i

Máster Oficial Migraciones Internacionales

4722091516 – Comunicación e interpretación intercultural - Mestrado

Universitario en Migracións Internacionais: Investigación, Políticas

Migratorias e Mediación Intercultural

Cathryn Teasley Severino & Belén García Cabeza

One Community & Two Languages

By

Zeynep Pamukçu

2015/2016 – Segunda Cuatrimestre

17/04/2016

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Table of Contents 1. Introduction 3 2. Historical Background 4 3. Psychology of Accent 5 4. Language Effect through Generations 6 4.1. First Generation 6 4.1.1. Neighbourhood 7 4.1.2. Education 7 4.1.3. Labour Market 8 4.1.4. Social Life and Culture 9

4.2. Second Generation 9

4.2.1. Neighbourhood 9 4.2.2. Education 9 4.2.3. Labour Market 10 4.2.4. Social Life and Culture 11 4.3. Third Generation 12 4.3.1. Neighbourhood 12 4.3.2. Education 13 4.3.3. Labour Market 13 4.3.4. Social Life and Culture 15 5. Conclusion 15 6. References 17

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1. Introduction

Languages mediate our experiences, our intellectual and cultural environments, our

modes of encounter with human groups, our value systems, social codes and sense of

belonging, both collectively and personally (2009, UNESCO). Considering that language is one

of the most important ways of communication, the description of language made by UNESCO

show us how and in which ways language affects our lives. Thinking from this perspective, living

in a place where you were born and speak your language gives you the equal opportunities

such as finding a job, getting an education (in terms of language), culturally and intellectually.

What about the migrants? The same can be said for them, too? Unfortunately, for most

of the cases the answer is no! In today´s world we are more mobile than ever before both

internally and externally thanks to technology. Consequently, language issue becomes more

and more significant. Here, I will try to talk shortly about the general view of both internal and

external migration. First, I will think this in terms of internal migration that people generally tend

to think it is not a big issue comparing to external migration, or emigration. Even though internal

migrants speak the same language or we assume like this when it is in the same country, there

are possible issues of accent, culture, experience, concern, value and social code as it was

suggested by the description above. For instance, when we think as an outsider, we can say

that in Spain people speak Spanish so internal migration can be thought less problematic.

However, as much as the accent of Spanish from region to region, the local language, the

concerns of the people in the region, culture and values have been changing, too. Second, in

terms of emigrants, the same conditions can be applied like the internal migrants; but emigrants

do not have the advantage to talk the same language in terms of emergencies or to express

themselves freely in any case. Furthermore, unlike internal migrants, their whole lives have

been altering especially in terms of equal opportunities like benefiting from the education

system or health system freely and equally. This time, rights have been included to the

problems or issues in the case of emigration since they are not citizens of the host country; they

are limited not only regarding the language, but also legally. The Turkish community in

Germany is one of the best examples in order to see the effects and changes of both language

and rights in their daily lives from generation to generation.

Although the effect of language is significant to research both in terms of internal and

external migrants, in this essay I will focus on Turkish immigrants in Germany and how

language affects their lives in terms of neighbourhood, education, labour market, and social life

and the changes through the three generations.

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2. Historical Background

Before I get into the effects of language on neighbourhood, education, labour market,

and social lives of Turkish community, to be able to give the differences and explain their

situation and position in Germany, here I will talk about the historical background of the Turkish

people in Germany.

In 1961, Turkey and West Germany signed a bilateral recruitment agreement. In 1963,

Turkish people, mainly men, began to go to work in Germany via this agreement. Because

Germany was not looking for “qualified” workers, most of the people who emigrated were with

few or no education. This is the first feature of the worker immigrants that we need to pay

attention while reading the literature or understanding the background and history.

