Part I. Introduction and Context
“Most fundamentally, nationalism changed in status from an anti-government opposition
force to a propaganda tool wielded by governments to justify hegemonism; also, national
thought was infected by the discourse of biological determination, race, the spectre of
‘decadence’ and degeneration, and the new cult of the authoritarian leader.”297
Different commentators demonstrate that nationalism in this sense, and when applied to
the nation-state, contributes to making distinctions between different groups and defining
citizenship, which could eventually result in exclusion and might be a possible precursor
to the emergence of statelessness on a large scale. Rogers Brubaker demonstrates that
defining citizenship – citizenship law – is influenced by nationalism using the examples
of the France and Germany: France’s “state-centred, assimilationist understanding of
nationhood” corresponds with “an expansive definition of citizenship”, whereas Germany’s
“ethnocultural, differentialist understanding of nationhood” is articulated by “a definition
of citizenship that is remarkably open to ethnic German immigrants from Eastern Europe
and the Soviet Union, but remarkably closed to non-German immigrants”.298 Making
distinctions, for instance between those of a certain ethnicity and those who are not,
was easily justified in national thought. Furthermore, ethnic homogeneity became an
aspiration of any strong and capable state after 1870: ethnicity and descent are now used
as criteria for determining the nation. This form of ethnic nationalism, which included
hierarchical distinctions being drawn between nationals and minorities, and could lead
to exclusion of foreigners, led – amongst others – to a different attitude towards crossborder cooperation.299 As a corollary, the attitudes towards freedom of movement changed
too. States wanted to be able to distinguish between citizens and non-citizens more
and more and no longer accepted everyone within their borders. The only manageable
way to accomplish this would be to require documentation from individuals.300 This
bureaucratization of distinction was further stimulated by the advance of the processes
of democratization through the extension of suffrage that was mentioned, which led to a
closer connection between citizens and states. This, in turn, resulted in
“an intensified preoccupation with determining who is ‘in’ and who is ‘out’ when it came to
enjoying the benefits – both political and economic – of membership in those states. This
is one of the ways that democratization promoted bureaucratization, a dynamic that Weber
noted long ago. In the process, passports became essential to the bureaucratic administration
of modern mass migration, just as identity cards have become something like the ‘currency’
of domestic administration, marking out eligibles from ineligibles in the areas of voting,
social services, and much more besides.”301
297
298
299
300
301
58
Joep Leerssen, National Thought in Europe. A Cultural History (Amsterdam University Press 2006)
215–216.
Rogers Brubaker, Citizenship and Nationhood in France and Germany (Harvard University Press
1992) 2.
Marie-Janine Calic, Südosteuropa. Weltgeschichte einer Region (CH Beck 2016) 366.
John Torpey, The Invention of the Passport. Surveillance, Citizenship and the State (Cambridge
University Press 2000) 93.
Ibid, 121.
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