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ФЕДЕРАЛЬНОЕ ГОСУДАРСТВЕННОЕ БЮДЖЕТНОЕ ОБРАЗОВАТЕЛЬНОЕ УЧРЕЖДЕНИЕ
ВЫСШЕГО ПРОФЕССИОНАЛЬНОГО ОБРАЗОВАНИЯ
«САНКТ-ПЕТЕРБУРГСКИЙ ГОСУДАРСТВЕННЫЙ УНИВЕРСИТЕТ»
Чекулаева Юлия Андреевна
Chekulaeva Iuliia Andreevna
Этническая самоидентификация второго поколения мигрантов в
Германии
Ethnic self-identification of second-generation immigrants in Germany
(cases of the Russian and Turkish immigrants in comparative perspective)
Диссертация
на соискание степени магистра
по основной образовательной программе высшего образования
по направлению 040100 «Социология»,
профиль «Европейские общества» / MA «Studies in European Societies»
Научный руководитель / Scientific supervisor:
доктор социологических наук,
профессор Скворцов Н. Г..
Prof. Dr. Skvortsov N.
Рецензент / Reviewer:
Социологический институт РАН,
Кандидат социологических наук Винер Б. Е.
Dr. Winer B.
Санкт-Петербург
2017
Table of contents:
Introduction………………………………………………………………………………....3
Chapter 1. Theoretical approach to ethnic self-identification of the second-generation
immigrants……………………………………………………………..………………..…7
1.
Identity as an object of sociological research………………………………………….
7
2.
Theoretical approaches to ethnic identity……………………………………………
10
3.
Generation categories in Immigration study…………………………………………
14
Chapter 2. History and conditions of Turkish and Russian immigration to Germany..
18
1.
German immigration and integration policies……………………...………………..
18
2.
Immigrants from Russia and the former USSR……………………….……………...
20
3.
Modern history of Turkish migration to Germany……………………….…………..
23
Chapter 3. Comparative analysis of experiences of Russian-and Turkish-speaking
second-generation immigrants in Germany…….............................................…………
26
1.
Methodology and description of the informants…………………………...………...
26
2.
Migration history and socioeconomic status of 10 families under study……………..
27
3.
Language practices of the second-generation immigrants…………………..……….
35
2
4.
Social categorization and comparison……………………….………………....……
41
5.
Types and stimulus of ethnic self-identification………………...……………..…….
48
6.
Mechanisms of negotiation and adaptation of multiple ethnicities to each other...…..
57
Conclusion…………………………………...…………………………………................66
Bibliography……………………………………………………………………………….71
Appendix I…………………………………………………………………...…………….75
Appendix II………………………………………………………………………………...
77
Appendix III…………………………………………………..…………………………...79
Appendix IV……………………………………………………………………………….80
Appendix V……………………………………………………………………..………….
94
Introduction
During the second half of the 20th century, the immigration level in Europe increased
dramatically. The collapse of the Soviet block and the emergence of new countries led to a
rearrangement of world perception in the minds of individuals. With the end of the opposition
between ideologies, a new system with increasing interconnection between countries appeared.
Citizens of the new states were engaged in the international market system. Moreover, the
process of people’s resettlement from the territories of former European colonies in Africa and
Asia by that time has already formed a multiethnic society in Western Europe. With the growing
number of immigrants, the issues of multiculturalism, assimilation, and integration have entered
the public and political agenda. At the same time, the process of migration did not stop with the
end of the millennium: it is still there and gains momentum. Currently, the main masses of
migrants are asylum seekers from the Middle East and Africa, as well as labor migrants from the
3
countries characterized by lower living standards. In this regard, the European society faces
continuous growth of multicultural population and the concept of ethnic self-identification gains
its importance. Immigrant’s ethnic identity is a composition of concepts, which are continuously
influenced and reshaped by the host society in daily interaction. This process may change
immigrant’s self-perception as a member of a certain social group, shift their inner beliefs,
attitudes and values. With the resettling to the host community, international migrants face the
necessity to reevaluate their habits, ways of life and connections to the homeland.
Meanwhile, the first generation immigrants, who moved to Europe in late 20th century,
have settled in the new territory, set up homes and settled down to married life. By now, most of
them have their families and kids, who were born in the host country. In the year 2008, there
were more than four million persons born in EU member-states, whose parents immigrated to
Europe. In Germany there were about 1,8 million native-born children of immigrants1 and the
state was marked as the one with the largest proportion of second-generation migrants with a
foreign background among 27 EU states2. This statistics illustrates the main objective to take
Germany as a ground for our research.
From my perspective, these children of immigrants, known as the second-generation
immigrants, find themselves at the crossroads of two identities: the one of their parent’s
motherland and the other surrounding them from the first years of their lives. Moreover, in a
multicultural society with dispersed common concepts, customs, mentality, and attitudes, identity
is going through constant changes. 3 This precarity between the two cultures creates an intriguing
and outstanding structure for the formation of individual’s ethnic identity. In this research, we are
looking into the mechanisms, strategies, and motivations, involved into the self-identification
process of the second-generation immigrants.
Having studied a number of immigrants of different origin in Germany, two groups of
immigrants were chosen for the research. They are the descents of Turkish and Russian origins.
It is reasonable to study the descendants of the Russian and Turkish immigrants together,
because of the comparability in the scale of immigration, as well as the similar age group of the
1
Population by country of birth, country of birth of mother and father, sex and age, Eurostat, 2014
Migrants in Europe. A statistical portrait of the first and second generation, Luxembourg: Publications
Office of the European Union, 2011, p.123
2
Küün E. Ethnic and Linguistic identity of Russian-speaking young people in Estonia. TRAMES, 2008,
12(62/57), 2, p. 187
3
4
second-generation. The group with Turkish origin was chosen mainly because of its
predominance and continuous period of settlement on the territory of Germany. In the case of
Russian descendants, we refer to several reasons, which are:
⎯ the contrast between Slavic and Muslim cultures enables the attainment of maximum
variety between two cases;
⎯ the complex history of migration movements between Russia and Germany, which
formed the community of Russian people with German roots (Russian-Germans);
⎯ the connection with this immigrant group on the basis of shared nationality, which
causes a special interest in the destiny of this group.
This type of study is necessary and topical because ethnic self-identity has important
implications for people’s study and career achievement as well as psychological well-being.
Moreover, children of immigrants grow in number and form a reasonable part of the German
population, which means that to some extend they will influence and form the future of the state.
That is why the question of whether children of immigrants identify themselves as a part of the
society and by what means do they shape and practice their identity worth considering.
The aim of this research is to study the variations of ethnic self-identification among
second-generation Turkish and Russian immigrants.
The problem in the sphere of my research is gnoseological and aims to fill the gap in the
study of the subjective processes of the ways of expressing and maintaining ethnic identities of
the immigrant descendants. Although much study is done both in the field of ethnic identities and
about second-generation immigrants, most of the works are concentrated on the causes and
effects of immigrant identities on the macro level. This research looks at the micro level of
people’s actions and interactions.
Current research may also serve a practical significance because it provides a better
understanding of SGIs’ feelings, attitudes and actions and may be of particular interest for the
following parties:
• individuals and organizations working with ethnic and cultural minorities
• politicians and researchers who are aimed at tracing the deficiencies of integration
and assimilation policies at the micro level
5
• those who are involved into the work on the preservation of the culture of ethnic
minorities
The tasks of the empirical research are the following:
•
to develop a theoretical and methodological approach to the study of ethnic identity
of SGIs
•
to explore the history of migration from the former USSR and Turkey
•
to identify the strategies of language practice of SGIs
•
to study various types of self-identification among SGIs;
•
to learn how do SGIs identify and represent themselves in different settings
•
To examine the ways of social categorization and comparison performed by the SGIs
•
to expose and describe the mechanisms of negotiation and adaptation of multiple
ethnicities to each other
All tasks identified above implicate comparative perspective, meaning the comparison of
the two cases of Turkish and Russian second-generation immigrants in the German setting.
The research question is based on its aim. What are the mechanisms of ethnic selfidentification of second-generation immigrants in Germany?
Although there are many components of ethnic identity45, this study focuses on ethnic
self-identification, which is the label, chosen by an individual to define the belonging to a certain
ethnic group. For example, second-generation immigrants may define themselves as Germans
while the first generation may identify with their national origins. This study goes further than
defining a range of labels, used by the SGIs, because it aims to examine the very process of
identification and looks further at the representation of chosen identity in practice.
The first Chapter of the paper summarizes the theoretical ground of the research and
discusses the key concepts of identity, ethnicity and immigrant generations. The following
Chapter provides the introduction to the emigration patterns from Russia and CIS, and Turkey as
Phinney, J. The Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure: A new scale for use with adolescents and young
adults from diverse groups. Journal of Adolescent Research, 7, 1992, pp. 156-176.
4
Cohen E.H. The Components of Ethnic Identity: A Cross-Cultural Theory and Case Study of Jewish
Student Activists. Keterpress, Jerusalem, Israel 2009, 48 pp.
5
6
well as German immigration policy. Chapter 3 presents the used methods, hypotheses, the data
and the empirical results. The final section summarizes and concludes.
Chapter 1. Theoretical approach to ethnic self-identification of the secondgeneration immigrants
7
Ethnic self-identification is the subjective attachment of people to certain ethnic
communities.6 Due to the change of cultural environment, international migrants are a specific
group which is differentiated from the native population by the pressure of reevaluation their
connections to the host and the home country. Empirical research on this topic78 tend to consider
ethnic self-identification as a single linear variable, meaning that attachment to the country of
origin and to the host country are mutually exclusive.
Yet, there is literature, where ethnic self-identification is argued to be the much more
complex concept910. In these works, the concept involves feelings of varying degrees, which can
also be ‘situational’, which means that they may vary over time or by place.
In this paper, we acknowledge the whole complexity of individual’s ethnic identity and
use the multidimensional approach to the concept of ethnic self-identification. Instead of a linear
model of assimilation, we will try to distinguish various possibilities immigrants have in their
ethnic self-identification.
1.
Identity as an object of sociological research
Being closely related with self-affirmation, identity grows in popularity as an object of
study among scholars in such fields, as psychology, sociology, and ethnology. Yet, until 1950
identity was not considered as an important research area in social science. And only with the
publication of Erik H. Erikson’s book Childhood and Society 11, the interest in the field has
sharpened in developmental psychology, philosophy, and sociology. Consequently, his work has
become a foundation for further research. Erikson’s definition of identity is based on the
psychological sense of inner self; he considers that identity is the way of asking and answering
the question “Who Am I”? Erikson viewed the achievement of a healthy self-identity to be a
fundamental and important task for all adolescents. Goodenow and Espin developed this concept
6
Zimmerman et. al. Ethnic Self-Identification of First-Generation Immigrants, 2006 p.1
7
Gordon, M. M. Human nature, class and ethnicity. New York, N.Y.: Oxford University press, 1978
8
Phinney et. al. Ethnic identity, immigration, and Well-Being: An interactional perspective. Journal of
Social Issues. Vol. 57. No. 3, 2001, pp. 493-510
9
Eschbach K., Gómez C. Choosing Hispanic identity: Ethnic identity switching among respondents to
high school and beyond. Social Science Quarterly, 79(1), 1998, pp. 74−90.
10
Aboud F. Social and cognitive bases of ethnic identity constancy. Journal of Genetic Psychology,
145(2), 1984, pp. 217−230.
11
Эриксон Э. Дестство и общество, 2-е издание, 1963
8
further by describing identity as an individual’s preference in being attached to particular social
groups.12 They also broaden the number of aspects to be considered during the development of
identity process.13 First, these are the problems related to the embracement of an immigrant,
which include the newcomer challenges and possible concerns of being a member of a minority
group. What is more, gender issues that are tied to the sex roles in both host and home cultures
have their input into identity construction.14
Although the term can be generally explained through an easy question of “Who am I?”,
identity can be considered as one of the most multidimensional and in sometimes contradictory
concepts at first sight. This diversity in understanding the concept is visible if we look at its
multiple definitions, which vary from embodying sameness of a group to distinguishing
individual’s personality. In other words, identity can refer simultaneously to person’s or group’s
commonalities and distinctions among each other. Thereby for the sake of convenience in the
definition and further exploration, two types of identities are distinguished – collective and
individual. They are closely connected and differ only in the focus of analysis. The individual
identity aims to answer the questions of who I am and where I belong to, while the collective
identities are giving the answers to questions of who we are and where we belong to.
Collective identity of an individual focuses on their shared characteristics with other
people and indicates collectivity. Being based on a number of shared values, experience and
norms, collective identity forms a foundation for further individual identification. Collective
identity is a key object of study in social identity theory.15 The theory focuses on group behavior
as well as intergroup relations and refers to identity as an association with a particular group. The
theory aims to explain and predict intergroup behavior through the perceived group status
differences, its legitimacy, and stability, as well as the ability to switch between these groups. 16
12
. Goodenow C., Espin O. M. Identity Choices in Immigrant Adolescent Females. Adolescence. Volume:
28. Issue: 109 Spring 1993. p. 175
13
Arriagada, P. A. In search of an identity: ethnic self-identification among children of immigrants.
2006
14
Goodenow C., Espin O.E. Identity Choices in Immigrant Adolescent Females. Adolescence 28(109):
1993. p. 174
15
Tajfel, Turner. The social identity theory of intergroup behavior. Political psychology, 1964 pp.