The people who were going to work in Germany was mainly from Central Anatolia

region of Turkey and its rural areas, not from the urban. It is significant because it was very

specific region even Blommaert and Maly gave the names of the villages in their article such as

Emirdag, Piribeyli and Posof (2014, p.6). The reason why most of the workers are from this part

is the result of chain migration, the first flow was from these villages and when arrived and after

a sometime with the establishment of stable life, the workers called the ones that they know like

relatives and friends, and this caused a group of people who live in same village began to live in

Germany like a tribe. Since the group had a common background and culture, there was not a

huge or visible diversity among Turkish workers in Germany and also in the same period in

other European countries like Belgium, the problems that the workers were facing related to

language, culture, environment and so on were generally the same due to lack of diversity

among them. Hence, this situation did not create any or many distinctions among them whether

they live in different cities of Germany or in Belgium at least for a long time (until the emergence

of the second and third generations). This was the second important factor.

The third is about their perspective to the society and world and their experience.

Central Anatolia was and still is a little bit more conservative than the west and south of Turkey.

Furthermore, because of lack of many things first and foremost the money; they are more

closed comparing to the others regions of Turkey in terms of brain, way of seeing the world.

Even today, many European people remember and describe the first generation of immigrants

(guest-workers in the beginning) rude, uncouth, and odd. Thinking that they are conservative

(closed-minded), uneducated and did not even see a city in Turkey in their lives until they go to

Germany caused these kinds of results. When these kinds of people moved or came to the

cities especially like Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir, Turkish people who live in the cities were facing

with same problems that Germany or any other European country did, the only difference was

that they knew the language. When they were in a city in Turkey, they knew the language but

not the culture or way of living; in the case of Germany plus one more to these problems was

the language problem. These issues were not the only ones special to Germany, but Turkey

inside was dealing with the same. The emigrants began to become upstart especially the ones

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who came back to Turkey, even they did not learn the language (German) or get any education,

they demanded more salary in the jobs; and also despised Turkish people including their

relatives. Thus, considering all these and also add the impact of religion, language, system

difference in Germany, today it is not hard to see why Turkish people and German people

suffered a lot in terms of their existence in Germany.

Considering the significance of these and also the numbers of Turkish workers in the

host country by the time when the year reached 1973, Germany had 2.6 million of foreign

workers and the number of the Turkish workers had increased to 1 million in 10 years (Mueller,

2007). It was also the same period when Germany entered a recession. As a natural

consequence, Turkish workers has begun to become more visible issue and at the end a

burden on the back of West Germany. With recession, they tried to stop or at least decrease the

guest migrants and sent the ones already inside the country through the laws and policies. The

strategy worked out for some nations; nevertheless, in spite of the decrease in employment

especially for foreign workers, most of the Turkish workers preferred to stay. Upon this failure,

German government put a policy of cash bonus to encourage the Turkish workers to return.

Unfortunately, this policy did not fulfil or meet with the aim, too; nonetheless, at least they

managed to control of new comers a little bit; even though they could not send the ones who

are already inside.

Through 1980s, the Turkish population in Germany has begun to increase again via

family reunification. It can be said that from this time onwards, Turkish guest workers has

changed a status and became known as Turkish community in Germany since now they are

with families and not returning more than 50 years. Alexander Görlach, a German author and

founding publisher of the European Magazine, in his article ´ To Integrate the New Refugees,

Germany Must Avoid Its Mistakes With Turkish Immigrants´ describes the Turkish people in

Germany: We asked for workers, but in the end human beings came (2015). Hence, through the

years and generations also their conditions have changed in terms of aspects of their lives like

language; hence, in the following titles I will divide and talk about these issues in three

generations.

3. Psychology of Accent

I created another section about the psychology or attitude through the immigrants´

accent by the host society because in my opinion it is another important effect that people

generally tend not to consider as an effect on migrants. In this section, I will not talk directly the

psychology of German people through the immigrants or Turkish immigrants in Germany, but to

be able to think on the possibility of the effect of accent in the following sections, this section

can be thought informative.

