Quasi-ethnic capital vs. quasi-citizenship capital: Access to Israeli citizenship

Authors

  • Dani Kranz University of Applied Sciences Rhein-Waal

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.59670/ml.v13i1.264

Keywords:

citizenship, migration, policy, family reunion, Israel

Abstract

Israel defines itself as a Jewish state by way of ideology, policy, and constitutionality. Jewish immigration is encouraged, and rewarded with direct access to Israeli citizenship for olim (Jewish immigrants) and their immediate family. The legal situation for foreign, non-Jewish partners, and spouses of Israeli Jewish citizens is different: these non-Jewish immigrants can potentially access Israeli citizenship through the Nationality Law. These different inroads into Israeli citizenship for both groups must be seen in connection to diasporic Jewish history, Israeli history, the country’s geopolitical situation, as well as attitudes toward intermarriage. In practice this means that the incorporation of non-Jewish spouses of olim is a compromise to bolster Jewish immigration, while the problems of incorporating the partners/spouses of Israeli Jewish citizens stem from (historic and current) negative attitudes toward intermarriage, the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, and labour migration, all of which ramify into the issue of family reunion for all Israeli citizens.

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Author Biography

Dani Kranz, University of Applied Sciences Rhein-Waal

Dani Kranz is an Associate Professor of Sociology and Empirical Reserach Methods at the University of Applied Sciences in Rhein-Waal, Germany. Her scholarship explores Jewish, Israeli, and German identities with articles appearing in Austausch; European Review of History; forthcoming chapters cover various aspects of non-Jewish migration from the global north to Israel; German and Israeli concepts of citizenship, and the aftermaths of the Shoah for young Jews in Germany.

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Published

2016-01-14

How to Cite

Kranz, D. (2016). Quasi-ethnic capital vs. quasi-citizenship capital: Access to Israeli citizenship. Migration Letters, 13(1), 64–83. https://doi.org/10.59670/ml.v13i1.264