276-293
16
Ibid.
9
According to Tajfel and Turner, there are three cognitive processes in identifying oneself with a
certain group. They are:
•
Social categorization – when a person decides to which group they or others belong
to in order to understand and identify them. This basic level of categorization helps us to
choose the strategy of behavior towards others according to the groups of belonging. The
examples of social categorizations may be the following: teacher, student, Asian, white,
poor, rich.
•
Social Identification – when a person adopts the identity of the group they belong to.
If we identify ourselves with a certain group, we act the way members of this group are
supposed to or, to be more accurate, the way we think we are supposed to act. As a
consequence of person’s identification with a certain group, they develop emotional
significance to their identity, consequently, the self-esteem of a person is affected by the
reputation and prestige of the group in the society;
•
Social Comparison – when a person compares their group against other groups. The
in-group tend to be compared favorably against out-groups which help members of the
group to increase self-esteem. The negative perception of competing groups explains such
notions as discrimination and prejudice.
In this study, all the stages of categorization, identification, and comparison were
discussed with the interviewees, which contributed to the understanding of identity formation
among SGI. However, it would be reasonable to discuss the process of social comparison in
more details. Being attached to several groups which are often described as contested and
unequal in their social status (natives vs. immigrants, Germans vs. Turks or Russians), it
becomes difficult to predict how they would compare these groups. According to the social
identity theory, SGIs are supposed to identify and value being a part of more powerful and
positively described group, which is Germans. Several studies claim that if individuals are
members of devalued group, they may choose to change the group membership if possible, or at
10
least disidentify with it if not. (Tajfel, Turner17; Waters18).19 Yet, there is an opposing framework
of “second generation decline”20, where the ethnicity of origin might be more favorable for the
second generation. This opposition to the mainstream is viewed as the reaction to low
expectations of educational and job performance and discrimination second-generation
immigrants face in their lives.21 This variation of theoretical assumptions motivated us to find
out the original strategies and mechanisms of SGIs in the process of personal identification and
comparison of the group they associate themselves with and the out-group.
As an alternative to the collective approach to identity presented in social identity theory,
there is an identity theory, which focuses on role performance and role relationships within
groups. In the case of identity theory, scholars (Stryker22; Burke & Stets23) are more focused on
the behavior of a person, which is a function of their role identities. In other words, identity
theorists see the self in terms of the social category – a role. By viewing an identity as an agent,
identity theorists develop a structure-agency connection between the individual and society and
discuss the system of its mutual influences.24 They look at the specific meanings of the multiple
identities of individuals, the relations of these identities and the influence of identity on
individual’s behavior, thoughts, feelings, and emotions.25
Although there is a limited implication of identity theory to the study of ethnic identity,
we suggest it could be included into the theoretical ground of our research in order to
17
Tajfel, H. & Turner, J. C. (1986). The social identity theory of inter-group behavior. In S. Worchel &
W. G. Austin (Eds.), Psychology of Intergroup Relations. Chicago: Nelson-Hall
18
Waters, Mary C. Ethnic Options: Choosing Identities in America. Berkeley: University of California
Press. 1990
19
French S., Seidman E. The Development of Ethnic Identity During Adolescence. Developmental
Psychology 2006, Vol. 42, No. 1, 1–10
20
Gans, H. J. Second-generation decline: Scenarios for the economic and ethnic futures of the
post-1965 American immigrants. Ethnic and racial studies, 15, 1992. pp. 173-193
21Vathi,
Z. Migrating and Settling in a Mobile World. Albanian migrants and their children in Europe.
Springer, 2015, p.7
22
Stryker S. The Vitalization of Symbolic Interactionism. Social Psychology Quarterly, Vol. 50, No. 1.
1987, pp. 83-94.
23
Stets J. E., Burke P. J. A Sociological Approach to Self and Identity. 2011
24
Stryker, S., Burke P.J. The Past, Present, and Future of an Identity Theory. Social Psychology
Quarterly 2000, Vol. 63, No. 4, pp. 284-297
25
Burke P.J., Stets J.E. Identity theory. Oxford University press, 2009, p.4
11
theoretically cover the investigation of mechanisms of ethnic self-identification. This aspect of
performing ethnic identity is directly linked with the aim of identity theory to explain how
multiple ethnic identities influence the behavior and feelings of second-generation immigrants.
2.
Theoretical approaches to ethnic identity
For a long time, ethnicity has been historically defined through primordialist approach by
a set of demographic categories such as shared language, national origin, and culture. Although
some psychologists (e.g. Phinney) and anthropologists (e.g. Roosens) acknowledged certain
socially constructed connotations of the term, such as for example, the social distance between
ethnic groups.26 Yet, the changing realities caused by such processes as integration and
globalization has led to rethinking the classical understanding of ethnic categories.
Frederic Barth (1969), an anthropologist from Norway was the first to systematically
articulated notion of ethnicity as being chosen, changed, or maintained. He argued that ethnicity
is a matter of classification and categorization, which means that it results from selfidentification and social assignment.27 Several current scholars have developed this basic idea
further (Jenkins). They have brought a new stance on identity construction as an ongoing
process involving social interactions between an individual and others (Omi and Winant28; Portes
and Rumbaut29; Rodríguez30 ; Waters 31). They also focused on multiple levels (individual,
interactional and institutional) as well as contexts (formal and informal) of the process of
categorization.32
Quintana S. M. Racial and Ethnic Identity: Developmental Perspectives and Research. Journal of
Counseling Psychology 2007, Vol. 54, No. 3, 259 –270
26
Barth F.Ethnic Groups and Boundaries. The Social Organization of Culture Difference. Waveland
Press, 1998, 153 p.
27
Michael Omi and Howard Winant, eds., Racial Formation in the United States, Second Edition, 1994
pp. 3-13.
28
Portes, A., Rumbaut, R. G. Legacies : the story of the immigrant second generation University of
California Press, 2001. 380 pp.
29
Rodriguez, C. Changing Race: Latinos, the Census, and the History of Ethnicity in the United States.
New York, NY: New York University Press, 2000.
30
Waters, Mary C. Ethnic Options: Choosing Identities in America. Berkeley: University of California
Press. 1990
31
Arriagada, P. A. In search of an identity: ethnic self-identification among children of immigrants.
2006
32
12
Social construction perspective, in contrast to the primordial view on ethnicity, stresses
out the situational character of ethnicity, its multiple and fluctuating qualities.33 Based on this
assumption, ethnic identity can not be constant or guaranteed, as it is open to changes and may
fluctuate over time.
One of the most grounded and influential critiques of existing tendency to treat ethnic
groups as homogeneous, bounded entities, was introduced by Rogers Brubaker in his article
“Ethnicity without groups”. He criticizes scholar’s habit of studying society through the lens of
“monochrome ethnic, racial or cultural blocks”34. As an alternative to seeing ethnicities as
homogeneous and ascribed groups, he proposes to treat ethnicity as cognition. According to
Brubaker, ethnicity “exist only through our perceptions, interpretations, representations,
categorizations and identifications”35. In this definition of ethnicity, no demographic categories
presented; ethnicity is totally detached from all the physical or objective aspects but referred
only to personal cognition and evaluation of an individual. The importance of this approach is
viewed in shifting from viewing ethnicity as the “things in the world” to the “perspectives on the
world”, which are quite subjective. This approach may be supported by the examples of people
from different races, nationalities, and countries who have the same ethnic identity (e.g. a Jews)
and those who possess dual ethnic identity (e.g., Russian German, an African American).
By offering cognitive perspective to ethnicity, race, and nationality, Brubaker revises
constructivist, or more precisely, instrumentalist approach, which suggests that ethnicity is
completely, strategically manipulated by the individuals. In reality we may question this
approach because it is difficult to believe that all the aspects of ethnic identity may be
consciously manipulated. To adjust this exaggeration to reality, Brubaker offered to take into
account the aspects of identification which may be situational, unconscious and quazi-automatic
rather than controlled and manipulated.36 Cognitive perspective suggests treating ethnicity, along
with race and nationality as ways of identifying and classifying people. Based on this
categorization, people construct their behavior, justify their actions, in other words, represent
themselves and categorize other based on their representations. This assumption reflects the
33
Nagel, J. Constructing Ethnicity: Creating and Recreating Ethnic Identity and Culture. Social
Problems, Vol. 41, No. 1, 1994, pp. 152-176
34
Brubaker R. Ethnicity without groups. Cambridge journals, XLIII(2002) p. 164
35
Ibid. p. 174
36
Brubaker et. al. Ethnicity as cognition. Theory and society 33, 2004, p. 51
13
epidemiological handling of representation, introduced by Dan Sperber.37
In his way of
thinking, representations are the distributions of cultural things in a population. So, in order to
explain a cultural phenomenon, an epidemiology of representations should be developed. In
order to fulfill this task, representations should be viewed not as something abstract, but as
concrete objects of two forms: mental and public. Mental representations are internal and take
place in our minds, while public ones are external, and proceed in the environment.
Due to the fact, that identity is multifaceted and complex, one‘s overall sense of self is
cast of a number of distinct and unique identities, which are relevant to individuals communities
of membership. These identities generally refer to different aspects of one’s lives like, for
example, ethnic, gender, sexual identities. All of these identities are collective ones but imply
different spheres.
In the case of SGIs, several ethnic identities are discussed, the collective
identities labeling one sphere. Therefore, children of immigrants may possess multiple identity.
To develop these multiple affiliations, they develop certain strategies to balance their allegiances
with the larger community and their own ethnic minority community. To sum up, “Multiple
ethnic identity implies the ability of an individual and/or group to identify themselves as
belonging to two or more ethnic cultures at the same time.”.38
The notion of multiple ethnic identity was explored by Miri Song on the example of
multiethnic societies of the USA and Britain. She recognizes the importance of agency and
choice for individuals in the process of ethnic identity construction.39 Most of the information
about the notion is embedded into the constructivist approach to ethnicity, as well as isolated
studies of such aspects of multiple ethnic identity as multiculturalism and multilingualism. Yet,
there is neither coherent and developed theory of multiple ethnic identity nor sufficient amount
of empirical research on the topic.
In order to discuss the concept in its full complexity and relate the issue to the identity of
second-generation immigrants, certain aspects should be clarified. A number of characteristics of
multiple ethnic identities were provided by V. Kurske40. They are:
37
Sperber D. Antropology and Psychology: Towards an Epidemiology of Representations. Man (N.S.) 20,
1985, pp.73-89
38
Kurske V. The Ethnic Identity of Russian Germans. Theoretical Approaches and Methodology of
Research of the Multiple Ethnic Identity.ZDES Working Papers 2013-01 p.12
39
Song, M. Choosing Ethnic Identity. Polity Press, Cambridge, UK, 2003. 190 pp.
40
Ibid. pp. 12-15
14
•
Multiple ethnic identity is relative, meaning that the extent to which a person has a
certain identity should be addressed rather, than the mere fact of its possession.
•
Identity is an active and dynamic phenomenon. Treating it as an active process, we
should look into the assumptions, choices, and actions, which indicate a constant analysis
and struggle for the perception of self and others. The adoption of the identity of a given
community (be it host or home) proceeds through the efforts taken by a person to adopt and
attain the culture of the interested group.
•
Mutual exclusion contradicts the core of multiple ethnic identity. For example,
asking an individual with multiple identity to choose a group they identify most, you force
them to make an unreasonable or forced choice, which is irrelevant for the person. On
practice, people with multiple identity would tend to merge the two cultural identities
together and integrate them consistently in mind, behavior, and emotions.
•
Multiple ethnicity is virtually situational and instrumental. A person tends to present
various elements of their ethnicity in different situations, and by doing so, they are more
often (not always, though) guided by their own practical goals. Switching from one part of
identity to another is a common practice among people with multiple identity.
The study of multiple identities traditionally focuses on children of mixed parentage41 .
Yet, this type of identity also implies to children of immigrants who follow the flows of
assimilating into a new society but also attempt to integrate their family’s cultural traditions into
their individual identities.
In this research, the aspect of self-representation as the member of a particular ethnic
group is studied through the individual practices of deconstruction and reconstruction of
ethnicity among second-generation immigrants. A similar approach was used in a recent research
by Ogbuagu and Baffoe, focused on the identities of 1,5 generation Africans in the USA.42
Deconstruction of ethnicity means that some objective aspects of ethnic identity become not or
less important for the members of the group and/or are not used any more. It is also possible that
some objective patterns of ethnicity may be dropped and new patterns from other cultural
sources may become more meaningful. Reconstruction, on the other hand, implies that ethnic
41
Bradford, B. Who are the “Mixed” ethnic group? National statistics, May 2006
Buster, C. O., Joliet, I. Stuck in the middle of nowhere?“ Deconstruction and reconstruction of
identities among 1.5 generation African immigrant youth in north American societies: dilemmas and
challenges. European Scientific Journal June 2015 edition vol.11, No.17
42
15
patterns keep their meanings and are retailed. Another example of reconstruction is when an
individual finds a new meaning in their ethnic background at certain periods and objectify them
into new visible ethnic patterns. Over the generations, some old ethnic patterns may be revived
with a new meaning.
The subjective interpretation of ethnicity discussed above, and its multiple implications
leads to the following questions: When and how do people identify and represent themselves and
perceive others; which perspectives do they rely on in these processes; and how ethnicities are
negotiated and adapted to each other.