Lev-Ani, a psycholinguist at the Max Planck Institute of Psycholinguistics in Nijmegen,

found out that we are less likely to believe something if it is said with a foreign accent in her

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research (as cited Erard, 2016). Furthermore, in the same article called ´The reason you

discriminate against foreign accents starts with what they do to your brain´, Erard focuses on

the effect of accent in terms of finding job, health care and education.

Consequently, while reading and analysing the issue of migration either external or

internal, the effect of accent, a hidden one, should not be forgotten in any aspect of migrant life.

4. Language Effect through Generations

According to the numbers of Turkish Ministry of Labour and Social Security, Germany

has still been continuing to be the best host country in Europe for Turkish people among the

other countries. The numbers claim that there were 2.049 Turkish people living in Germany in

1995 and in Europe the total number of the Turkish people were 2.841 the same year. 2005 and

2010 followed by orderly 1.912 people in Germany and 2.714 in Europe; 1.629 and in total

Europe 3.052 in 2010 (Icduygu, Goker, Tokuzlu & Elitok, 2006, p.1). The growing numbers of

the population also brought diversity with itself. However, the differences among the Turkish

community significantly happened among generations. Today, we can see three active

generations of Turkish people in Germany.

4.1. First Generation

First generation can be named as the passive generation comparing to the second and

third; moreover, they also known as guest-workers since they went to Germany only for work for

a short period of time in the beginning.

4.1.1. Neighbourhood

Neighbourhood forms one of the most significant parts of the immigrants´ lives

(especially in terms of first generation) since it is the place where they first get into touch with

the host society especially until they create or constitute entourage through job or other

mediators. In the case of guest workers, there were four main problems, which are financial

issues, period, language and group movement. This generation went to Germany to work and

earn money; naturally the people who left for work did not have enough financial resources.

This led to them in the beginning to settle down in places where either not many people lives or

where the others are from other countries like them. This was the first handicap that we can

count on. Furthermore, they did not leave Turkey by themselves or most of the workers, like I

mentioned above, were from the same region; thus financial difficulties, group movement and

also language problem pushed them to live closer and even some cases sharing the same

house. Later, also with the effect of chain migration, the houses and neighbourhoods that they

live in got more intense regarding number of Turkish people and the spoken language in the

area. Another important fact is the period that they were not thinking to stay. The idea both for

the guest workers and Germany was working for a period of time and going back, so under all

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these circumstances they did not care about the place they live in since they were not there for

a long and did not have their families with them to comfort.

In time, with the family reunification through 1980s, the neighbourhoods either turned

into family places or the ones who could manage upward mobility moved other parts of the

cities. In many cases of the immigrants in terms of settlement, it is a common issue that

neighbourhoods are altering to ghettos. Although as a number Turkish people constitute the

majority in some neighbourhoods, they did not become ghettos. There are some reasons that

Mueller suggests in his article “Integrating Turkish Communities: A German Dilemma”, which

are no forced residential segregation of the Turkish population, the transparency and dynamism

of Turkish communities, openness to exchange and interaction (2007).

4.1.2. Education

Most of this generation did not have high school or university education; in some cases

they were illiterate since Germany was looking for unqualified workers, the main background of

the guest workers was like this. Because they went to Germany to work and save money, under

heavy work hours, language and also financial issues, majority of them did not search or feel

the need of education or anything related to education even the language learning.

Through the family reunification, the Turkish population has increased especially the

women. Although women had more chance than the men in terms of time to benefit any kind of

educational activity like work and ability related courses and classes on specific subjects offered

by city halls, companies and organizations partially due to financial difficulties and mainly due to

the language problem; they also did not participate in educational activities.

4.1.3. Labour Market

It can be said that this generation comparing to the others up to some point was the

luckiest one in terms of labour market and employment in Germany. However, because they did

not have enough capital in the beginning and later with economic problems in the country, and

the burden of wife and children, most of them could not make a big economic or social attempt

in the society under these circumstances. Nevertheless, they managed to get better than the

beginning. This generation according to their background stayed as a worker; in other words,

except bringing their families and making children they did not change anything in their lives.

