‘[You are German] when you no longer stick out’: The meaning of being German from the perspective of Germans with and without a migrant background

While several quantitative studies have examined civic and ethno-cultural notions of nationhood among German citizens, the meaning of being German in general and the ambiguities of the term in particular have remained underexplored. Furthermore, this line of scholarship has examined German citizens but has neglected the perspective of Germans with a migrant background. Drawing on six focus group discussions conducted in Germany in 2023, we explore the meaning of being German from the perspective of Germans with and without a migration background. Our findings show that Germans with a migrant background distinguish between achievable criteria, which they believe should be fulfilled in order to be German, and ethno-cultural criteria, which they believe should be met in order to be regarded as German. In contrast, Germans without a migrant background agreed on achievable criteria at first glance but added other criteria that went beyond these ‘minimal requirements’ to be German. Overall, our exploratory study calls for a thorough consideration of the perspective of citizens with a migrant background in scholarship on German nationhood, as they constitute a growing part of the German population.