3.
Generation categories in Immigration study
With the growing interest in family migration, the concept of generation has become one
of the central in migration studies. Although the term is generally known and seems nonproblematic, it has a number of definitions as well as scientific approaches, which should be
discussed. A generation has been traditionally referred to family relationships and covered “a
group of living beings constituting a single step in the line of descent from an ancestor”43. The
idea of social generation appeared in the 19th century and addressed the broader social groupings
referring to all people born and living at about the same time. Age became general criteria to
define generations, which were in most cases addressed to youth (the new generation, the young
generation). In such a broad definition, the average period of a generation is considered to be 30
years.44 Karl Mannheim in his 1923 essay, "The Problem of Generations" developed a theory of
generations, where it is defined not only by the similar age of individuals but also by the shared
experience of historical events.45
When generation is referred to migrants and their children, it is focused not on the age of
the group, but on the ancestry and descendants. It is also associated with particular challenges
and assimilation patterns which differ among generations. Because of these differences, the
concept of generations becomes very useful for distinguishing variations in behavior,
expectations, and attitudes across immigrant groups. The general idea is that the first generation
appears to be in harsh conditions and low pay in the receiving country and expect their children,
43
Definition of generation. URL: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/generation
44
Wohl, R. The Generation of 1914. 1979 pp.203-204
Mannheim, K. The Problem of Generations. In Kecskemeti, Paul. Essays on the Sociology of
Knowledge: Collected Works, Volume 5. New York: Routledge. 1952 p. 276-322.
45
16
the second generation, to have better lives and opportunities and that the third generation will be
fully assimilated into the country of settlement. This assumption is typical for an early classical
approach to assimilation, that claimed that “the longer migrant stay in the new destination, the
more they socially and economically resemble natives”46 and the more likely it is that the second
generation will identify ethnically with the dominant group there. Further studies proved that the
straight-line assimilation theory is not universal. With the increase in recognition of differences
within groups in terms of ethnic identification, there is a move towards a more complex and
nuanced approach.
Yet, because of the lack of coherent categorization, immigrant generations are not
defined universally and its connotations are overlapping.47 Generally, immigrant generation
refers to the age of a person at the time of migration as well as their parent’s migration
background. In other words, first-generation immigrants are those migrants who come of age in
the country of origin; the second-generation immigrants are the children of at least one
immigrant parent.48 The demographic definition states, that the second generation “include only
those offspring of migrant parentage born in the receiving country”. 49 Yet, there is a broader,
more sociological perspective, where the second generation is defined as “the offspring of
migrant parentage who entered the receiving country before their first year of primary school”.50
In this case, primary education is taken into account; if a person starts school in the country of
destination, their education and the major part of their upbringing proceeds in the host
community. Because of a certain criticism of a loose agreement on the clear definition of the
category, further attempts were made to specify the term.
Except for the first and second
generation, some scholars make an attempt to single out 1.75, 1.5 and 1.25 generation
immigrants51, who are, respectively, the children of 0-6, 6-12 and 12 and older years old at the
46
Ari L.L. Multiple Ethnic Identities among Israeli Immigrants in Europe. International Journal of Jewish
Education Research, 2013 (5-6), p. 207
47
King, R. Ageing and Migration. Migration: A COMPAS Anthology, edited by B. Anderson and M. Keith,
COMPAS, Oxford, 2014
48
Portes, A., Rumbaut, R. G. Legacies : the story of the immigrant second generation University of
California Press, 2001. 380 pp.
49
Fibbi R. et. al. The new second generation in Switherland. Amsterdam University Press 2015, p. 16
50
Ibid.
Rumbaut R. G. Ties that Bind: Immigration and Immigrant Families. Immigration and the Family:
Research and Policy on U.S. Immigrants, Booth A. et. al., Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1997 pp. 3-46,
51
17
time of resettlement, and have partial educational and socialization background of the home
country.
Having studied all the aspects of categorization of descents of immigrants, we decided to
opt for a general sociological definition of the second generation, naming the descents of at least
one immigrant parent who were born or entered the destination country before the age of 6. We
take into account the fact that primary socialization is closely related to the family and the outer
society is less important for a baby. The socialization in the wider group of people, or with the
community takes place and develops during the period of primary education and school years.
Another argument in favor of this definition may be so-called “childhood amnesia” – the
inability of adults to memorize their early childhood, which can range from 2 to 8 years.
Research on second-generation immigrants is a relatively new phenomenon which
emerged in the 1990-s in the study of immigrant integration. One of the first publications
appeared in the United States in 1996, it was The New Second Generation 52 and was followed by
the special issue of International Migration Review (31) on the second generation in America in
1997. The study focused on the differences and similarities in the integration process of today
and during the “old immigration” period.53 The main changes that integration process has passed
through the decades are the following:
•
it has become more difficult to integrate into the structure of the receiving society
than in the past. Hence, the risk that the children of immigrants will fail to move up the
social ladder is more evident than it was in the past. This risk is especially applicable to
those, who enter the social hierarchy near the bottom. This change was firstly described as
“second-generation decline” by Gans (1992).
•
globalization has caused a range of cultures and ethnicities in one place and children
of immigrants are now less likely to adopt the majority identity. As an alternative, they may
develop bicultural or hybrid identities.
52
Portes A. The New Second Generation 1996, 256 pp.
Crul M., Vermeulen H. The Second Generation in Europe. IMR Volume 37 Number 4 (Winter 2003) p.
953
53
18
•
there is strong criticism towards the too homogeneous image on past integration. The
opposing group of historians and social scientists view ultimate assimilation as one of the
possible outcomes of the new immigration. 54
European second generation has become an object of systematic exploration at about the
same time as the American one. It was supported by the societal and political concerns regarding
the challenges of integration ethnic minorities into the European societies, as well as the failure
of the policy of multiculturalism. Yet, there was still a little amount of broad and universal
international comparative research on the second generation until recently. One such venture has
been undertaken from 1998 to 2000 in eight European countries - the EFFNATIS project. The
focus of the research was on the influence of national policies on integration and the outcomes
for the second generation. The countries under study were England, France, Germany, Sweden,
Switzerland, the Netherlands, Spain, and Finland.55 The research studied different ethnic groups
in different countries, hence no comparisons of the outcomes among the cases could be made.
Another attempt to make a cross-national comparative research on second-generation immigrants
in Europe was recently made by a group of 30 researchers in urban areas of fifteen cities in eight
European countries (Austria, Belgium, Germany, France, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the
Netherlands). The TIES project studied the children of immigrants from Turkey, Ex-Yugoslavia
and Morocco who were born in the receiving country. This large-scale research resulted in a
series of books, reports, and articles focused on various aspects of integration, such as economic,
social, educational and identity issues. The first systematic common European dataset on the
integration of second-generation immigrants was developed via this project.56
The Turkish immigration and the processes of assimilation and adaptation of immigrants
and their descendants have been widely discussed in European57 and German58 researches. Yet,
the immigrant population of Russian origin has been substantially omitted, especially in the two
large-scale researches (EFFNATIS and TIES). This paradox is difficult to explain because
54
Fibbi R. et. al. The new second generation in Switherland. Amsterdam University Press 2015, p. 12
55
EFTANIS Final report. 2001.URL: http://www.efms.uni-bamberg.de/pdf/finalreportk.pdf
TIES: The Integration of the European Second Generation. URL: http://www.tiesproject.eu/
index9ed2.html?lang=en
56
de Valk H. A. G., Barban N. The Turkish second generation in Europe: family life trajectories and
independence in the transition to adulthood. PAA Annual Meeting 2012
57
Schulte B. Second Generation Entrepreneurs of Turkish Origin in Germany: Diasporic Identity and
Business Engagement. Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development No. 56, 2008 20 pp.
58
19
according to the statistics, immigrants with Russian background constitute a second largest group
in Germany and also present around Europe.
Most of the works on seсond-generation immigrants are focused on such integration
aspects as the achievements in education59 and performance on the job market6061. The attention
was also paid to the comparative research on integration processes across countries and
generations.62 Yet, there is a gap in the study of the very process of identification as well as the
everyday practices of SGIs, through which we can trace the duality or multiplicity of their ethnic
affiliations. This type of study is as important as any other because only through the
investigation of the behavior and decisions made by SGIs it is possible to trace the real state of
affairs regarding their connections with the host community and the level of involvement into the
political and social life of the country. It is also important to check whether the rhetoric used by
the SGIs and their "theoretical perspective" on their identity go in line with their actions and
behavior.
Chapter 2. History and conditions of Turkish and Russian immigration to Germany
Turkish and Russian migration have followed different patterns in Germany due to
contrasting inter-state relations as well as domestic and foreign policies of all three countries. In
this section, the comparative analysis of national strategies and economic factors in Germany,
Turkey and USSR/the former Soviet republics is presented to illustrate the circumstances under
which the first generation immigrants, meaning the parents and in some cases, grandparents of
Kristen C., Granato N. The Educational Attainment of the Second Generation in Germany Social
Origins and Ethnic Inequality. IAB Discussion Paper No. 4/2007, 33 pp.
59
Worbs S. The Second Generation in Germany: Between School and Labor Market. International
migration review, Volume 37, Issue 4, December 2003, pp.1011–1038
60
61Sürig
I. Wilmes M. The Integration of the Second Generation in Germany Results of the TIES Survey on
the Descendantants of Turkish and Yugoslavian Migrants. Amsterdam University press, 2015, 203 pp.
Crul M., Schneider J. The European Second Generation Compared Does the Integration Context
Matter? Amsterdam University press, 2012, 437 pp.
62
20
the group under study, migrated to Germany. The overview is restricted to the period starting
with 1970-s which are the most relevant for our study.
1. German immigration and integration policies
Although Germany has admitted a significant number of refugees and migrants in the
post war period, Germany has not traditionally considered itself an immigration country until the
beginning of 2000-s. This means that apart from special regulations for labor migrants, their
family members, and asylum-seekers along with refugees, there were no legal admission
procedures for those who want to immigrate to Germany.63 The federal government decided to
temporarily employ foreign workers at the period of economic growth in order to offset labor
shortages. The first "Agreement on the Recruitment and Placement of Workers" ("Abkommen
über Anwerbung und Vermittlung von Arbeitskräften") was signed with Italy in 1955 followed
by Greece and Spain (1960), Turkey (1961), Morocco (1963), Portugal (1964), Tunisia (1965)
and Yugoslavia (1968).
A further exception has been made in 1980-s or ethnic Germans from Eastern Europe and
the former Soviet Union, who were allowed to immigrate, or “return” to Germany and “re”claim German citizenship. According to the German law, individuals are perceived as Aussiedler
if they are descending from German nationals of any ethnicity or of ethnic German descent
living on the territory of the former Soviet Union. In the context of contemporary migration
theory, the return of ethnic Germans from Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union to
Germany provides an example of diaspora migration.64 Yet, in the case of Russian Germans
return has been quite controversial, because the “Right of Return” legally allowed the
immigration and recognized individuals, who may never have lived in Germany, spoke German
or identified as Germans, as a legal member of the state.
The immigration of Soviet Jews to Germany began at the same period, or more precisely
in 1989 with the breakdown of the Berlin Wall. Taking into account the mass character of the
migration, German federal government decided to adopt official immigration rules for Jews
Halfmann J. Immigration and Citizenship in Germany: Contemporary Dilemmas. Political studies,
Volume 45, Issue 2 June 1997 pp.260–274
63
Dietz, B. Ethnic German Immigration from Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union to Germany:
The Effects of Migrant Network (November 1999). IZA Discussion Paper No. 68. Available at
SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=193628
64
21
coming from the USSR. They admitted them as quota refugees and in such a manner expressed
Germany 's willingness to make reparation for wrong and live down record.
It was only the year 2000 when the right to hold German citizenship was granted to the
second-generation immigrants born in Germany. Dual citizenship has become legal for the
children of EU-citizens. This shift in the policy signified a broadening of the concept of the
citizenship “ius sanguinis”(by birth) by “ius soli” (born on German territory)65 which can serve
as an indicator of political inclusion of previously rejected part of the population into the
German society.
In 2005 the new immigration law that declared Germany to be a country of immigration
came into effect. One of the aims of the law was to simplify the range of specific residence titles
into two: the temporary residence permit and the permanent settlement permit. And what is more
important, integration was defined as a legal duty. It was the first time that language courses
became a legal requirement. The trigger for the development of national integration plan was the
Integration Summit of 2006. 66 Because of the heightened attention to the interdependency of
education achievements and the origin of students’ families, the focus was directed to the
creation of a dialog with Muslims. For this purpose an Islam Summit, where such parties as
German government, Muslim associations and individuals participated, was established.
One more mechanism aimed at the development of integration strategy was introduced in
2008. A multidimensional naturalization test forces individuals to obtain a sufficient knowledge
of German history, laws, society and culture. Furthermore, the level of language proficiency was
lifted. Retraining courses may be offered to those immigrants, whose education or profession
does not meet the requirements of the labor market in Germany.
Having studied German immigration policy of 1980-1990s, we can see the clear political
strategy aimed at the reunion of the German nation. It caused a big influx of Russian Germans
to the historic homeland. Additionally, couple decades earlier, economic necessity of the
productive postwar period caused the arrival of the major part of Turkish parents and
grandparents of the second-generation immigrants to Germany.