Because of this establishment with language, stabilized social status, neighbourhood,

Turkish community of first generation created perception in the eyes of a German society and

unfortunately it was not a good one. Since they made this, the following generations also

suffered from these pre-created biases.

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4.1.4. Social Life and Culture

Social life of the first generation comparing to the others were more restricted in terms

of money and language. Restricted in a language terms since they do not know the city system

and also German, they were more dependent on each other in the social life. Furthermore,

considering their conservativeness and short term plans, they were not concerned about getting

in touch with a Christian society.

Another important element is the help, because neither Turkey nor Germany give

importance to their problems, the religious (Muslim) organizations succoured them financially

and generally this financial aid was depended on their actions like meeting every Friday

(because Friday is the holy day of Islam) or meeting for sermons during the week. Later, these

organizations also played a significant role on the children of first generation and wives.

Children were sent to Quran schools and wives closed their heads just like the political situation

of Turkey today, but it was only for a community in their case not a country.

When the wives or brides of the first generation came to Germany, their rights were

different and Mueller describes their situation;

“In many Turkish communities in Germany, German is not often spoken. A Turk who is

a legal resident in Germany, even if naturalized, and „fetches‟ a bride from Turkey, will

see his spouse moored at home for one year before she can apply for a work permit.

This means she will spend most of her time at home, watching Turkish television

programs transmitted via satellite; she will virtually have no exposure to Germans and

their language. Given the recession in Germany, such a process is likely to continue for

a couple of years when she has children. The children in turn will spend their formative

years consuming Turkish television programs. To a large extent it is vicious cycle

(2007).”

In other words, family reunion expanded even more the usage of Turkish and Turkish way of life

instead of being a way to the host society.

Even after the family reunification and increasing number of Turkish people in Germany,

Germany always focused on sending them back to Turkey. Due to the denial of their long term

existence, Germany did not try to integrate or give them importance in terms of language,

education, citizenship and so on. At the end, even though Turkish community was open to

interaction like Mueller suggests, because of well created distance among the host community

and Turkish community especially beginning with language problem or distance; later when they

tried to close it, it was late and harder. One of the first attempts regarding integration especially

on language since the criteria of citizenship related to command of German language made by

the German government in 1997, the money spent for Turkish community fell far beyond the

billions comparing to other communities (Mueller, 2007). This is also another indicator of how

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much Germany is late to prevent possible marginalization, or segregation, from 1963 to 1997

there is nothing concrete except trying to send them back.

About the religious practices and life, although Kucukcan claims in his article “Turks in

Germany: Between Inclusion and Exclusion” (2002) that Muslim people especially Turkish

cannot practice or do the requirements that religion brings; according to the reports, articles,

rules, and statistics I can say that Turkish-Muslim communities had good conditions and rights

(maybe not enough) in Germany comparing to many other European countries.

4.2 Second Generation

Second generation is the middle generation and the most confused one. They are no

longer labelled as guest-worker or their children, but become the second generation of Turks in

Germany. Unlike their parents, they did not have any concrete plan to go back to Turkey or stay

permanently in Germany. Neither German nor Turkish, but immigrant´s children!

4.2.1. Neighbourhood

Unlike their parents, they did not choose their neighbourhood. They were born into the

Turkish community, neighbourhood. The children that they play with, the market that buy bread,

the neighbours that they talk to were all Turkish when we come to the second generation, it was

a well created little Turkey that they spent their first years until they go to school, which was a

big language problem because later this affected all their education, work and social life.

