TURKISH PEOPLE IN GERMANY

Turkish people settled in Anatolia almost a thousand years ago and since then they moved further west. Ottoman Empire, being a major non-christian global power ruled most of south-east Europe for hundreds of years and perceived as a major threat for Western Europe. It was during these period when Turks and Germans heavily interacted through wars as German kingdoms had borders with Ottoman empire. History of battles and wars took a different direction when Germany invited mass number of Guest workers to supply the manual work for a fast increasing economy. In this essay we investigate the phenomenon of Turkish immigration to Germany, which began in the 1960s. We first present the facts about the historical westward migration of Turkic people. Then the impact of the Turks on German society and the integration related problems will be explained. Turkish people are a sub-ethnic group of the Turkic people originated in Central Asia (Melory, 1991) and the Far East including North China and Inner Mongolia (Frucht, 2005). The migration of Turks to Turkey occurred during the main Turkic migration that took place after the sixth century (Bernard 1968). The Seljuk Turks from the 11th century accelerated the migration process after invading Anatolia, resulting in permanent settlement there. Anatolia would be called Turchia in the West as early as the 12th century. After 14th century, Ottoman Empire occupied more lands in Europe and since then millions of Turkish people settled in this continent. It was during Ottoman Empire's expansion in Europe when Germanic and Turkic nations heavily interacted. Vienna, capital of Australia, was sieged twice by Ottoman Empire and whole Western Europe nations defended the city with Germans to prevent further expansion of Turks. These wars are important to understand the current perception of Turkish people in Europe. Turkish people were regarded as expansionist, and the common enemy of Christian Europe. After the second world war, Germany were separated into two parts as Democratic Republic of Germany and the Federal Republic of Germany. Federal Republic of Germany had a fast redevelopment movement and its economy recovered very rapidly. After the separation of Germany and especially after the construction of Berlin Wall, east Germans were no longer able to take jobs in the Western part. This created a bigger gap for unskilled workers in such a booming economy. West Germany signed migration agreements with Italy (1955), Spain (1960), Greece (1960), and later Turkey (1961) (Shonick, 2009). During this time, thousand of people most of whom were unable to find a job in their native lands quickly filled the vacancies. At that time Turkey was still a rural country and most of the population was living in small villages where public services such as schooling and health

services was poor. Almost all of the people who temporarily migrated to Germany were young men who were expected to return their homes in a few years time(Shonick 2009). In 1973, the guest worker agreement with Turkey ended but most of the workers stayed as there were few good jobs in Turkey and the life standards in rural towns were not comparable in Germany (Volker 1976). In 1974 the West German government imposed a ban restricting any future economic migrants and offered the possibility of returning back to their country. However, this offer was not successful and most of the workers stayed at their jobs. In 1970s Germany had an economic recession and the welfare state offered considerable financial support to all people within Germany including immigrants communities. This financial support increased the number of immigrant residents. Supporting foreign workers with benefits led to increased tensions and feeling of resentment from many German people. Throughout the 1970s and into the 1980s family reunification took place between Turkish workers and their families. Turkish workers in Germany were able to save enough money to return home to marry and bring their brides back when the 1974 Unification of Families Law made this easier (Findley, 2005). By 1976, only 27% of Turks in the West Germany were women which substantially increased year by year (Findley, 2005). There were big cultural, religious and communication differences between Germans and Turkish people. As the number of Turkish people were in millions in Germany, it was also much easier for Turkish people to create enclaves in German cities and enjoy their lifestyle. This prevented a healthy integration of settled Turkish people and caused a seclusion. Any resentment, hostility and bitterness already present between indigenous Germans and the Turkish community became progressively worse. By 2010 there were almost 3.5 million people of Turkish descent in Germany (Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany London, 2011). The numbers may differ in different sources as many Kurdish people are registered as Turkish in Germany due to their nationality. It is difficult to differentiate Turks and Kurds physically and by name as they have more than thousand years old common history and location. In this essay, Turkish people term includes Kurdish people who migrated from Turkey as well. Despite the fact that Turkish people first moved Germany under the guest worker agreement, today only one quarter of the Turkish people came to Germany as workers, while 53% immigrated as family members and 17% of the adult Turks were born in Germany. Most of the Turkish people still retain Turkish citizenship (Al-Shahi and Lawless 2005). Although some people are returning and no more guest works are being hired, the continued flow of family members from Turkey and a high birth rate has kept the population of Turks in Germany high. Turkish people indeed present the largest foreign population in Germany and they live mainly in areas with high industrialization because this is where the first generation found their jobs.

