The securitization of migration has been well-researched. In stark contrast, a research gap exists concerning the securitization of (dual) citizenship across countries. This thesis addresses this gap by investigating two research questions. Firstly, it looks at discursive securitization by analyzing if and how the debate on dual citizenship is securitized, and whether or not representations of Turkish-Germans and Russian-Germans feed-into the securitization of dual citizenship within the German center-right discourse. Secondly, this study investigates how the management of unease, the securitization of routine, plays out in naturalization practices in Germany. The thesis focuses on the more concrete question of how the practice of awarding dual citizenship with naturalizations differs in Germany, with a focus on naturalized former Turkish and Russian citizens and naturalized Turkish-German and Russian-German citizens. To achieve this goal a discourse analysis is conducted drawing on 30 articles, from the center-right newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ). Furthermore, changes in naturalization practices are investigated and the practice of awarding dual citizenship with naturalization is analyzed drawing on the naturalization statistics of the German Federal Statistical Office. The analysis shows that the center-right discourse on (dual) citizenship has to be subdivided into two discourses, a liberal and a conservative discourse. The conservative discourse’s securitization move seeks to establish the German identity as being existentially threatened by linking the discourse to representations of the ‘Turkish-Germans’ as Other, presenting them as ‘inferior’ and as “undermining the standards of the [‘German’] self” (Diez 2005, 628). The discursive representation of the ‘Turkish-Germans’ as ‘inferior’ is reflected in an ‘unease’ towards naturalized former Turkish/Turkish-German citizens. The representation of the ‘Russian-Germans’ as ‘different’ is partially mirrored in a relative ‘ease’ towards naturalized former Russian/Russian-German citizens. However, this ‘ease’ is tightened over time at a federal level.

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