4.2.2. Education

The important part of the second generation´s life began in the school. This is what not

make them Turkish or German, but in the literature from this generation on they are called

German Turks. Until this generation go to school, they mostly exposed to Turkish in the home

and in the society that they can reach at that age. This first caused to a shock because when

the other people in the class learn how to write a German, they needed to begin with what is

German and how to speak German. Comparing the backgrounds of children, German Turks

had difficulty in terms of every aspect in the school and the courses. Mostly, this problem

followed them through whole their education as we can see tables of the survey of TIES (The

Integration of the European Second Generation) (Crul and Schneider, 2009, p.14-19).

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Second generation Turks: Early School Leavers (= lower secondary diploma at most)

Share of early school leavers among those not in education

(total N)

Share of ESL among all respondents (total N)

Austria 33.5% (334) 24.5% (458)

Belgium 10.0% (468) 7.8% (602)

France 24.6% (284) 14.2% (500)

Germany 34.2% (438) 29.7% (505)

Netherlands 48,4% (304) 29.4% (500)

Sweden 11.4% (201) 9.2% (251)

Switzerland 17.3% (277) 10.3% (468)

Source: TIES survey 2007/2008

Turkish second generation: Presence in pre-academic track and actual transition to higher education

Austria Belgium France Germany Netherlands Sweden Switzerland

Pre-academic

track

n.a. 51.3% 53.6% 12.7% 25.6% 56.2% 8.2%

In higher education

19.7% 24.2% 52.0% 7.5% 33.2% 35.5% 13.8%

Difference n.a. -27.1 -1.6 -2.3 +7.6 -20.7 +5.6

Total N 458 600 500 505 500 251 465

Source: TIES survey 20072008

These numbers cannot be explained only by the language difficulty. Besides the language

problem, financial issue also should be taken into consideration. Since the family -first

generation- did not have enough money and there was not sufficient time to save enough to be

able to give better education to the children; the second generation improved, but did not go

much further than their parents. However, their language of command became better than their

parents and in terms of education, they are in most of the cases a little bit better educated and

only in some cases they have higher education (university). Of course, even this much

alteration has affected their lives significantly related to social life.

4.2.3. Labour Market

Second generation become the second work power of Germany except that they were a

little bit more qualified and knew a little bit more German, but the economy was worse than their

parents´ time such as the recession that Germany entered in 2009. It is worth to note that

another disadvantage, beside the recession, in the history for the second generation was the

unification of East and West Germany because with unification the population has increased

and the little possible jobs even became harder to find or to be accepted. In the time of crisis

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and after unification, employers began to prefer East Germans. I believe that there are two

probable reasons for that, in the time of crisis they tried to watch over their citizens and the

other in terms of unification is that the people who were living in East Germany had the same

abilities in terms of education and work power like foreign workers, Turkish people. In other

way, East Germans were used to hard working conditions like the foreign workers who are

already living in Germany; in other words, the background of East Germans, and the “guest-

workers” and the second generation were more or less the same. This caused decline of

demand of foreign workers including that East Germans had better command of German than

the foreign workers also gave them another advantage in the labour market. Since this was the

background of this generation, they became merchants, opened their own shops and mostly

local ones. This also caused them to stay inside the community because it is a general

tendency that the people of one country look after each other, which means they and these

shops for the most part served for the Turkish community. With numbers according to the

Unabhängige Kommission Zuwanderung 2001, in 1999 there were over 263,000 self-employed

foreigners in Germany who were estimated to be responsible for the creation of some 780,000

jobs (as cited Migration and Integration Research Department, 2005, p.25) and The Centre for

Turkish Studies reports that the total investment volume of Turkish businesses was about 7.8

billion German Marks in 1992 and total revenue was around 28 billion German Marks annually,

which employed mostly their family members and co-ethnics (2005, p.25).