Nowadays there is high unemployment among the Turks (25.5%) because many of their jobs in industry were cut. But there is also a rising number of Turkish that are self-employed. Having a totally different cultures in the same country, the relation between Turks and Germans are also important to discuss. As the biggest foreign population, Turkish and people of Turkish origin are strongly shaping the image of most German cities. Turkish cuisine and specifically Turkish fast food Dner are placing in the traditional German food list. Turkish politicians frequently travel to Germany to make public speeches and election campaigns are as exiting in Germany as in Turkey. Almost all Turkish TV channels are broadcasting in Germany and many have separate channels for German viewers. Due to millions of Turkish people, people in Turkey also closely follow Germany, travel there more often than the other countries. Millions of German visit Turkey every year which increases the interaction between nations. But there is also a negative side in relations. Most important one is integration. Germans are surprised about the way Turkish society tries to preserve their core values which sometimes clash with German values. They complain that Turkish people are not interested in learning the German language and they dont give enough importance for education. As in many other countries, criminality rates are higher in people having a different ethnic background and in Germany many people are complaining that it is uneasy for them to interact with the Turkish people. Honour killing rates in Turkish people are also surprisingly high. There is a discussion in both nations about what integration really means. Many Turkish people consider integration as assimilation and support a multicultural society as in the UK. The Prime Minister of Turkey made a speech in Germany asking people to integrate but not assimilate. Turkish people in Germany are also subject to judgment and discrimination in Turkey too. Most of them have a strong accent and they are sometimes called Alamanci which is pejorative word for German Turks in Turkey. They have difficulty to be accepted in Turkish society as well as in German society. But depending on the level of education and on the open-mindedness of people, prejudice of people are more or much less. There is a strong belief in German society that, Turkish people are reluctant to integrate to the country they live in. Socially, the Turkish are well presented in the German society, they participate in politics and in the entertainment sector run religious and non-religious organizations. However the level of participation is still low and Turkish people usually choose Turkish partners in social events whereby isolating themselves from the Germans inside Germany. Turkish people also accept this situations and they have reasons to explain this division. Discrimination is one of the major issues preventing Turkish people to integrate to the society. More than two-thirds of Turks see themselves as victims of discrimination. They say that when looking for a house or a job they are being unfairly judged by their nationality. There are of course people saying that this does not happen to them. Turkish people are also victims of September 11th because non Muslim people often thinks Islam is related with Terror. We can say German media inadvertently enforces this misunderstanding as well.

However, we can also say that the increasing number of Turkish people brought a likewise increase in discrimination in German society as an outcome. This is also connected to the rise in nationalists movements throughout Europe and Germany is not exception. Between 1991 and 1993 the number of xenophobic attacks increased in Germany. Reunification of Germany also ignited the xenophobic movements as the unification of wealthy Western Republic and a poor Socialist Republic created unique problems and challenges into the society and reunified Germany suffered a major economic downturn for couple of years (Sabrina, 1999). On November 25, 1992, three Turkish residents were killed in a firebombing in Mlln. On May 29, 1993 another arson attack took place in Solingen on a Turkish family that had resided in Germany for twenty-three years, five of whom were burnt to death. There were also many other arson cases, some suspicious and some carried out by neo-nazi groups (Mitchell, 2000). Many Turkish believes that despite their effort to integrate, Germans will never fully accept them in their own society and consider Turkish people as a second-class citizens having no or inadequate education and a few good job prospects. Integration problems that Turkish people are facing is also related to family problems. Most of the early Turkish Guest workers were from the rural conservative part of the country and they perceived the German relatively liberal lifestyle as immoral. These workers chose to get marry from their town and When it comes to tradition vs. modern western lifestyle, language problems for school children and the fact that education is on an average not as high. Unfortunately, many parents prefer their children to help them and do unskilled work rather than learn a profession or study. Trouble of Turkish students in Education was especially visible in international PISA test of reading and maths. The average of success of Turkish students are considerably lower than their German friends. In the 2003 PISA test the maths scores of second-generation Turks placed them more than two years behind their German contemporaries. The problem of Turkish students has many causes, but they begin with an earlier act of negative selection, as their parents were mostly unskilled, uneducated people streamed out of the Anatolian countryside. A sociologist at the University of Leipzig, Frank Kalter says that The education system transmits inequality among parents extremely strongly to the successor generation, not by design. The high schools have three orders into which students are selected depend on their success and Turkish students are mostly end up in Hauptschulen which is assumed to be lowest of the three and prepares people for simple trades. But still new generation of Turkish immigrants are much better than their parents.

