Ethnic Approach to Migration from Turkey to Germany

This week we had to cover 3 articles, plus watch a movie. I’ll try to touch upon some important points in relation to our class.

First Ibrahim Sirkeci’s short article ‘Migration from Turkey to Germany an Ethnic Approach’ deals with some important aspects and first makes out some clearance on the ‘conceptual remarks’. That is both governmental agencies and broader disciplinary specializations classifies migration flows in terms of ‘economic (labor movements) and political (asylum seekers, refugees) and in relation with his subject matter of the article ethnic conflict situation Sirkeci thinks that this distinction is not really helping. So he adopts the notion of ‘environment of insecurity’ and uses it in a war of ‘conceptualizing the role of ethnic conflict within various national migratory regimes. He suggests that this notion includes both material and non material components. His argument in the article is that migration abroad is an exit option among others and that it is a broader opportunity framework which has shaped the international migration of Turkish Kurds.

The article in general is very interesting, especially in the subsection of ‘migration as an alternative to conflict, conflict as an opportunity framework for migration’. At this point he mentions about his fieldwork in Cologne and give some examples from this work, truly interesting migrant stories.

At this point I would like to share with you a small real life story from a fieldwork which I’ve done as a course requirement with a friend. It was back in Denmark when I was an exchange student and taking a Methodology class of Anthropology we made a fieldwork which was questioning the role of kebab shops in integration. We came up with meeting some people and there were interesting life stories. One of the interviewers of us, whose father was a migrant to Sweden back thirty years ago when he was in the primary school, the father works for some time and sends money back home and also saves some and he then returns to’ home’ and buys animals with that money.  Later the son goes to Sweden as illegal migrant and then asks for asylum in economic terms. Stays there for some time and later he’s got rejected. Coming off from a Kurdish origin although when we talk he doesn’t have any special concerns in terms of ethnic conflict, he thinks that he might get the pass if he applies as a political asylum seeker and this time he was a political asylum seeker in Denmark when we met with him. Although this men openly has no problems in terms of ethnic conflict ‘off the record talks’ his cousin who already got the citizenship, whom migrated there in 80’s was very much involved with the Kurdish problem and was a truly political migration flow.  I think these are very much in line with the Cologne interviews which show that the reasons for migrating may not only be multiple but may also change over time.

It is also commonsense knowledge that the ethnic conflict is an important aspect in the Kurdish international migration from Turkey. There can be many other reasons behind and to distinguish an asylum seeker from an economic migrant is not very easy thing to say. Again it won’t be wrong to say that ethic conflict can be one among many explanatory aspects of the international migrations from Turkey.

I don’t want you reader to get bored and still I want to share you something so I’ll finalize my post after writing down a few words about the movie of the week ‘Kebab Connection’ by Fatih Akın. 

It is a family comedy and an absurd love story. The movie is of course have stereotypical images of Turkish fathers and about date relationships within the community and how young Ibo- a second generation?!- deals with all these and more with his dreams of becoming the first director of a Kung fu movie of Germany but rather makes his uncle happy to earn his money. More you see the competition among different migrants of origin Turkish and the Greek, Doner vs Gyros. While watching the movie satisfaction is not guaranteed that tastes differ. But still you may capture some hints of the migrant life in Hamburg Germany.

Ps: If you still didn’t watch the movie and in case you do not have anything to do, plus its Sunday and there’s an early class tomorrow… well you can reach it from here.

EURO-TURKS

This week for the class we’re going to cover 2 articles, one from Levent Soysal ‘Beyond the “Second Generation”- Rethinking the Place of Migrant Youth Culture in Berlin’ and the other one is from Daniela Merolla ‘“Migrant Websites”, WebArt and Digital Imagination’, and also a book co-written by Ayhan Kaya and Ferhat Kentel, ‘Euro-Turks: A Bridge or a Breach between Turkey and the European Union?’. You may purchase it from here.  

Both Kaya and Kentel are Professors from my ex-university. I had the chance to take the courses from Ferhat Hoca and as an expression of my gratitude I want to focus on the book at this post.

The book is in general is an attempt to challenge the stereotypical representations of the Turkish migrants in Europe in the eyes of both the homeland and the host countries. They used the name 'Euro-Turks' as its common tendecy that these people were categorized unlike their heteregonity in terms of their difference in economic, political, cultural,ethnic and religiousity.  The book is a comperative study of 'Euro-Turks' both in France and Germany. Below I'll point you out some highlights from the book.

It is commonsense acceptance that the migrants are highly interested and informed with the politics of the motherland country but not in tact with the host country. But the quantitive research showed that they in Germany by 42% and in France by 50 % percent of Euro-Turks were not interested in mainland’s politics. Again their preference of using voting right in homeland elections is low, unlike commonsense suggests, which is 25 % and 8 % respectively. These all shows that the Euro- Turks being intact with the home country in their civic participation is a more like a myth as the above data suggests at least in terms of their political liability.