4.2.4. Social Life and Culture

Religion, culture and school are important elements of social life of second generation

from the childhood till adulthood and partially to their children. In the past, it was normal and an

option sending children to Quran courses that were given in mosques by imams in summers in

Turkey. However, in Germany like I mentioned in the first generation, religious organizations

were helping to the Turkish people if they apply some things that these organizations want

(2005, p.32). One of the requirements was religious classes for the children. In this way, parents

were also feeling better because they were thinking that this way their children will not fall far

from their religion and ´culture´; thus, it can be said that this was also good for the parents as

well as the financial help that they get.

Related to the school environment and language ability, the second generation created

better relations with outside world, or German society than their parents. However, the

´freedom´, which can be defined as being away from parents, religion and the community

pressure, in the school and the home or community life, on the other hand, caused a double life.

When they are in the school even if they do not want, they are in a German system with

language and classmates, or friends. When they go back to home, they need to continue a life

that is different than the school in terms of culture, religion, and community pressure. This is

why I call them the generation in between. Because of all these, most of them could not move

on to German society in terms of integration, assimilation or adaptation, but also they could not

exactly become Turkish, too. However, as we can see in the article of White called Turks in New

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Germany, the second and third generations, who show little inclination to return to a place and a

culture with which they are increasingly unfamiliar (1997, p.755). This is also an indicator of

where and how much they feel being German or Turk.

4.3. Third Generation

The third generation of Turks is also referred as German Turks rather than immigrants´

or guest workers´ children. This generation is the generation whose parents did not want them

to be like themselves; in other words, in between. Although this was achieved especially up to

some level in general, the existence of heavy conservative parents whose children are like them

far far away from the German society, language, culture, education and so on also should not

be forgotten, but in any case they do not constitute the majority. Third generation is a

generation of transition and assimilation.

4.3.1. Neighbourhood

Like their parents, third generation also did not have the chance to choose where to live

until they have a good reason to leave such as work, family, or university in another city, which

is also an indicator of Turkish culture. For the third generation another important factor was the

characteristic of their families -second generation- because they played an important role in

terms of their children´s way of life. In this sense, we can divide this generation into two, which

are religiously raised and religious-free raised.

The religious families have still been living in Turkish neighbourhoods and more

conservative in every aspect of their lives. Furthermore, they do not let their children especially

the girls leave their side in terms of interacting with German society. Thus, this generation

constructs and constructed their lives according to religion and imaginary Turkey and Turkish

culture. I say imaginary because this generation and the second one goes to Turkey only in the

summer vacations, so ´the Turkish culture´ that they constructed in their lives is created by the

media in Germany and Turkey, the neighbourhood, religion and the stories, memories of their

grandparents and parents (for some). From the perspective I see, this group shows more

religious bounded than the people live in Turkey and this not exactly what the Turkish culture is.

However, this does not change the fact that they both the second and third generations as

much as possible try to stay away from the German and Christian culture, society, tradition and

including education. Accordingly, their way of constructing their lives differentiate from the other

kinds of third generation, they maintain the way of their grandparents.

The families with less or non-religious characteristics, constructed or tried or have been

trying a different way of life and neighbourhood as much as possible. Because their life

standards a little bit better and they are open to the ´host´ society, they encouraged their

children for ´integration´ unlike the religious families of the same generation. This is why I

divided them into two. Thus, their command of language and entourage alter comparing to the

other group. Instead of identifying themselves as Turkish, it is common to see that some do not

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even think about Turkey or Turkish and some just say that my roots or my grandparents are

from Turkey, but I am from Germany, which is also closely related with the education as much

as family attitude.

4.3.2. Education

Unlike their parents, financial conditions and life perspective of second generation in

terms of providing better life to their children for education and jobs were much better. However,

like I mentioned above, not all the families were supportive for the things that were creating

interactive environment with Germans. Furthermore, Aziz Nesin Elementary School, which was

opened in 1996 and giving German-Turkish education, served for this generation in Berlin. In

terms of language for some of the third generation living in Berlin, this school played an

important role. Similar to neighbourhood, I also will divide this section into two as Turkish

language dominant education and German language dominant education.

