Volpp (2007) at the Center for Race and Gender, began the contemporary discussion on the role of culture, race and gender and how it shapes international migration laws. Citing examples of recent legislation passed around the world, Volpp argues that rhetoric of “gendered, cultural subordination” is being used to justify discriminatory policies against immigrant populations.21 This critical legal theory frames much of the following discussion of the individual response to particular policies.
By the end of 2005, there were more than 40,000 Non-Resident Indians (NRI) living in Germany. Together with approximately 10,000 to 20,000 People of Indian Origin (PIO), the Indo-German community numbers were a mere 50,000 to 60,000, but by 2009 this number was up to 110,000.22 While this population may not seem significant, its rapid growth and sense of shared identity have established an imagined transnational citizenship through racial imposition from a dominant population, as well as pragmatic unity for those who perceive discrimination. This racial imposition is highlighted in Goel's (1998) discussion of foreigner policy, transactional ethnicity, and collective imagination:
The essentialist notion of being 'Indian' by birth and this being unambiguous is continually contradicted by the lives of individuals [...] 'Ethnic' identity according to them is not something natural but the outcome of social interactions. An 'Indian' identity in 'Germany' is developed through individuals being categorised as 'Indians' by others and thus in a trans-actional process entering their self-definitions. Thus also persons, who for example were born in 'Germany' or have German citizenship can become 'Indians', because they are
21. Volpp 2007
22. Stichs 2009
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