Another striking example is about the data about the perception of the most important problems of Turkey, where attendants could vote for more than one item. Here the 2 most rated items vary, also in terms of density, too. That is where in Germany the highest rated problem of Turkey was ‘democracy and human rights’ by around 25 %, the second highly rated item was ‘ corruption, nepotism and clientalism’ which was rated by 20 %.  Where in France the top rated item was ‘corruption, nepotism and clientalism’ again voted by 20 %, this was followed by ‘suppression made to the religious people in the name of laicite’ which rated a bit less than 20%. The difference in the items highly rated I think may be can be due to the effect of the host country over these immigrants. That is their perception is effected and so is shaped by the host countries vision and their status there.

There are many interesting data like these in the book which gives the general idea of the Turkish migrant residents in both Germany and France.   

Another eye catcher from the book is about the citizenship policies; whether its about integration or assimilation. We know that Germany and France do come from different governmental institutional traditions, one hand it is the romantic cultural thought equalizing all cultures inline where at the other one is bases on the material civilizing ideal. With such thinking Kentel and Kaya sketched out a rubric of different types of assimilation and integration for the case of Euro-Turks in Germany and France based on Gordon’s (1964) definition of seven different assimilation and integration forms.

Another important aspect is about Turkish media booming the Euro-Turks. In the book we see that the Notion of Ulf Hannerz ‘habitats of meaning’ is used to explain the stiuation of the local migrant community. That is ‘TV and print media have an important impact on the formation of our habitats of meaning. Just as some people may share much the same habitats of meaning in the global ecumene, others may have rather distinct and localized habitats of meaning’. The mainland turkish media giants has up to a point have the power of shaping the habitus of meanings of the Euro-Turks. The media companies select and telecast the shows, moveis, etc. which they think will be enjoyed by the Euro-Turks was published by the companies under a seperate channel with the heading added ‘EURO’ to their Turkish cast names, such as if the name of the channel is Show TV, it is aired as Euro Show in Europe, etc.

Although with the highly concentrated usage of internet the importance and the locality factor is open to question from now on.

At this point I would like to open a parenthesis for those who enjoy media/cultural studies and have an interest in Iran. I’ve just remembered an article which I’ve read back in my undergrad studies a book by Hamid Naficy, ‘The Making of Exile Cultures: Iranian Television inLos Angeles’. I think the book is a good and relatively easy reading which deals with the role of the media in the formation of the American- Iranian identity. 

I’ll soon finalize this entry not to make the post longer enough to bore you with the content J

I think the book of Kaya and Kentel is rather mind clearing. That is it gives you a sense of the state of the Euro-Turks for cases of Germany and France. Although I don’t generally favor the quantitative research in social sciences, I think at this point some are especially useful to have a picture which at some points contradicts with the commonsense prejudices. Also the comparison factor that the book offers is important because it raises the questions and understanding the importance of local conditions and the tradition of governance of the host country and how it effects the compliance and the acts of the immigrant.

Don Quichotte

Today I would like to share with you a website which I recently did find out. The link is here; http://www.donquichotte.org

Don Quichotte is a monthly humor magazine based in Stutgart, the magazine was founded by Erdoğan Karayel . Karayel was born in Istanbul and also graduated from Marmara University Fine Arts Faculty there and later he moved to Germany. To me he has some interesting and creative piece of cartoons, you may also check them out both from his personal website. What is interesting in both websites is that they come out in three different language options as; English, German and Turkish.

In an interview with Karayel he was explaining his initial aim of creating a bilingual magazine such as DQ was to’ introduce German humor to Turks in Germany and Turkish humor to Germans’. Although to him this was the initial aim what turned out was ‘because of the cartoons' universal style’, it wasn't stuck to the boundaries of a single country but rather get widen.

Karayel thought, "Why can't Don Quichotte be the magazine of ali migrant cartoonists, a platform that brings together the cartoonists who end up spending their lives in foreign countries?"  DQ turned out to be a platform for migrant cartoonists but more than this it also accomplished another important status which was ’to unite cartoonists around the world on specific issues occupying the world stage’.

Some of the previous features of DQ were entitled as; ‘Double Citizenship Crisis’, ’50 Years Together’, ‘We Couldn’t Get Used to Life with Euro’, ‘ Violence Has Bounced to Germany too’, ‘Integration and Assimilation’ etc.  There were also issues about Hurricane Katrina, Israeli invasion in Palestine, etc.

Also some carton contests and later exhibitions were held. So it wouldn’t be wrong to say that DQ performs as both and online and offline social arena for its audience which is professional cartoonist around the world, migrants of Turkish origin in Europe- mostly Germany and also for some Europeans.