The families with dominant characteristics of religion and Turkey generally tended to put

their children in the circle of Islam and Turkey. In this direction, they tried to restrict the lives of

their children especially the girls. In the article called “So, What are You?” The Transformation in

the “Imagined” Identity of German-born Turks, the interview of Martine Alonso Marqui and

Mehmet Furtun with Gül explains the situation of this kind of family and the third generation

clearly;

“Gül, a 26 year old female, was born and raised in Germany. Her father did not believe

that learning German would be relevant for his children, as he was persuaded that the

entire family would soon go back to Turkey. She portrays it this way: “My parents were

always ready to pack their luggage, but they also always had an excuse not to do it.”

Gül attended a Turkish primary school, was not allowed to speak German at home or to

have German friends. Therefore, the process of forming a German identity as well as

her integration in society was complicated. She had serious problems once she started

attending secondary school and the expected happened: she failed. Gül‟s failure in

school as well as the malicious comments of some of her German classmates about her

poor language skills opened a new page in her life. She quickly became aware that

language is essential for her to attain her future goals and she started to improve her

German. Today she is studying business administration and wishes to pursue her

studies until she gets a PhD degree. These examples show how the family of an

individual can influence his integration and the formation of his identity. (2003)”

Another example from the same article is;

“Many of the third generation German-Turkish youngsters hoped that a higher education

would be a key in the process of class mobility resulting in a less difficult acceptance

from the German society. Some parents encouraged their children, but many did not

want especially their daughters, to get a higher education and become self-sufficient.

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“Are you going to be a professor? Why do you make your A-levels? These were the

questions that my relatives asked me when I spent a lot of time improving my grades in

order to become successful in school” says Nuray. She believes that in the traditional

man-oriented Turkish society women should not pursue a career. The belief of many

Turkish families that education should not be a priority in life contributed to enlarge the

gap between German and Turkish children and the latter have been thwarted to

become active members of society (2003).”

In my opinion under the conditions of integration and importance of a command of language,

the case of Gül shows us a salvation story; however, unfortunately in these kinds of families, it

is not a common end like we can see from Nuray´s experience because mostly when they

began to restrict their children, families continue to do this for all their lives such as education,

friendship, neighbourhood and even the marriage of their children.

The second group of families with less dominant characteristics of religion and Turkey

generally tended to push their children to the society of German in terms of everything unlike

the religion and Turkey dominant Turkish families in Germany. Here, I will give another example

from Marqui and Furtun: “Nil, a 23 year old girl of Turkish descent, believes that her family’s

support played an important role in her integration process. Her parents always encouraged her

to have German friends and to learn the German language”.

As we can see from these examples, third generation differentiate inside in terms of the

effect of families (both first and second generation). Generally, the future of the third generation

shaped by Turkey, Turkish traditions, Islam, Islamic traditions and the imaginary possibility of

turning back as well as the reaction by the German society and education system. Thus, making

a generalization for this generation is a little bit hard, but at least we can try to see the big

picture by dividing it into two. It is hard to say that third generation is like first and second

especially regarding their way of seeing the importance of education and German language;

however, sometimes this generation under the restricted conditions also may fall into the

situation of their parents´ and grandparents´. In any case, third generation is the closest

generation to the German society in any aspect comparing to the others such as language

ability (Mueller, 2007 and Migration and Integration Research Department, 2005).

4.3.3. Labour Market

Labour market did not change extremely from second generation to third generation.

However, most of this generation either get into labour market late due to studies or they have

their own businesses or family´s.

Some of this generation still continue to study and the ones who finished and became

qualified worker or get a higher education involved in the market from a side that most of the

Turkish people did not use before. These people with the effect of globalization found some job

opportunities by using their Turkish and German such as representation in branches of a

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German company in Turkey or providing communication relations between German and Turkish

sides of companies. For instance, Seçil Paçacı Elitok and Thomas Straubhaar focus on the

importance of this argument and claims that German companies that have branches in Istanbul

mostly prefer highly qualified German-Turks, who immigrated to Turkey, hold the blue-card (free

to work and reside in both countries) and speak both languages (2012, p.17). Moreover, helping

to Turkish customers or visitors in terms of any aspect like translation, guiding in Germany.

