92 J. Panagiotidis one may indeed wonder about the benefits of such a status ‘above’ or perhaps ‘beyond’ the nation if the parents cannot enjoy similar rights. Tainted by history? As to the argument of ius sanguinis being historically tainted, Dumbrava first of all needs to be commended for recognising that ‘ius sanguinis citizenship is not conceptually “ethnic”’. Nevertheless, he argues that ‘there are a number of ways in which the application of the ius sanguinis principle has been used in order to promote ethno-nationalist conceptions of membership’. These include 1) the maintaining of emigrant citizenship beyond the first generation of emigrants; 2) the use of ‘the principle of descent in order to confirm or restore citizenship to certain categories of people whom [states] consider to be linked with through ethnocultural ties’; and 3) the exclusion of immigrant children from citizenship by an exclusive use of ius sanguinis with no ius soli elements. Regarding the third point, I fully agree with Bauböck that it can be remedied quite easily by combining these two principles of citizenship allocation and simultaneously allow for residence-based naturalisation. The first issue is similarly unproblematic: extra-territorial transmission can simply be interrupted at a certain generational stopping point, much like the rule Germany introduced in section 4, paragraph 4 of its reformed 1999 citizenship law regarding the non-acquisition of German citizenship by the offspring of German citizens who themselves were born abroad after 31 December 1999.2 There is no rule that says that the transmission of citizenship to descendants has to be possible ad infinitum. Not all types of ‘descent’ are the same I would like to discuss the second point in more detail, which touches upon the topics of preferential membership policies and co-ethnic citizenship and migration.3 Here we are dealing with a terminological confusion quite typical for much of the literature in this field. The ‘ethnic descent’ that Dumbrava 2 3 Joppke, C. (2003), ‘Citizenship Between De- and Re-Ethnicization’, Russell Sage Foundation Working Paper No. 204, 12–13. The full text of the law can be found at: http://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/rustag/BJNR005830913.html Dumbrava, C. (2014), Nationality, Citizenship and Ethno-National Belonging: Preferential Membership Policies in Europe. Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan; Panagiotidis, J. (2012), Laws of Return? Co-Ethnic Immigration to West Germany and Israel (1948–1992). PhD Diss., European University Institute.