Einbürgerungsfeiern

In recent years, citizenship ceremonies have been added to the naturalization process in Germany. What happens at those ceremonies? Why have they been established, and what do they reveal about how new citizens belong to German society? Based on a qualitative study of German citizenship ceremonies, this book analyses how belonging is defined and legitimized at those occasions. It shows that national belonging and being German only play a minor role. Instead, connections to a local community, individual achievements or basic cultural compatibility are highlighted at such ceremonies. The praxeological typology of belonging in everyday life proposed by this book also makes it an original contribution to the socio-scientific debates on belonging in the modern world.