Some just involved with their German and directly in a German system. The other part, like the

second generation continued to family businesses, which also caused them to serve and stay

inside the community.

4.3.4. Social Life and Culture

The social life and understanding of culture of this generation are shaped by all the

factors that I have talked above; neighbourhood that they live in, education that they got, and

the work area. Since this generation is the most interacted one in terms of Germany society,

culture and language, they have better and wider connections with outside world (outside of

Turkish community). As the report of Migration and Integration Research Department shows;

through the third generation, we can see the increasing effect and interaction of the host society

and Turkish community in many different areas like sports, music, films, media, food and

literature (2005, p.31-38). This also gives us an important reason to believe that how from

generation to generation the aspects of lives included and so called integration advanced.

However, in my opinion this rather than integration a signal of assimilation since these

happened along with the increase of language and interaction. Before all of these, the

governments of Germany did not try to adapt or integrate them, so there were not enough and

visible interaction regarding music, literature, sport and so on. When Turkish community or

generations mastered in German, they become visible in different parts of life. This result brings

the question: Why these improvements did not happen before, at the end this is a 50 year of

history. Hence, this is no more than an indicator of integration, but assimilation through

compulsion especially in relation to language.

5. Conclusion

All in all, all began with a contract in 1961 and a generation who thought to go back for

more than 50 years, but stayed, suffered themselves and made suffer the host country through

generations instead of accepting the settlement.

First generation, guest-workers, has isolated itself from the host culture, language,

friends, system, environment, society; in short, everything by believing that they will go back to

Turkey. In this way, they legitimized their actions and attitude through the host society.

However, they stayed longer than they think or plan and brought their families by thinking that

they will go back one day, but they a little bit more time. They stayed and had children in the

host society. By thinking that they will return some day or soon, they tried to hide their children

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from the host society like they did to themselves and by thinking that they prevent their children

from the effect of Christianity. At the end, they become marginal in the society.

The second generation grew up, some thought like their parents about going back and

hold on to that, and some moved on or tried to move on in the host society by accepting their

situation. At the end, they stayed, too. Mostly, they stayed like their parents away from the host

society, in the Turkish community with reasons of language, job, culture, etc. Because they

were not away from the host society as much as their parents, but they have been raised in a

strict Turkish community; they represent the generation in between of everything: They are not

marginalized, not integrated, not adapted, not isolated and definitely not assimilated. Also, they

had children.

Their children, third generation, today in the so called ´host society´; unlike their parents

and grandparents, mostly they moved on and do not think about going back, but because of the

circumstances that they have been, they are in the stage of assimilation.

This all happened around the neighbourhood (where you born and lived for a long time,

sometimes whole life), during the education (minimum eight years, the time people spent

between home and outside), during the job, labour market (what people do mostly for all their

lives), and social life (people construct through all the previous stages). The common ground of

all is the language and they all occupy a big part of people´s lives. If people close themselves to

communication or interaction, in which language is the easiest and fastest way, the result

through generations happens exactly as described above. Although from time to time some

attempts have been made both from the side of the host society, Germany, and the Turkish

communities in order to overcome the differences between them; because of a lack of real

attention and desire to the subject, both parts could not gain anything.

I believe that wherever people live, they need in this world at least one more language

and if they are in a situation like the Turkish community in Germany, it is a perfect chance to

learn a second language. At the end, it is our leader, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, who said that: One

who speaks only one language is one person, but one who speaks two languages is two

people. Nevertheless, I believe the psychology of being outsider in one society or country

especially with a different religion brings and living through generations like it is still 60s and 70s

brings this result to us.

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