65
Oezcan V. Germany: Immigration in Transition. Migration policy institute, July 1, 2004. URL: HTTP://
WWW.MIGRATIONPOLICY.ORG/ARTICLE/GERMANY-IMMIGRATION-TRANSITION
66
Ibid.
22
2. Immigrants from Russia and the former USSR
With the break-up of the Soviet block followed by the collapse of the Soviet Union,
emigration from its successor states has increased considerably. Since the late 1980s, the main
receiving country of the outmigration was Germany. Approximately 1.63 million ethnic Germans
and 120,000 Jews entered Germany between 1990 and 1999.67
Until the end of 1987, the political tension between Germany and the Soviet Union
resulted in restriction of ethnic Germans resettlement. Because of that, only 109,602 ethnic
Germans arrived from the USSR between 1950 and 1987.68 With the fall of the Iron Curtain as
well as the relaxation of emigration regulations, the immigration rose up to nearly 400,000
persons in 1989 and 1990 and continued with the average number of 200 thousands immigrants
per year from 1991 onwards.69
Due to the fact, that until the end of the 1980s the necessary condition to emigrate from
the USSR was the invitation of an immediate relative in Germany, the main official emigration
reasons at that period were related to family reunification. Those ethnic Germans who were more
motivated to preserve their German identity were the first to move. In the USSR they aimed to
preserve the German language, German cultural traditions, along with religious practices. The
policies of deportation and discrimination against ethnic Germans during and after World War II
motivated them to leave the USSR at the first chance. In Germany, they were looking foremost
the freedom of oppression and ethnic tension. Since the beginning of the 1990s, with the increase
of national conflicts in the successor states, and growing economic and political crises,
emigration spun up. All the negative social, economic and political processes which
accompanied the collapse of the Soviet Union served as predominant push factors for emigrants.
Additionally, ethnic Germans were additionally motivated to move out because of the reasons
closely related to their history. Ethnic discrimination in the post-war period has left fears, which
were reactivated in the climate of increasing ethnic tensions in the
1990s, especially in
Kazakhstan and Middle Asia, where many ethnic Germans live. Pull factors are viewed in the
prospect of settling in economically and politically stable and prosperous Federal Republic of
67
Dietz B. German and Jewish migration from the former Soviet Union to Germany: background, trends
and implications. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies. Vol.26, No.4: October 2000 p. 635
68
Ibid. p. 637
Dietz, B, Ethnic German Immigration from Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union to Germany:
The Effects of Migrant Network. IZA Discussion Paper No. 68. November 1999
69
23
Germany, as well as the opportunity to reunite with those family members and friends, who had
left earlier. Due to a growing number of ethnic Germans in the former Soviet Union had family
relations with Germany, the emigration developed its own network dynamics over time. These
formed networks are expected to have an additional influence on the individual migration
decisions. The more migrants a person knows in a sending area the greater the probability that
this person will follow their decision to migrate. 70 It is also important to note that RussianGerman immigrants coming from the former Soviet Union in most cases migrate with the whole
family to Germany and tend not to leave open any options for return.
It is also relevant for the study to dwell upon the demographic, social and cultural
background of Russian-German immigrants. The main sending areas of ethnic Germans from the
former USSR has been descendantingly: Kazakhstan, Russia, Kurdistan and the Middle Asian
states. Between 1992 and 1999 the bigger part of ethnic Germans came to Germany from
Kazakhstan (57 percent), about one third was from Russia (33 per cent) and the remaining 10
percent immigrants were from other successor states of the USSR. 71 Many ethnic German
immigrants have lived in multiethnic settings in their origin countries. The education and the
professional attainment of ethnic Germans are close to the average educational and professional
training of the population in the host countries. Since the beginning of the 1990s, most ethnic
Germans from the former USSR were not proficient in the German language. Although state
authorities identified ethnic Germans by the means of registration and passport system, they had
lost their ties to German language and culture and in many cases were completely assimilated
both socially and culturally. The rate of mixed marriage among ethnic Germans from the former
USSR is high, which leads to a growth of bicultural families. This tendency both indicates and
strengthen the assimilation of ethnic Germans living on the territory of the former USSR,
because most of these mixed marriages concerned Russian and German partners. According to
the Federal Administration Office, the rate of non-German family members coming to Germany
with the ethnic Germans amounted to 26 percent in 1993, while in 1999 it reached 69 percent.72
We should also note, that there is a huge variation in the level of assimilation among Russian
Germans as well as differences in their self-identification, be it Russians, Russian Germans or
70
Portes, A. Immigration theory for a new century: some problems and opportunities. International
Migration Review Vol.31 No.4, 1997, p. 809
71
Dietz B. German and Jewish migration from the former Soviet Union to Germany: background, trends
and implications. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies. Vol.26, No.4: October 2000 p. 638
72
Ibid. p. 640
24
Germans. Hence, we can conclude that ethnic Germans from the former USSR during the late
1990s could have Russian identity, but not German one and might treat migration as any other
migrant, but not as a return to their homeland.
Ethnic Germans from Eastern Europe and the (former) USSR may be considered as the
most privileged immigration group in Germany.73 Unlike labor migrants, they are granted with
German citizenship shortly after arrival and get access to governmental support aimed at
integration. Although there is a tendency of recent years to gradual cuts of the assistance catalog,
it still entails subsidized housing; language courses for a maximum of six months; advanced
training and retraining; and aid for the educational and professional integration of immigrant
youth.
For the immigrants of Jewish origin, several factors are relevant in preferring Germany to
the countries of the former Soviet Union. First of all, similar to the ethnic German population,
overt and anticipated anti-Semitism, economic and political instability along with ethnic tensions
in the successor states were the most evident the push-factors. Family-related reasons also
contributed to the decision to emigrate74. Although Israel and the USA have been the destination
countries for the Jews, Germany also seemed to be an attractive destination for those emigrants,
who wanted to leave the former Soviet Union but felt insecure about traveling too far. Some of
the Jewish population in the USSR already had some contacts in Germany, be it relatives, friends
or acquaintances. Social capital facilitated the decision-making and made the adaptation to the
German economy and society easier. Just like in the case of ethnic German immigrants, migrant
network increased in its role overtime. As for the territories of Jewish settlements in the Soviet
Union, the major part of Jewish immigrants has been resettling from Ukraine and Russia,
followed by the Baltic states, Belorussia and Moldova. 75 Hence, a high proportion of Jewish
came from the European part of the former USSR and most of them from urban areas.
Jewish immigrants coming from the former USSR to Germany were quite educated.
According to the surveys of 1990-s, more than 70 per cent of Jewish immigrants who took part
Dietz, B, Ethnic German Immigration from Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union to Germany:
The Effects of Migrant Network. IZA Discussion Paper No. 68. November 1999. P.5
73
Doomernik, J. Going West: Soviet Jewish Immigrants in Berlin since 1990, Aldershot: Edward Elgar
1997 p.19
74
Dietz, B, Ethnic German Immigration from Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union to Germany:
The Effects of Migrant Network. IZA Discussion Paper No. 68. November 1999. P.5
75
25
in the interview, had either university or college education
76In
most cases, however, Jewish
immigrants did not know or had a poor competence of the German language. Concerning their
Jewish identity, the Jewish population of the former USSR expressed a certain degree of
ambivalence due to the Soviet nationality policy and anti-Semitism among the Russian
population.77 Jewish people were deeply influenced by the culture, society, and economy of the
Soviet Union, just like the Russian Germans.
Unlike Russian Germans, Jewish immigrants are not privileged to acquire German
citizenship right after arrival. Instead of this, they receive a residence permit for an indefinite
term, along with the permission to work: initial housing support. They also could take part in
state-provided German language courses, which lasted not more than half a year. Jewish
immigrants were also eligible for social security benefits if they had no job after the absorption
assistance has expired.78 Jewish immigrants find themselves in an advantageous position in
terms, that they get additional assistance from the Jewish communities, such as, for example, the
Central Welfare Board of Jews in Germany. These organizations are actively engaged in the
social, economic, religious and cultural integration of
Jewish immigrants79. The assistance
provided by the Jewish communities varies from additional German language training to
instruction in Jewish culture and religion.
Although ethnic German and Jewish immigrants from the former Soviet Union in
Germany differ in terms of their numbers and their socio-demographic background, their
common (post-)Soviet society had a great impact on their social identity, along with culture,
traditions, and language.
3.
Modern history of Turkish migration to Germany
Turkish labor migration has followed comparable history all over Europe. During the
1960-s a number of European countries signed official agreements with Turkey on labor
76
Doomernik, J. Ibid. p. 87
Tress, M. Soviet Jews in the Federal Republic of Germany: the rebuilding of a community, The
Jewish Journal of Sociology Vol.37 No.1; 1995, p. 48
77
Tress, M. Foreigners or Jews? The Soviet Jewish refugee populations in Germany and the United
States’, East European Jewish Affairs Vol.27 No.2: 1997, p. 21
78
Dietz, B, Ethnic German Immigration from Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union to Germany:
The Effects of Migrant Network. IZA Discussion Paper No. 68. November 1999, p. 644
79
26
migration. This process started with Germany in 1961. In the 1970-s the major share (90%) of
Turkish immigrants were coming to Germany, being were recruited by German industries.80
The type of Turkish migration may be estimated as simultaneously forced and voluntary.
The main reasons were economic, connected with the slow economic growth of the country,
which then caused unemployment, poverty and underdevelopment. So, people had do look for
alternatives in other countries in order not to suffer financial problems. Besides economic
factors, another factor facilitating migration was the new relationships with the West. The active
foreign policy of Turkey aimed at participating in European integration, led to taking part in the
foundation of the Council of Europe, membership in NATO, OECD and so on.81 Consequently,
the growing political integration with the West from 1950 onwards also influenced desires and
cultural perceptions among youngsters. Therefore, when the countries of the West invited labor
workers, for many it has opened the doors into a model country of opportunities, which were not
achievable in Turkey. Hence, the labor demand of Germany and other European countries was
viewed by Turkish urban and rural middle classes as a good chance to solve their economic
problems and realize their life aspirations. Also, the justification and regulation of migration
process by the Turkish government made migration attractive and affordable for everyone.82.
Turks entered the labor market through the employment offices located in the country of
origin, which accumulated the demand for the workforce from the German employers. Besides
the one year contract for work, immigrants were also given a residence permit. Yet, the negative
outcome of this employment system was that in some cases it did not meet the high skills of
some applicants. For example, 30-40 % of Turks who worked in Germany were considered to be
skilled in Turkey. 83 Yet, in Germany, most of them were employed as unskilled and semi-skilled
laborers in sectors which German laborers considered unattractive. Although labor immigrants
were formally considered as equals to their native counterparts, lack of training and language
skills, along with non-recognition of foreign certifications, limited the guest workers to the low
wages. According to the statistics, Turkish immigration gathered speed dramatically. If in the
80
Sürig I. Wilmes M. The Integration of the Second Generation in Germany Results of the TIES Survey
on the Descendantants of Turkish and Yugoslavian Migrants. Amsterdam University press, p. 17
81
S. Bagdoshvili Turkish migrants in Germany. 2010 p. 15 URL: http://www.ies.tsu.edu.ge/data/
file_db/bagdoshvili/Turkish%20migrants%20in%20Germany%202010.pdf
82
Akgündüz A. Labor Migration from Turkey to Western Europe 1960-1974, Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.,
2008, pp. 14-42
83
S. Bagdoshvili Ibid. p.10
27
year 1968 there were about one million foreign workers in Germany then in five years, there
were 2.6 million foreign workers.84
Relying on the temporary essence of employment, it was generally assumed that the
"guest workers" would not stay long. Based on that assumption, nobody thought of development
of any framework for possible longer term residence. By 1973 many guest workers have become
permanent residents in Germany, to which Germans were very much opposed. When the period
of recruitment expired, Turks faced a choice of either returning to their home country without
any observable perspectives to return to Germany again, or to bring to Germany their family
members living in Turkey. So many of the immigrants preferred family unification in the host
country85, which was further accompanied with marriage arrangements meaning that the young
Turkish immigrants were bringing their future wives to Germany. In this light, during the 1980-s
and 1990-s Turkish migration took a new upturn.
As a result of the guest-worker agreements, and then of family unification, refugee and
asylum programmes, Turkish minority currently constitute the largest group of immigrants,
amounted in about 2.8 million86 immigrants.
84
Akkoyunlu S. Siliverstovs B. Modelling Turkish Migration to Germany DIW Discussion Papers, No. 595,
2006, p.15
85
Talip Kücükcan - Turks in Germany: Between Inclusion and Exclusion, ISAM, 2002, p. 99
Population, 2015, by migrant background. Destatis. Statistisches Bundesamt. URL: https://
www.destatis.de/EN/FactsFigures/SocietyState/Population/MigrationIntegration/
Tables_PersonsMigrationBackground/MigrantStatusSelectedCountries.html
86
28
Chapter 3. Comparative analysis of experiences of Russian-and Turkish-speaking
second-generation immigrants in Germany
1.
