The construction of an assimilationist discourse and political hegemony: transition from a monoethnic to an antiethnic regime in Germany, 1982–2000

Abstract

Monoethnic Regime Entrenched: Conservative-Liberal Coalition, 1982–1998

The ascent to power of the Christian Democratic Union/Christian Social Union-Free Democratic Party (CDU/CSU-FDP) coalition government of Helmut Kohl spelled the end of any illusions about a progressive reform of the citizenship law or naturalization procedures (Table 15). Upon assuming the chancellor position, Kohl announced that cutting the number of “foreigners” by half would be one of the three major goals of his administration. Along with unemployment, the “problem of foreigners” was declared as the most important domestic political issue. Here one observes again the crucial role that words play in reinforcing ethnicity regimes, which has other examples in the case of Germany, the Soviet Union, Russian Federation, and Turkey. By using the word foreigner (Ausländer), as was customary in German politics in referring to that segment of the resident population without German citizenship, Kohl could propose a policy that would otherwise send shockwaves across Europe and the Atlantic if he had used the words ethnic minorities or even simply minorities. “Cutting down the population of ethnic minorities by half” is not a government program that any major political party in Germany, except for marginal extreme right-wing parties, could easily endorse.