I’m not really very much sure of the copy right issues but I’ll be posting some of the relevant cartoons. If you enjoy you may check more of it from here.

What does it mean to be-at-home?

This week we've covered articles from Sara Ahmed (Home and Away) and Judith G. Millers (Thinking about theather Within World of Literature in French) and Ofcourse I shouldn't forget mentioning about the play 'Fransa Ben de Geldim' by Halil Üstündağ.

Starting with the play, I don't know if any of you have enjoyed reading the script in literary ways but to me it was something a bit less than disastrous. Though there was something that kept me to read it till the end, may be a hope that through the end it might at least get into something meaningfull? Later when I checked internet for some information about the author, I've found out when this play was screened at 2007 and that the writer was also running the place where this and many other plays had also been screened already for five years back in 2007. Surprisingly enough this in a way meant that these plays (i know its a hasty generalization but I'm just assuming that more or less the other plays are in the same level of excellence) are actually appreciated by the audience/ turkish imigrants in France, where  to me at least this one was a immature play in both language and being full of stereotypings. The only  explanation to this stiuation came to my mind that other than being the place for socializing, these plays should actually be something that their audince find themselves in both in terms of language and the subject matter. This  I think is something which we can actually releate with the previous weeks readings.

Skipping the play for now today I would like to share a movie with you. My grandpapa's people,  some of you might have already watched it but for the rest you can watch it from here. And yes there are english subs available!

The movie is written and directed by Çağan Irmak. In the movie you can see migratition, exile, sense of belonging and not belonging to a place/home, political views, and ofcourse in case of Turkey a coup, no way without :), which all falls under the genre of a drama.

I don't want to give you the full synopsis and spoil it all in case you may want to watch but at many points while watching the movie you'll remember Sarah Ahmed's article and will make direct linkages with the movie. We sure can talk more about in class but for now if I had to mention some of them...

When you watch the relation of grandfather Mehmet Efendi and grandson Ozan, when he tells how they migrated from Crete to İzmir it's no way that you cannot remember this excerpt from Ahmed "Migration is not only felt at the level of lived embodiment. Migration is also a matter of generational acts of story-telling about prior histories of movement and dislocation. I remember being told about my family’s migration

to the newly created Pakistan in 1947..." 

And more, grandfathers own experience is also very interesting where he lefts 'home' Crete at a very early age. and we watch as he wanders around throughout his life the home metaphore is always out there. 

And another thing you'll see and which I think might also give be something new to our exchange friends is about the population exchange when you see the old lady in greece can we think of it as a nomadic experience of language of Chambers notion as Ahmed mentions in her article. 

At the end of the movie we see grown up grandson in search for his actual roots 'home' where 'they have originated'. Here comes the individual memeory vs collective memory and the compensatiton between into the question. 

When I made a final look at my post I've sensed that I've written about the movie ' My Granpapa's People' as it was already an assigned thing. Of course there's no obligations but I really do think that it has strong connections with this weeks readings and strongly recommend it if you have time and interest in turkish cinema.

Between The Two Worlds-

ARAFTAKİLER

Last week I just started reading a new novel by Amin Maalouf and the excerpt below is I think very relevant to both readings and the class in general.

        How many times, since I left Lebanon in 1976 to live in France, have people asked me, with the best intentions in the world, whether I felt “more French” or “more Lebanese”? And I always give the same answer: “Both!” I say that not in the interests of fairness or balance, but because any other answer would be a lie. What makes me myself rather than anyone else is the very fact that I am poised between two countries, two or three languages and several cultural traditions. It is precisely this that defines my identity. Would I exist more authentically if I cut off a part of myself?

       …Half French and half Lebanese, then? Not at all! The identity cannot be compartmentalized; it cannot be split in halves or thirds, nor have any clearly defined set of boundaries. I do not have several identities; I only have one, made of all elements that have shaped it’s unique proportions.

                                 Amin Maalouf / In the Name of Identity

         So far I’m on my way of reading ‘Kiffe Kiffe Tomorrow’ by Faiza Guéne and recently finished Leslie A. Adelson’s  article ‘Against Between: A Manifesto’ article which is physically short but written in a concentrated way. Reading the article and the Maalouf book consequently is musing. 

Apparently from the quote one has a sense of positive attribution to being in between, that is through migration, one has inherited different parts of his/her identity which is considered as a richness in this case. But contrary to this idea Leslie Adelson is opposes to this idea. Her claim is that in todays world; ‘the trope of “betweenness“ often functions literally like a reservations designed to contain, restrain and impede new knowledge, not enable it‘. That’s why she says she has her manifesto against the between!

  What do you think of this? And with reference to her article, do you think that, for the case of Turks in Germany, all this talk of “between the two worlds” does carry the misperception that she mentions in the paper.