Integration in the Shadow of Assimilation: The Case of Turkish Immigrants in Berlin

• In Event: 1284 - Section on Racial and Ethnic Minorities Refereed Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 22. Race, Ethnicity, and Identity in the German Context

Abstract

In 1990s, Germany revoked its long-held political stance of Deutshcland ist kein Einwanderungsland (Germany is not a country of immigration) to finally acknowledge that the so-called guest workers in the country were there to stay. These predominantly Turkish immigrants became subject to the federal government’s policy of assimilation. In time, the political discourse has shifted from assimilation to integration due to negative political connotations of the former. The discourse of integration allows immigrants to preserve their own culture unlike the assimilationist desire to make them culturally indistinguishable from the majority population. However, scholars have argued that the integration policy continues the ideas of assimilation under a more politically correct term. Particularly in the aftermath of 9/11, the integration debate in Germany become fixated on the “unassimilability” of Muslims due to alleged incompatibility of Islam with democratic (Western) values. This paper looks at how contradictions of the integration discourse in Germany reflect on everyday lives of Turkish immigrants in Berlin and affect the ways in which they develop a sense of belonging. Based on a three-month fieldwork in Berlin, I show that the uncertainties surrounding the concept of integration, and who can indeed be considered a “well-integrated migrant” create feelings of anxiety and alienation that is common to most immigrants from Turkey despite vast differences in their cultural, political and economic positions in the society. Even though the public discussion on integration revolves around Muslim Turks’ perceived inability to integrate, in reality most immigrants from Turkey feel “unwelcome” and constantly feel the need to justify their presence in the society. This, I argue, derives from a lack of agreement on what constitutes successful integration in Germany, leading even those Turks who lead “Western” lifestyles to feel excluded from the larger German society.

Author

• Ezgi Deniz Rasit, Northeastern University