Global changes have big impact about how Germans see Turkish people (Shireen, 2002). This is especially the case after 9/11 terror attack on the USA. After 9/11 Turkish people felt they were usual suspects.

Even more than most Europeans, Germans are wary of Muslims. As almost all Turkish people are Muslim and they represent the Islam in Germany, the misrepresentation of Islam by German media strongly affect the way Germans see Turkish people. According to a 2006 survey by the Pew Research Centre, 82% of Germans were very or somewhat concerned (Economist 2008) by the rise of Islamic extremism, 51% of Muslims living in Germany thought many or most Europeans were hostile to them. Because of this perceived hostility, one can claim that the Turkish community is becoming more Muslim. A survey funded by the Interior ministry showed that almost half of all Muslim people in Germany consider their religion to be more important than democracy, and 9% do not condemn suicide attacks. It has also been shown that the 15% of school children are anti-Semitic or anti-Christian (Economist 2008). It has also been observed that the amount of Turkish-language material preaching jihad over the Internet has exploded lately.

To tackle this integration problem, German government introduced new language courses and they even modified their citizenship law to prevent double citizenship (Haldun, 2006). The changes in law since 2005 enlists all levels of government and the private sector for a better integration. German government created extra funds for federally financed language and civics classes. Federal States are struggling to upgrade children's German before they enter primary school. Surveys show that young Turks are better in integration than their parents. Despite some good signs in younger Turks, most of people still consider new changes as anti-Turkish obstacles. For example, since 2005 spouses from non-EU countries has to prove that they speak German to get a visa. After this law, German language courses in Turkey became quite popular especially by females who were planning to get marry a Turkish boy in Germany. Turkish people also angry about the nationality law as now they have to denounce Turkish citizenship to be considered for naturalisation. This law particularly targeted Turkish society, the largest immigrant group in Germany. It does not force EU citizens, so in reality its main target is directly Turkish people. By introducing this law, Germans hoped to push people for a better integration with their society by forcing them to disconnect from their mother land. This created additional problems for Turkish people but problems created their own solutions. Turkey politically supports double citizenship as the government believes that Turkish people residing abroad will create a lobbying power and support Turkish interests in countries they live in. This power will be more visible if Turkish people also attain another citizenship. For this reason, Turkey quickly strips citizenship for people who wants to have German citizenship and after they get their German passport, they quickly naturalize them back to citizenship without informing German authorities. In terms of Education, German government spends extra money for schools having more non-German students than the countries average.

The integration problem also affects Turkish hopes for EU-accession. The immigration related problems are widely discussed and strongly enforced and exaggerated by media and causes EUpublic to be against Turkish EU-membership. Eliminating the integration problem is very important for Turkey and for this reason public believes that the Turks in Germany represent a chance for Turkeys EU accession process. To be fair, it is now clear that, Turkish people who came to Germany as a Gastarbeiter settled down and although in slow pace, they are becoming a part of Germany but they still feel strongly about their native country and their loyalty is again mostly to Turkey even they are stripped off of their citizenship. But problems can only be solved through dialog and understanding which are required by both sides. It is true that the religion, culture and life style are immensely different at the moment but only through time and interaction, these differences will become subtle. Otherwise, if Turkish people are let to feel rejected, they may react with defiance, and the problems may be more visible instead of fading away.

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The Economist, "Two unamalgamated worlds: Germany's Turks do not properly belong. But what is it that they should belong to?", Apr 3rd 2008