The comparative study of immigrants’ legal rights has become a key focus of sociological inquiry in recent decades. However, research in this vein has focused primarily on the highest levels of European judiciaries. As a result, we know comparatively little about the implementation of immigrant rights in the lower courts that are charged with enforcing the legal protections of foreigners. Using prosecution data from German criminal courts between 1998 and 2010, this study addresses this gap by investigating (1) the punishment consequences of lacking national membership; (2) sentencing differences between EU and non-EU immigrants; and (3) how the punishment of noncitizens has changed over time. The findings suggest that foreigners punished in German courts receive harsher penalties than comparable German citizens. This punishment gap is observed for both EU and non-EU immigrants; however, there is clear evidence that the punishment gap between German and non-German citizens has waned over the past decade. Taken together, these findings inform ongoing debates on the continued significance of national membership in Western societies and have important implications for understanding contemporary trends in sociolegal inequality.

Publication details and link to source: Michael T. Light, ‘The Punishment Consequences of Lacking National Membership in Germany, 1998–2010’, Social Forces, July 2015.