Welcoming “Jewish Migrants” in Germany

Since January 1991, the Federal Republic of Germany has implemented a state policy allowing applicants living in former Soviet Union countries and categorized as Jewish to settle in Germany. Originally, this policy appeared in the political agenda as a way to host potential victims of anti-Semitism in theSoviet Union; then it was maintained to rebuild Jewish life in Germany with the influx of post-Soviet Jews, labelled as an ethno religious group. Examining the categorizations that have turned positive representations of this group into negative ones, we explain why this policy persisted throughout the 2000s despite the fact that ethnicity was no longer the unique criterion for Germany to define its own nation.