Methodology and description of the informants
Although the definition of the second-generation immigrants and the target group of the
research were given in previous chapters, there is still a number of criteria to specify the target
group of this research. They are:
Place of settlement: As it is seen from the title, Germany is taken as the main ground for
this research. It is explained by the fact that Germany is a country in Western Europe with the
biggest number of immigrants (9.8 million people in 2013 87). The two cities where the research
was held were Osnabrück and Bielefeld. Although it is generally common for similar studies to
do research in a megapolis or a large city, we decided to go to small- and middle-size cities to
conduct a research in as original and common surrounding as possible. The cities have more or
less average system of local government, economic indicators, and living conditions.
Age: The age between 20-30 is defined based on the assumption that by this age people
have already graduated from schools and have enough experience in living. The average age of
second-generation Russians and Turks in Germany ranges in these limits, that is why it would be
87
The UN report “Trends in International Migrant Stock: The 2013 Revision”
29
easier to find necessary respondents of this age. Moreover, they are most likely are studying in
universities which can be a subsidiary factor for finding them.
Origins: Considering the aspect of defining the origin of respondents, I faced a number of
obstacles in finding the token which would indicate the attribution of a person to a certain group
and choosing between an ethnic and national identity of immigrants. Although there is a number
of ethnic groups living in Turkey, in this research I refer to the major ethnic group of the country,
who are Turks. Due to the fact, that in this case the ethnicity and shared culture goes along with
nationality, the case of Turkish immigrants does not imply any specificities or exceptions. The
case of Russia, on the other hand, is the most controversial. First of all, the parents of secondgeneration immigrants were resettling to Germany between 1980-1990-s from the USSR which
territory differed dramatically from the territory of present-day Russia. It is also necessary to
consider the fact that the majority of immigrants coming at that period were Russian Germans
and Russian Jews. Although these immigrants from the former Soviet Union differ in terms of
their numbers and their socio-demographic background, their common (post-)Soviet society
origin provokes the question of whether there are similarities in their ethnic identity. Taking into
account all these variations I’ve come to a solution to adopt the language as a token for
specifying the ethnic belonging of the interviewees’ families. This preference is grounded in the
validity of the language in the construction of ethnic identity. Being intrinsically connected with
ethnic identity, language serves as an instrument for interaction, identification, and
categorization (Fishman et al. 1999). By this means the target groups of my research are
Russian- and Turkish-speaking second-generation immigrants.
In this research, the qualitative method of semi-structured in-depth interviews was used.
The informants were young second-generation immigrants aged 20–30, a total of 10 young
people: 5 people with Russian immigration background (2 young women and 3 young men) and
another 5 people with Turkish roots (2 young women and 3 young men). Interviews were
conducted in two German cities: Osnabrück and Bielefeld; the working languages were Russian
and English.
The young people participating in the research have lived in Germany on the permanent
basis since they were born (9 interviewees) or from the age of 6 (1 descendant of Russian
origin). Therefore, they were the second generation of Russian and Turkish immigrants in
Germany. The informants were found conditionally on the basis of random sampling – the
criteria for being eligible for the interview were age; the age at the time of migration for those
30
who were born outside Germany; place of birth (Germany or USSR/Turkey) and the fact that
they have immigrant parents. The informants came from mono-ethnic families (4 Russian and 4
German) and from ethnically mixed families (2 families). In mixed families, in one case the
mother was Russian and the father was German, and in the other mother was German and the
father was Turkish. 2 informants have Russian-German parents from Kazakhstan, one has Jewish
parents from Ukraine, one informant has Russian mother and Russian-German father from Omsk
region and one has an immigrant mother from Voronezh. In the case of Turkey, all parents came
from rural regions of Turkey.
All of the young people who were questioned had acquired their secondary education at
gymnasiums, 4 people with Russian background and 3 with Turkish one are studying in the
University, 1 second generation Russian has a bachelor degree, 2 second-generation Turks are
doing an apprentice.
In the in-depth interviews, the following issues were examined: The migration experience
of the family; the attitude of parents towards their homeland and receiving country; an everyday
personal experience of second-generation immigrants in German society; the relations of the
second-generation immigrants with the country of origin; friend circle of the interviewees.
2.
Migration history and socioeconomic status of 10 families under study
It should be primarily noted, that the evidence presented in this section is of limited
conclusiveness because the information was presented by the informants, but not by their parents
who have experienced living in the country of origin and migration. In several cases,
interviewees were not able to answer specific questions about their parents or were not certain
about the verity of the information:
“I don’t really know… if it was good impressions or bad. I think it was good impressions,
but I’m not really sure.”
All interviewees’ parents grew up in the country of origin and arrived to Germany at the
age of 20-30. Yet, the differences in the German migration policy as well as contrasting relations
with the two countries of origin discussed above, had a direct impact on the migration patterns
and the life courses of the interviewees.
Due to the fact, that migration from Russia and the countries of the communist block
boomed right after German reunification and peaked following the collapse of the USSR, all
family members from 5 Russian families under study moved to Germany between 1991 and
31
1994. Yet, children of Russian Germans acknowledge the beginning of their family’s migration
with the period of Catherine the Great, when their ancestors moved from Germany to
Kazakhstan or Volga region. For instance, to the question about the reasons and history of his
family’s resettlement, one of SGI interviewee responds:
“Ok, the first reason why my great grandparents moved to Kazakhstan, I think it was the
time of Catherina, she invited to come, come there and live there…”. The other person elaborated
details on the question: “Should I tell the whole story how my ancestors came to Russia?”.
Hence, the interviewees view the history of their families as a complex of resettlements between
Germany and Russia (the USSR).
All the families had a distinct legal premise for migration. In 3 cases it was the Aussiedler
law for ethnic Germans from the former Soviet Union, one family of Jewish origin fitted the
“Kontingentflüchtlinge Stur” and in the case of one ethnically mixed family the legal reason for
immigration of the mother was marriage. These migration frameworks issued by the
governments served as an additional stimulus for the decision to migrate.
On the other hand, Turkish family migration has more lasting and complex history, which
dates back to 1970s. In this case 3 stories of SGI Turks started with their grandfathers’ temporary
labor migration to Europe: “Grandfather worked in different places in Europe. Like in Austria, I
don’t know where else”. Family emigration continued further with grandmother and all the
children graduate resettlement during the 1970-1980-s and then the parents of SGIs during the
1990-s.
“First he came alone, and then his family came afterwards. My grandmom with their
children, and my father was about 6-7 years old.”; “My father has 3 siblings, and they went
together with my grandmom”
Although the family of the interviewees resettled to Germany 2 generations earlier, the
young people fall into the category of the second generation, because of the complex history of
their parent's resettlement: “But my father actually stayed in Turkey. He was already 16 and
wanted to finish the school“; “My parents came to Germany when they were 20 or 23, I think…”
Another reason why the grandchildren of guest-workers of the 1970-s may be the second
generation of immigrants is the marital strategies of their parents. For example, there is a case,
when the father of the interviewee came to Germany with his parents at the early age. Yet, when
32
it was time to marry, he decided to have a wife from Turkey, who came to Germany at a mature
age:
“She lived in the Turkey, and then she was about to study in Turkey as well, but then she
broke up her studies and then came to Germany to marry my dad.”
Endogamy marriages indicate the strong ties with Turkey and are aimed at preservation of
the unity of ethnic group and to a certain point a resistance to integration into the surrounding
population.
A tendency of return migration may be observed among immigrants of Turkish origin. The
older generation of immigrants may move back and forth between the two countries several
times. In some cases, it may be a decision of the whole family, while sometimes it is a decision
of one family member:
“I think he lived in Germany for a year, but in the end he decided to study in Turkey
though, and go there to university, yes. But his family was here all the time.”
“My mother wanted to move to Germany, and then my father moved with my mother too.
And then my mother’s parents came to Germany for a short time, but then they decided to live in
Turkey”; “When my elderly sister was born, my parents moved to Turkey for 2 years.”
This back and forth migration bears evidence of strong ties with the country of origin both
of those who travel, and of those family members who stay in Germany. This tendency also
forms a situation, when the family turns out to be ripped into two parts, and the efforts to
maintain family ties and achieve financial and social stability leads to living “in between” the
two countries.
From the Russian side, there were no evidence of return migration neither in the families
of the SGIs, nor in the friend circle. Although this does not mean that there are no such cases
among Russian immigrants, we might suppose that it happens more rarely and to some extend
confirms the assumption of the previous chapter about the tendency not to consider the
possibility to return.
The tendencies of family reunification as well as mass migration to Germany also have
their evidence in the stories of the interviewees. All of those, who participated in the interview
had relatives in Germany who moved there before or together with the parents of the SGIs. This
applies both to the families of Turkish origin and of Russian background. Yet, there is a
33
distinction between the two cases, because in the Russian case all people moved at about the
same time:
“My whole family, we are family of 14 people, and we had opportunity to move together to
Germany, and in 94 we did it.”; “At that period everybody were moving, so did he and his
family”88 ; At that period we had a lot of acquaintance who also came here… It was possible to
move and get a citizenship”89; “many other families were almost in the same time. I don’t know,
some of my uncles and aunts came earlier, some came a little bit after”,
While in the case of Turkish immigrants, the newcomers had their family members or
some friends in Germany since the 1970-s: “When my parents came to Germany, they lived at
grandparent’s at first”.
Family ties played an important role in the process of immigrants’ settlement in the new
country. The strategies were reasonably evident: families stuck together and moved to the places
where other family members settled earlier; another reason was the available job. This applies
both to the Russian:
“I think it was because some family members were already there. Because the biggest part
of my family is is Osnabrück and this area.”; “My uncle worked in Bielefeld and he said, that
there are workplaces. And that was the point that we all moved to Bielefeld.”;
and to the Turkish cases:
“My granddad just moved to the city where his brother was living, working. And since then
he just stayed there.”; “My father’s parents lived in Osnabrück. So, he just came here as well”
Due to the fact, that in all cases immigrants had friends or relatives who came earlier, it
was impossible to trace the initial reasons of settlement on a certain territory. We can suppose
that these were employment reasons. Yet, it also indicates the availability of social capital upon
arrival. So, people were not left along and lost in a completely strange country (we should take
into account the fact, that in many cases, especially in the Russian one, it was the first time that
people visited the state and even left their native country), but had certain support and assistance
from those who came earlier.
88
в то время многие переезжали, и он со своей семьей переехал
Ну в эти времена, ну как, у нас многие знакомые были, какие тоже вместе сюда приехали.
Можно было без проблем сразу в Германию переезжать и гражданство получали.
89
34
No specific reasons for migration were mentioned by the interviewees, here we may
evidence the deficiency of information because of the secondary source. SGIs generally
explained the urge of their parents to migrate by “looking for a better life for me and my
siblings”. The lack of information may evidence either the lack of interest of the interviewees to
the migration history, which in its turn meant that it is either not important for them, or they
somehow distance from their families’ biography and focus mostly on the current position of
German citizens. It is also possible that the parents do not stress this part of their history and by
that may alienate their children from the immigrant past.
One important expectation and aspiration of the immigrants was to give their children
“proper education” 90. Although, this aspiration might be not the main reason for immigration, it
was possibly articulated by the parents during the bringing-up process and influenced the
attitudes and life courses of the respondents: “If you, as an immigrant, have studied a good
profession, like doctor, then in Germany it’s an elite. They’re like Gods in hospitals, earning a
lot”91;” I’m pretty happy with the education here, get some money from the state to study”. As it
was mentioned above, all interviewees graduated from gymnasiums and continued their
education in higher education institutions.
For some Russian-Germans a specific reason of discrimination and exclusion in the origin
country could be very relevant for emigration. The case of Russian-German immigrants is quite
complex, because the level of assimilation with the major Russian population before migration
was very different. Due to this fact, people felt and experienced very different attitudes from the
majority group and had various identities which can not be easily distinguished.
On the one side a family could maintain their German identity, being emotionally attached
to the German state and therefore feeling uncomfortable and foreign in Russia or former Soviet
republics:
“There they were foreigners, they were treated like some, some foreigners. They just
wanted to come back because they know that their roots are here and so they came back”
Yet, upon arrival, it was also quite difficult for ethnic Germans to completely assimilate
with the locals. The longstanding history of living abroad have influenced the mentality and the
Ну в принципе, хотели чтобы у моего брата жизнь лучше бы была чем у них, чтобы мог
нормально выучиться, чтобы школу мог закончить нормально, чтобы кем-то стать.
90
Если ты как иностранец выучился, и какую-то профессию выучил хорошую, как на врача, это
просто элита. Они просто как боги ходят в больницах, такие деньги зарабатывают.”
91
35
ways of life. As the result, they appeared to be “in the middle of nowhere”: “there they weren’t
really Russian and here they, now we aren’t really German”
On the other side, Russian-Germans could have assimilated with the majority group to
such extend, that they would loose all the aspects of German identity. This extreme form of
assimilation is possible and evident among Russian-Germans due to the fact, that more than
three generations have lived in Russia and were influenced by a strong integration and
assimilation policy of the Soviet Union.
“Of course my dad had German roots, but they didn’t live in Germany for a long time, and
all his ancestors. That is why they are actually more Russians than Germans.”92
In such a case, people might not feel any attachment to Germany and could use their ethnic
origin as a mean for migration, which exists only on papers. Hence, the integration into the
German community will proceed differently.
Socioeconomic situation in the families under study
Evidence shows that financial status of the first generation immigrants fluctuated
dramatically throughout their lifetime and mostly depended on the time passed after migration.
