do not have to be born on German soil or by German parents. If you are born in Germany it is now easier to gain citizenship, even if your parents remain foreign. The latter reform is what repeals the ’bloodline law’ since it effectively takes away the last remnant of the requirement to have parents of German origin.
Sorry about the initially somewhat skewed answer.
Sparc
e.g. David Hasselhoff’s Greatest Hits, etc.
Of course that would be the New, New, New German school of music.