Due to expanding globalization and to the increasing amounts of unsolvable, seeming violent conflicts many societies are confronted with waves of people on the move, searching for a safer and more prosperous way of life. Immigration is no longer a minor matter. The shaping power of the nation state has been weakened and is under pressure. Formerly the culturally and socially homogeneous societies increasingly have become diversified. Toleration has become an urgent demand because living in dissent cannot be accepted. Citizenship has turned out to be a hotly contested issue. This does not apply only for the United States with regards Central America but increasingly troubles many of the member-states of the European Union. The course will concentrate on the above-mentioned issues and discuss them by linking them to questions of political legitimacy.