The parents of some SGIs came from industrially underdeveloped regions and have secondary
education. For example, a descent of Russian immigrants states: “My father worked on an
excavator.”, while second-generation Turkish immigrant notes: “My mother is a hairdresser”
Yet others could have higher education in, for example, economics, and successful careers
or private business and were well-off:
“My father got a diploma
in Turkey and, he went to Germany to make his doctor’s
degree”; “My father in Turkey was a teacher. He taught engineering in mechanics”
“My dad had a big shop in Ukraine, he was selling meat, and even the products of short
supply.”93
Despite these variations, every interviewee estimated their parent’s life in the home
country as satisfying and successful. :
92
У отца конечно были корни немецкие, но как бы они жили очень долго в Германии, и все его
предки, поэтому в принципе они больше русские, чем немцы.
93
у папы был большой магазин в Украине, он там мясо продавал, и даже дефицитом торговал…
36
“They had to work hard, but they had a normal good life, I think.”; “They had great life
there”94
The main financial downturn in the families occurred right after resettlement and is
reasoned in economic losses of migration. In the case of Russian immigrants, the losses were
heavier because the migration proceeded under pressure of time:
“When they left, they just gave everything away they had because they left pretty fast”;
“When they came here, they lost everything. They started from the bottom again. They had to
earn again, it was very hard”95. “I think it was one month when they send the papers, and when
they got the answer that they can go, they went immediately. They took only necessary clothes”
The main problem of rural areas was the lack of infrastructure resulted in hindered access
to the educational organizations and the deficiency of workplaces. These problems concerned
mostly Turkish immigrants:
“Living in Turkey in the countryside… they didn’t have that much.”; “My mother with her
parents lived a little bit far… and my mother had problems going for school, that is very far
away.”; There was no job in Turkey”.
The first working experience in the host country was in the area of unskilled labor, which
in some cases did not meet the high skills or education of the immigrants:
“He had to work hard”; “They took any job that was offered”; “At the beginning it was
difficult to find a job”96
This tendency can be easily explained in the case of Turkish labor migration, where people
were originally hired in construction business and heavy industry. Although, in the case of
Russian migrants, who were independent in their choice of working places, the employment in
the spheres of cleaning service, and utility workers is also present during the early period after
migration.
94
У них там была жизнь классная.
95
как они приехали сюда, они все потеряли. Они с ноля опять начали, и все они… должны были
опять как типа заработать, это очень тяжело было
96
По началу было трудно найти работу
37
“My mother was working as a cleaner, father was grubbing at a meat factory” 97, “My
mother worked as a cleaner, she was washing floors for along time.”
The problem of the validity of immigrant’s education was mentioned by several
interviewees as one of the challenges of migration.:
“My uncle was a lawyer and he was not allowed to work as a lawyer in here. He had to
learn another job. And now he is a worker. It was for him a big shock.”
“My mother had to do her driver license the second time in Germany, because the one
from Turkey wasn’t accepted. And also she is a nurse, a learned nurse, and when she came to
Germany, they just said we can’t accept this qualification here in Germany. So, it was like super
shitty situation for her to have all this knowledge and not to have the ability to use it here, in
Germany”
Yet, the problem of the validity of skills and education concerned specific professions and
was not overwhelming. One Russian SGI adds:
“For mother it was no problem to work as an accountant.”
On the other hand, with the shift to the less skilled work, the economic situation in the
families improved. This can be explained by the difference in salaries in Germany and the origin
country of immigrants. The financial stability improves after some period in both cases:
of Russian immigrants: “There it wasn’t as easy to earn money as it is here”; “Now my
dad works in a newspaper as editor; “ Well, at the beginning it was hard…. But then fine, they
found a job, a flat. Then everything was good.” 98
and of Turkish: “They worked a lot and when they started to earn money, they also started
to rent flats, stuff like that.”. “After some time he find a better job on the factory”
The improvement of the economic situation in the family may be also supported by the fact
that in some families after the migration only one parent was employed, while in the county of
origin both parents had to work to keep a family. Here is a citation from the story of an
immigrant family from Russia: “There were times when she was cleaning houses, but then my
father said: ”Ah, stop it, I earn enough money to live”. “I think that if she wanted, she could
97
Мама уборщицей работала, папа в какой-то фабрике мясной работал, там пахал.
Ну в начале трудно было Ну а потом нормально, нашли работу, квартиру. Потом все хорошо
было.
98
38
work as accountant. But she is at home”. Although this situation indicates a stable and relatively
high income, it may be reasoned in a traditional and patriarchal structure of the family. This
assumption is supported by the stories of both Turkish and Russian SGIs:
“My father said: “I want to work, she should be there for the family and for the house”, so
she didn’t work so much…”; “We always have such a relations, that… and it still is, that mother
brought us up, and father worked. It has always been like that”99
Another possible explanation to this situation may lie in the lack of working places for
immigrant women.
In general, it is possible to conclude that despite the unstable situation in the country of
origin, various educational background and shortcomings of migration process, immigrant
families manage to improve their financial position and to get more or less satisfying jobs. It is
also necessary to note that there were no complains from the interviewees about the struggles of
finding a job or long periods of unemployment among family members. This may be explained
by a high motivation of the parents to work because they agreed to do any kind of job.
3.
Language practices of the second-generation immigrants
Language is considered to be the most important and salient characteristic, when we speak
about ethnicity. SGIs do not necessarily know the language of their parents and those who do,
have different levels of knowledge. Similarly, there are different strategies of when, how and
with whom immigrant children speak one language or the other. It is also important to reflect on
the level of knowledge among the first-generation immigrants, because these factors have a
direct influence on the language practices of the second generation with the family members.
Parents of both Russian and German second-generation immigrants had either little or no
knowledge of the German language at arrival. There were either no motivation in learning
German before the migration, or little time for that in the country of origin:
“I don’t think that my grandparents start to learn German before, because my grandfather
was just here for work, so… and my mother no, she also didn’t, she did it in Germany”
У нас такое отношение всегда было, и до сих пор такое отношение, что как, мама воспитала,
папа работал. Это всегда так было.
99
39
Well, he knew, but very little, just couple of words. Mother did not know it at all. She is
Russian,she didn’t know German at all.”100
The reasons of the deficiency of language knowledge are seen in several aspects. First,
there was a lack of education and education structure in the countries of origin, which is mostly
applied to the Turkish case: “Well, they lived in a small village [in Turkey], and I don’t think
anybody knew foreign language there, especially German, no.”. Secondly, there was little
motivation, because the migration was assumed to be temporary (again, especially in the Turkish
case of labor migrants): “My grandfather thought he will come back after one or two years, why
did he need to learn German?” The third reason, mostly applicable to the Russian case was the
lack of time prior migration.
However, it is also possible that a person migrates with a sufficient language knowledge,
like in the case of a mixed family of Russian and German parents: “She started to learn German
in Russia. In school and in the university”101. Yet, even with the knowledge of German,
linguistic problems after migration are considered one of the main.
In other cases, both
Russian and Turkish immigrants felt discomfort and had negative
experience because of the deficiency of language skills:
“My uncle, he wanted to buy chicken, but he did not know what is chicken in German, and
he said where is the mother of this egg?”
To learn German, the older generation of Turkish immigrants did not use any educational
services. They might achieve the satisfactory level of oral German through constant
communication with Germans: “My grandfather learned language by… just with practicing it in
everyday life.”
This is the evidence of how the surrounding culture and community influence an
individual. Although there were other Turkish immigrants, they still had to use German every
day with all other people, both native Germans and immigrants from other countries. It is also
true for Russian immigrants, who occupy positions at work, where there is more communication
with Germans: “My mother knows German better than father. Well, she works with Germans.”
100
Ну он знал, но плохо очень, так, пару слов. Мама вообще не знала, она русская, она немецкий
язык вообще не знала.
101
Она начала учить немецкий в России. В школе и университете
40
Yet, the lack of structured assistance in studying the language might also lead to the
deficiency of knowledge among the older generation of Turkish migrants: “I don’t know how my
grandmother managed just not to learn German”; “She can’t really speak German even though
she has been living there for 40 years or something”
And in this case the presence of other immigrants of the same origin serves as a
conservator and makes it possible to preserve the Turkish language as dominant. As another
interviewee of mixed parentage (Turkish father and German mother) noted:
“I don’t know, I think my grandmother didn’t really need to learn German. She has her
Turkish friends here, and there were a lot of Turkish people in the village where we lived”; “She
had her own friends here, they were Turkish so she never really needed to learn German.”
The life plans and motivation plays an important role in the process of integration, which
in this particular case means mastering the language. If a person is expecting to leave the
country, they won’t be interested in learning the local language because of the seeming
uselessness of this knowledge in the country of origin:
“My grandmom was always thinking we will go back, we will go back. And my granddad
was not about to leave Germany, but she thought ok, we will go back… and she never learned
German”; “My grandmother, she always hoped that we will go back to Turkey. She didn’t really
integrate that much.”
The unwillingness or the lack of interest in learning German is relevant not only for
Turkish immigrants, but also for Russian ones:
“My father haven’t learned German until now… They live here more than 20 years by now,
but still his German is… You may learn better German in 2 years»102.
As for the immigrants who came during the 1990-s, they were mostly assigned to attend
German language courses, which resulted in more or less similar language proficiency among
Turkish and Russian families: “My mother did some courses of German when she came” – says a
daughter of Turkish immigrants. A descendant from Russia explained: “I know, that everybody
had to do it, there were courses to integrate them, and everybody had to learn German”
И как, мой папа до сих пор так немецкий и не выучил, то…Они уже сколько здесь живут,
больше 20 лет, и все равно он так, такой у него немецкий язык, что… вроде как за 2 года можно
свободно выучить намного лучше.
102
41
Although the majority of immigrants coming to Germany tend to have insufficient
knowledge of German (which is stated in the theoretical part of the study and is supported by
numerous evidence from the interviews) before they immigrated, there is a particular group of
Russian Germans, who do not conform to the major group. Those are ethnic Germans, who
preserved their identity and did not assimilate with the Russian population, also preserved the
German language: “I think at home parents spoke German with my grandparents and to each
other”. Although the language they spoke in Russia has suffered changes, these RussianGermans had a sufficient knowledge of the language: “my grandfather, he spoke German good,
and then he could translate everything”.
In the families in everyday interaction, there are different strategies of language usage. We
suppose that it mostly depend on the proficiency of the family members in a certain language. In
some families both languages are in use to different extend:
“Most of the time we speak German, like 70% German and 30% Russian with mom and my
family.”. “We speak both German and Turkish, we mix them all the time”
There also may be a certain variation in communication strategies with every family
member. Depending on the preferences and language skills, they select a certain language or fix
the proportion of one language and the other in their communication:
“I have a little brother, he, he forgot Russian. He can’t speak.”; “With my mom mostly I
speak Turkish, with my dad mostly German. And with my sisters we mostly tend to speak
German.”; “With my father I always speak Russian. With my brother in German. It’s
different”103 . “With my grandmother we always spoke Russian, because she didn’t understand
much of German”104
Second-generation immigrants tend to adjust to the communication practices of their
parents and relatives. This means that they might have more stable and equal skills in oral speech
on both of the languages. Yet, the knowledge may be limited to the simple language of everyday
communication: “With mom I speak German if there are some difficult topics and I don’t know
103
C папой всегда по-русски, c братом по-немецки. По-разному.
Ну с ,бабушкой мы всегда по-русски разговаривали, потому что она по-немецки не очень то
много понимала.
104
42
the words.”105, “ I learned Russian in such a manner, just as I heard it. I speak the way I
hear”106
Another communication strategy is mixing languages during the speech and switch from
one language to the other not just because of the topics or person, but also in one sentence:
“I notice sometimes he mix words a lot German – Russian ”; “My mother always spoke to
me in Russian, while my brother and I always responded in German”
Learning the native language of the parents may not always take form of latent and
uncontrolled. Some parents might intentionally teach their kids not only to speak Russian or
Turkish, but also read and write it. This strategy aims at preserving the cultural heritage of the
parents. The example of such practices was evidenced by the descendant of Russian and German
parents: “At home my grandmother made us to do Russian language classes. She was bringing
books from Russia and we had to do tasks… learn poems”107
The families of the second-generation immigrants are not always bilingual. There are also
other cases, where people speak only one language at home and it may be any of the three:
“We speak only Russian at home”; “At my grandparents’ house everybody speak Turkish”;
“My parents talk to each other and with us in German”
The use of a certain language may also be a conscious decision aimed at preservation of
cultural distinctiveness:
“We’re speaking more Turkish, yes. We’re speaking German too, but yes, we want to speak
Turkish more”; “I try to push myself to speak more Turkish so that I don’t forget”, “At home we
always speak Russian. I started to learn German only in the kindergarten, when I started to
communicate with kids”108
The interviewee of Russian origin presented the evidence of how important the primary,
initial socialization for further linguistic knowledge and personal identity. The person has an
excellent knowledge of Russian. There is neither accent, nor any grammar mistakes in his
105
Если какие-то тяжелые темы, где я слова не знаю, с мамой по-немецки разговариваю.
106
Я учила русский язык так, что я слышала. Я говорю как слышу
Дома бабушка заставляла нас делать уроки по русскому языку. Она привозила книги из России
и нам надо было делать упражнения… учить стихотворения.
107
Дома мы всегда по-русски говорим. Немецкий я учить начал только когда в садик пошел, с
детьми там начал общаться.
