ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the relation between national identity, perceptions of socio-economic threat, and exclusionary attitudes to non-ethnic migrants in two ethno-national states, Germany and Israel. In Israel the combination of religious and democratic values resulted in an ethnic democracy, Germany developed into a Western liberal democracy. The point of departure for comparing Israel and Germany is their common ethno-national definition of the state. In Israel it is explained by the strong link between the Jewish nation and the Jewish religion, and in Germany it is based on culture and language. Data were taken from the National Identity module of International Social Survey Program (ISSP). The minimal group paradigm developed by social identity theory holds that inclusion and exclusion of out-group populations rest on their social group membership. At the macro-level of analysis, Smith postulates two general models of the nation: civic and ethnic.