108
43
speech, which were present in 3 other cases of Russian-speaking interviewees. Unfortunately, I
can not estimate the knowledge of the Turkish- speaking interviewees, so I can not compare the
two cases in this regard. Yet, the importance of the accent to the identification by the other
members of ethnic group was also mentioned by one of the second generation Russian: “I
consider myself more as German, than as Russian, because there everyone understand, that I
have some accent, that I’m not from there”109
It should be noted that interviewees of Turkish origin focused on the preservation of the
language and the importance of its usage, while the descendants of Russian immigrants did not
speak about their willingness to reconstruct the Russian language in German settings. Yet, some
of them made steps to learn the language, which is an example of the measures taken for that
purpose:
“ I learned to read and write Russian on Russian class in the University. But if I didn’t take
the class I think I could not write it…”
Some families, which may be both of Russian and Turkish origin, on the contrary, may
aim to distance from the immigrant past and assimilate with the major population:
“When my parents came to Germany, they wanted to make a line. So they learned German
very fast and they didn’t teach us… or spoke with us in Russian”; “We spoke German all the
time. And I think my parents decided not to let us grow up with both languages, because… I don’t
know, they wanted us to speak one language very good”
This strategy of SGIs’ parents resulted in the lack of knowledge of the Russian or Turkish
languages. The possible explanation of the parents’ unwillingness to impart their language skills
to their children, is the absence of linguistic identity, like in the case of Russian Germans who
had German identity and had negative attitudes to Russian one. The tendency of bringing up a
child in a monolingual family may also refer to the mixed parents (like in the case of a mixed
family with the Turkish father and the German mother), who choose a language of one parent,
which mostly fits the place of residence and the social and economic prospects. The decisions
made by the parents on the basis of their negative life experience or underestimated value of the
native language may not be shared by their children. They might feel the deficit of skills viewed
by them as necessary for association with the parental ethnic identity. “I don’t know why they
Я больше считаю себя немцем чем как типа русским, потому что там все понимают, что у меня
какой-то акцент, что я не оттуда
109
44
did not want to teach us Russian, I They could teach at least something basic…” “We could be
bilinguals, It would be great”. Turkish interviewee was even embarrassed speaking about the
deficiency of knowledge of the Turkish language: “Actually I can’t speak Turkish, which is pretty
embarrassing”
To fill the lacking skills SGIs may develop them by themselves: “but I’m learning it right
now, I’m taking classes of Turkish”. This behavior evidence how important it may be for the
second generation immigrant to reconstruct certain aspects of ethnic identity, which bare a
significant importance for them.
Outside the family, SGIs also develop certain strategies of communication depending on
whom they speak with. For example, in case of friend circle, they may speak Turkish or Russian
with friends who have similar migration background:
“I speak Turkish with my Turkish friends and I speak German with German friends”, or
mix languages like in their families: “I have friends who came from Ukraine and several Jewish
friends who also came from Russia. We speak Russian and German, both.”110 Yet, there are cases
when they still tend to speak German even though they both know the other language: “Most of
my friends are from Russia, Turkey, Poland. We speak German. Everybody speaks German”111
This may be explained by international structure of the group and German language may
be more convenient for everybody to understand. These conversational patterns are similar
among Russian and Turkish descendants.
An outstanding example of maintaining bilingualism is the strategy of blending the two
languages. By this we mean that there might be no distinction between the two languages, but
both of them fuse and form one language:
“We speak German, but still the pronunciation changes somehow. Some words we
pronounce differently. And sometimes we also speak Russian, Russian words, sometimes
German. Well, we speak German and add Russian words”112
Ну вот один мой друг, он с Одессы, с Украины. Есть еще друзья которые тоже как евреи типа из
России приехали. Общаемся н том и том, на русском и на немецком, по-разному.
110
111
в основном все друзья из России, Турции, Польши. Разговариваем на немецком. На нeмецком
все говорят.
Мы разговариваем по немецки но все равно как-то произношение меняется. Некоторые слова
мы по другому произносимю И мы тоже иногда по-русски, русские слова, иногда немецкие. Ну мы
по немецки разговариваем и русские слова вставляем
112
45
The young people mostly refer to the German language as their mother tongue. They are 2
children of Russian-German parents, a son of Jewish migrants from Ukraine, the descendant of
multiethnic family with the Turkish father, and 2 descents of Turkish immigrants. Yet, there are
also cases when the native language of the parents is viewed as native by the interviewees. This
is true for a child of Russian-German and Russian immigrants and the child of ethnically mixed
family with the mother from Russia, as well as 2 children of Turkish immigrants. This is the
evidence of a large variation in perception and language practices among the interviewed SGIs.
Linguistic preferences, as well as the knowledge of the language may be formed both by
the parents of the SGIs, as well as the individuals themselves. Communication in a family forms
a platform for further individual strategies of communication, chosen by the SGIs. Being
linguistically oriented to one of the ethnicities (be it Turkish, German or Russian), people would
possibly tend to keep on with the reconstruction and maintenance of the Russian or Turkish
languages. Yet, this trajectory may not be exclusively programmed by the parents, meaning that
even though one particular language may be prioritized by the family members, individuals are
free and in some cases do choose to communicate, learn and prioritize the other language. This
choice depends on the ethnic self-identification of a person. It means, that if they define
themselves as Russians, they would adopt and maintain the Russian language; if they feel both
identities are important, they would prioritize bilingualism. Hence, in terms of ethnicity,
language may be considered both as the source and as the outcome, or result of identity.
4.
Social categorization and comparison
Being two cognitive processes, and serving as a tool to identify oneself with a certain
group, social categorization and comparison represent the way the SGIs recognize and evaluate
the in- and out-groups. This process seems to us a complicated task for the children of
immigrants because it is complicated by the dual affiliations of the interviewees.
The feeling of being “different” is traced in all interviews and is irrelevant to the label that
an individual ascribes to themselves. Even the person, who claims to have one ethnic identity of
German, may have a certain level of attachment to the other ethnicity. For example, the
informant with Russian-German parents, who has little knowledge about Russian culture, does
not speak Russian and lives in a family, where German traditions prevailing, notes “differences”
between native Germans and people with immigrant background: “I think I’m really German. I
don’t think I’m… yes. All Germans, they… they are different” He points out the differences in the
46
behavior towards others and a certain closeness of Germans. Similar reflections were evidenced
among other respondents.
The interviewees tend to expresses better attitudes to the people of similar background:
“Russian people are more hospitable, it is very important for us”; ”Russians are more open, they
say what they think.”113; “You will never go away from Turkish home without drinking a tea or
some sweets”, “Turkish people are a lot more… nicer.“. Surprisingly, speaking about the
differences between Germans and Russians/Turks, interviewees of both groups addressed to
similar characteristics, which are kindness, hospitality, warmth. Moreover, the value of the
family as an important part of people’s lives is argued to be one of the most noticeable difference
both by the Russian- and Turkish- origin informants: “I think people are more… self-dependent.
They tend to move out and have their own life… there are a lot of people who are not that close
to their family….”; “family is always… yes, important part of our lives.”. Yet, this similar value
may be reasoned not by the character of an ethnic group, but may be a result of a similar
migration background, which unites the family and revitalizes family ties.
Certain negative attitudes towards the representatives of the ethnic group of the
interviewees’ parents may also be evident: “a lot of Muslims don’t give their hands for a
handshake to men. For me somehow… also a discrimination against men to not give them the
hand, but to a woman. It’s religious, they say it’s religious, but… I’m not ok with this behavior.”
“there’s their [Russian] mentality, they can stand you up, stuff like that. There are no such things
in Germany.»114 “Tolerance. Here everyone can do whatever they want. Dress like they want, eat
what they want. In Russia it’s not like that yet. People are not that tolerant yet, that disturbs
me.”115.
Speaking about native Germans, the interviewees predominantly use “they” and in 8 cases
focuses on the closure of German community and certain national character with slightly
negative connotation: “You know, the Germans”; “German friends mostly accurate, and they are
more rational. They need long time to…to calm down.”, “They are reserved, they are not always
113
русские более открытые и говорят то, что думают
у них там ихний менталитет… они так, они там подведут, такое все. Ну это, дела, каких в
Германии нету.
114
Толерантность. Что все могут делать что они хотят. Одеваться, кушать что они хотят. А в
России это еще не так… люди еще не такие толерантные это мешает мне
115
47
sincere. It has never happened to me yet that I had native German friend”116 “But still if you
know Germans, they are still with each other. They are always smiling, ask questions, but
eventually Germans are with Germans.”117; These are the examples of both Turkish and Russian
second generation.
Yet, it is not the case of complete consensus about Germans or better to say, only one side
of interviewees’ attitudes. The critique of the majority group may be simultaneously
supplemented by the positive reflections about the native population both from the interviews of
Turkish origin: “But when you are close with them, then you will stay friends forever.”; and
Russian one: “They are more responsible, they won’t deceive”.
Hence, we can draw a conclusion, that even though certain preferences in “national”
personality traits of Turks and Russians, the interviewees try to objectively evaluate both positive
and negative aspects of all discussed groups.
Yet, when it comes to the comparison of the two ethnic groups, informants tend to describe
positive characteristics of their parents’ ethnicity and contrast them to German one with
favoritism to the previous:“I think Russians are more open and say what they think, I think
Germans are not like that”118; “we still have a little bit of this Russian culture. I think it’s
warmer than German culture, more hospitable”, “I like the Turkish people a lot. They’re like…
warm. They are welcoming. They are not as reserved as Germans.”
The most vivid example of experienced rejection of interviewees by Germans is a
difficulty in finding German friends: “it’s not so easy all the time with people with just German
background.”; “it’s not so easy to integrate”; “German culture is more, often it’s cold”. These
citations come from both Russian and Turkish immigrants’ children. The feeling of being
displaced from the major group does not depend on the level of integration or individual’s selfidentification as a member of this group.
One of the second-generation Russian-German confessed: “with friends with the same
background it’s easier for me to, to find connection”. Interestingly, the interviewees did not
116
Не знаю, какие-то они замкнутые и… они не всегда искренне говорят…, так чтобы друзей
настоящих найти, вот чистых немцев, такого не было пока в моей жизни.
117
Но все равно, так, если немцев знаешь, они все равно между своими, они…всегда так
улыбаются, и все спрашивают, но в конце концов все равно только немцы между немцев
мне кажется русские более открытые и говорят то, что думают, правда не знаю... у немцев мне
кажется не всегда так
118
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specify the origins of those whom they relate to or feel more comfortable with, but we will
elaborate on this point a little bit later. These example leads us to the following result derived
from the data: there are the tendencies of in-group and out-group categorization among SGIs.
As it was mentioned above, the in-group of SGIs, which is positively described by
informants and whom they feel comfortable with may include not only immigrants and their
children of the same origin, but all first and second-generation immigrants of various
backgrounds. “I’m interested in people who has the same [immigrant] background like me”, “It
is a great experience to be in the class with a lot of nationalities like Croatians, like with Turkish
people and… you were a part of the group”. The inclusion of people with different migration
background resulted in the motley crew of interviewees’ friends: “We are a group of about 8
people, some have the same background as me… Some have the background from Poland” I like
my friends, my Turkish friends, my German and Russian friends.”, “it’s super-mixed up.
German, Russian, from Congo, from Croatia.”
Based on the information we got from the interviews, it seems that most interviewees have
some German friends, but they are mostly on the periphery: “I have some. I don’t know them by
now, it’s…I mean there are some, like…Not the closest”. “So, I know a lot, but not the closest
friends.”. It may also be possible that an immigrant child would have no German friends, like in
the case of the second-generation Russian: “I’ve never had pure German friends” Yet, the
opposite example of friendship experience was presented by a child of Turkish-German parents:
“I’ve always had more German friends. Although there were many Turkish kids at school, they
always sticked together”. In both of these cases there are strong Russian and German identities
respectively in the families. In the case of German-Turkish interviewee, the obvious obstacle for
communication was the language, because she did not know Turkish. On the other hand, in case
of Russian SGI the reasons are more obscured, but we could suppose that a strong Russian
identity resulted in personal preferences in communication and a certain detachment and distrust
to German people.
There is an aspiration among the second-generation immigrants to stress the
multiculturalism of the society they live in: “Everybody is mixed-up and all the religious and
cultural identities are mixed up.” At the same time one of the interviewees of Turkish origin
insists on being ethnically blind: “I don’t put a difference in where people are coming from, it is
like a lot… if, if you are on the same wave.”, while other young people of Russian origin stress
49
out their tolerance and respect to all nationalities, religions and cultures. Being a part of migrant
families, SGIs feel supportive and sympathy to other minorities and immigrant population:
“I’m very tolerant person, and when all these refugees came, I defended them. They are
here because they want better life. My mother was not a refugee, but she also came for a better
life. I don’t think it’s bad. It makes a difference to me that my mother is Russian.” 119
Having studied all the evidence, it is possible to assume that some second-generation
immigrants may construct the in-group out of people of migration background, no matter where
they come from. Moreover, they extend their identity to other members of the shaped group and
generalize their life experience:
“All friends are Germans, I think foreign, but everybody is feeling like a German. Because
everybody is grown-up here, in Germany and if you ask about how do you feel? Do you feel like
Albanian? They will say of course, a little bit, but mostly I feel like a German.”
There is a tendency among SGIs to explicitly associate themselves with a relatively small
group of friends and relatives, or people with similar family history, while after some
considerations they find differences of their ethnic identity and their parents’ or German ethnicity
in a pure sence.
The neighborhoods play an important role in people’s identity construction, as well as
formation of attitudes towards outer social groups. Most of the categorizations and prejudice are
formed in the process of everyday interaction with the representatives of the groups during
socialization. Russian second-generation immigrants stated:
“There is a German friend of mine, but yes… he is more mixed up than German-German.
Because he grown up with all the other guys”; “When I was small, we lived in a flat, and on the
first floor lived a German old lady. I was coming to her place all the time, she gave me candies
and told different stories. At that time Germans treated immigrants differently, they knew that
they should show them German culture, so that they also become Germans.”120. One of the
119
Я очень толерантный человек и когда эти все беженцы пришли к нам, я их защищала. Они же
сюда пришли потому что хотят лучше жить. Моя мама тоже… Она конечно не была беженкой,
беженцем, но тоже приехала сюда чтобы лучше жить. В этом нет плохого же ничего. Это что-то
делает со мной, что моя мама русская.
когда был маленький мы жили в квартире одной, и там у нас на первом этаже бабушка жила
немецкая, и я всегда к ней бегал, и она мне конфетки давала, истории рассказывала. Ну тогда
еще немцы к иностранцам совсем по-другому относились, потому что они понимали, что им надо
показать культуру немецкую, чтобы они тоже стали немцами.
120
50
Turkish SGIs notes: “Germans are very silent. It is boring in my neighborhoods, not much is
happening”.
Another important stance, which further influences the processes of categorization and
serves as a ground for comparison, is the way of upbringing. This aspect forms the basis for all
identification stages because it shapes the attitudes, behavior, values and habits of individuals.
Being born into a multiethnic family, two informants were brought up in a mixed cultural
environment. Besides their parents, other family members were there since the early childhood:
“I used to live in a house together with my Turkish grandparents. Mostly my mother
trained… or educated us”; “My grandmother came from Russia to Germany so that my mom
could work. She was bringing us up at home.”121. Although all family members influence child’s
upbringing, kids tend to grasp the main aspects from the person who is the closest to them. In
these two examples, if we take, say, language as a pattern, one person developed reading and
writing skills of the Russian language in German settings, and the other grew up monolingual
even though there always were not only Turkish family members, but also a considerable
Turkish neighborhoods: “I think here in my village they have a lot of Turkish people. So, I guess,
like at least 25% of my classmates were Turkish”
We suppose that the comparison of the behavior, communication and actions gains
momentum among children of immigrants earlier than among native population. According to
the stages of social identity formation, children start to analyze, compare and distinguish the
behavior of people around them in primary school. Yet, having markedly different strategies of
behavior, children of immigrants start noticing and comparing their actions with the others at the
early stages of socialization with the native population. A descendant of Russian immigrants,
who came to Germany at the age of 6 remembers:
“I was taught that in school students should be very disciplined, and after I came to
Germany, I sat in a class and did this: [hands on the table, student’s pose in Russia] yes. I was
sitting always like that. And then my teacher said to me “you don’t have to do this, you can sit
how you want.” And I was ahhhhhh [taking a relaxed pose, almost slipping down from the chair]
ok. And after that discipline gone.”
In case of Turkish immigrants, most of the differences, noticed by the children at the early
stages of their socialization, related to the differences in Muslim and Christian religions:
121
Моя бабушка из России переехала к нам в Германию. И моя бабушка нас воспитывала дома
51
“I was at catholic kindergarten, and they were praying every morning before we had our
kindergarten breakfast. We were praying, and everybody were praying like that [joining hands].
I was the only Muslim there, and then my dad said: “Ok, they’re doing this [joining hands], then
you just do this [hands to the sides]” And I was feeling … embarrassed to do this.”
“They didn’t know what to do, what to think about Jesus hanging on the cross and the
children were really afraid, they were like “oh my god, what is this?” They did not know what to
do with it and it was like a culture shock.”
Everyday habits are very important when we speak about comparison of various social
groups. Deeply embedded in our lives, they seem trivial and natural for the in-group, but
provoke surprise and misunderstanding among the members of the out-group. They
simultaneously indicate the distinctions between the two groups and very often provoke more
discussion among people, than such large-scale differences as language or religion. Being in
between two cultures, SGIs are bombed by these habits from both sides and have to adapt to the
settings and parents’ habits:
“My mother is very disciplined… maybe because of the system in Turkey, I don’t know. And
always, when I was writing my homework and she didn’t think that I have a nice handwriting,
she took it and said: “Write it again”. In Germany it’s like… no one cares about how nice your
handwriting is. But in Turkey it’s important.”
“Germans mostly don’t put off their shoes when they get into a flat. And it’s super common
in Russia that they do it. So when my friends came home, they never put off their shoes. And my
mom was like [in an angry and high voice] “tell your friends that they should put off their
shoes” And then I have to say them always like a [apologetically] “Uh, could you please…” And
then they are like “Uh, ok…” It’s like typical Russian behavior.”
This intermediate position might also occur during the conversations when generally
common attitudes of a particular group or nation to certain issues are discussed:
“Of course, there are such problems in Russia as…I don’t know, homosexualism for
example. But in Germany it’s just vice-versa, everybody are too soft about this, and permit
everything, do what you want. And in Russia it’s just different mentality, it is treated very
52
differently. And in Germany people don’t understand this. And if you say, as a German that
you’re in favor of Russia, they look at you in such a manner, say that you’re…”122
In such situations individuals may either act according to their self-identification, their
actual opinion which may stand out from or go in line with the opinion of the others, or may
strategically, consciously change the point of view in favor of more suitable or more
advantageous.
According to the theories of social identity, there is a tendency of out-group derogation,
which can also be observed among the perceptions of some SGIs. For example, the
diminishment and abusing of German traditions serve both as a justification for not following
them and exaggeration of the importance of one’s own traditions:
“Germans celebrate
Christmas evening, we don’t celebrate such a thing. Nobody
celebrate their festivals. My father, on the contrary, he does not understand them. He calls
everything malign, we don’t need this, we don’t have it”123
“Well, at the end of the day no, well, I was given presents at the 24th of December, because
everybody were given, it’s considered to be Christmas. But it never happened that we celebrated
on the 24th… Well, Germans do not really celebrate their festivals, so…”124
Interestingly, such statements were made only by the interviewees of Russian origin. It
should also be noted that the families where such beliefs are shared, have stronger Russian
identity, comparing with other interviewees.
5.
Types and stimulus of ethnic self-identification
Similarly to the previous sections, the results from the analysis of the interviews has shown
a big dispersion of attitudes, verifications and connotations of second generations’ identities.
Every person obtained their own unique ethnic identity which is casted of up to 3 ethnic
конечно там есть в России такие… проблемы там я не знаю, с гомосекс… с геями, все такое. Но
это просто наоборот, в Германии так сильно мягко к этому все относятся, и все разрешают,
делайте что хотите. А в России просто другой менталитет, к этому совсем по-другому относятся. И
в Германии это не понимают. И если ты говоришь как немец, я для россии, они на тебя так
смотрят, говорят ты….
122
Немцы празднуют как бы Christmas evening, у нас такого… мы такое не празднываем. ну ихние
праздники так дома никто не празднует. Папа наоборот, он это не понимает. Он зовет это все
дурное, это нам не надо, такого у нас нет.
123
Ну в принципе нет, ну дарили нам подарки вот на 24 декабря, потому что всем детям дарили
подарки, как рождество считается. Но так, чтобы праздновать прям двадцать четвертого, такого
не было, так что немецкие в принципе... Да немцы они и сами сильно не празднуют свои
праздники, так что...
124
53
identities that differ in importance at various moments of people’s lives. The most vivid example
of the possible mixture of identities was presented by the descendant of Jewish migrants from
Ukraine:
“I’m a foreign Jew in Germany, and kind of feel German. But I also have other, like not
classic German, like this, who have their culture, I also have Jewish culture, some traditions,
and also soviet, all Russian… Such a scary mixture among Jewishness, German and some kind
of Russian. That’s me.”125
8 people confessed to a feeling of being both German and Russian or German and Turkish
at the same time. Based on such self-description it can be proved that the ethnic identity of the
second-generation migrants under study is not exclusive.
Interviewees have an emotional
attachment to the ethnic groups of their parents as well as the population of the country, where
they were born and socialized: “I know where my origins are and I feel… say, connected to
Turkey and the Turkish mentality somehow. I also really feel German.” Thereby the affiliations
of the second-generation immigrants take form of multiple identity.
As well as acquiring multiple identity, SGIs may express a certain degree of their
affiliations to one group as compared with other: “I always felt more German than Turkish”,
“I’m feeling more German and I think I have more the, the thinking of the West Europe mind,
that the Russian mind.”. This gradation does not refer to the prevailing or decreasing importance
of an ethnicity, but to the degree of affiliations to a certain ethnos. So, an individual feeling more
Russian or more German still does not exclude the other part of their identity.
To justify their belonging to a certain ethnic group, individuals may refer to personal
characteristics and sources, which were both inherited and achieved in the process of
socialization. The original characteristics, which a second-generation immigrant may articulate
with, are: their or their parents’ place of birth and/or settlement; parents’ ethnicity; relatives
living in the country of origin or settlement; appearance, whereas language proficiency, shared
values and beliefs, religion and friend circle may be marked as achieved instruments and
characteristics. Consequently, language proficiency; shared values, and the place of birth and
settlement are the most common corroboration of German identity:
Я я еврей иностранец в германии, и типа чувствую немцем. Но у меня еще есть другие, типа не
классический немец, как у кого своя культура есть, у меня еще как еврейство культура, какие-то
традиции есть, и еще советское, русское все… такая страшная микстура между еврейством,
немцем быть и еще какие-то там русским. Вот это я.
125
54
“I was born and grew up here. It differs from the way my brother grew up and how he
relates to this country. He was about 12 when they came here”126; “I think I have more the, the
thinking of the West Europe mind, that the Russian mind.”; “I grew up here, German culture had
its influence on me”127; “I grew up and studied here. All of my friends live here”.
“I feel more German, because in Turkey everyone hear my accent, they see that I don’t
belong there.”; “I’m more experienced here in Germany than in Turkey.”; “I love all these
values of being a part of Germany. Like all these freedom you have”.
To evidence their belonging to the ethnic group of their parents, informants mostly stressed
the blood relations, the ties with the country of origin and similarities in the culture and
mentality:
An interviewee of Russian-German parentage explains: “Most of the time they lived in
Russia, that is why they are more Russians than Germans”; other interviewees of Russian origin
note: “In their heart they feel like they’re Russians, that they have Russian soul”; “I have
relatives there, my parents came from Russia, all ancestors lived there”. Those interviewees,
who have Turkish parents, also note: “It’s because my family comes from Turkey”; “I know
where my origins are and I feel… say, connected to Turkey”; “I am a part Turkish because my
father came from Turkey”
Being raised and educated in Germany, there are not many distinctions that would expose
person as a second generation immigrant. It is generally assumed, that appearance may serve as
an indicator of ethnic and racial belonging. Although the SGIs of Russian origin did not touch
upon the importance of their appearance, in the case of the 2 SGIs of Turkish origin, their
appearance served as a tool to disguise their belonging to a Turkish ethnic group:
“ I look a little Turkish if you know it, but I don’t look like wow, she’s Turkish, definitely!
It’s not like that”; “They were surprised sometimes [to know I’m Turkish]”
“I look like German, the most people think I’m German, but my mother and father came
from Turkey and I am Turkish. But at the first time a lot of people think I’m German. And that’s
my positive side, yes.”
126
я здесь как родился и вырос и типа совсем по-другому, как вырос и относится к этой стране
мой брат, например. Он же сюда лет в 12 приехал
127
Я здесь вырос, все эта культура на меня влияла.
55
In that regard, appearance may presents a fascinating example of the dissonance between
the true meaning of the phenomenon and the ascribed one. The first case is easy to explain,
because the person was born in an ethnically mixed family. But in the second case the person just
had an average European look and could benefit from that. Moreover, in a globalized world,
especially in Europe, people have similar outfit, hairstyles, mixed and merged accents. So, it
becomes more and more difficult to learn about individuals’ ethnicity from the first sight, unless
a person would make a distinction intentionally.
It is also possible that second-generation immigrant would claim one ethnic identity. It can
be either German, or the one of their parents’. Those, who identified themselves as just Germans
came from the families where German ethnicity was primordially presented (1 SGI of RussianGerman parentage and 1SGI of German mother and Turkish father). This fact gives a ground for
German self-identification relying on the blood relations with the ethnic group. Russian identity
was selected by the descent of Russian mother and Russian-German father. In this case the
family is poorly assimilated into the host community, but it is difficult to reveal the reasons of
the lack of social ties with the locals, linguistic preservation and cultural rejection among family
members.
An important part of ethnic identity, just like any other social identity is inclusion of an
individual by a group. This study did not have a purpose to examine the attitude of the major
community to interviewees or to understand whether individual self-categorization is supported
by the members of ethnic groups they associate themselves with. Yet, it was important for us to
see how do the SGIs evaluate others’ perception of themselves to understand better both their
own identity and the connections to other members of the community.
It was a conscious decision no to focus on ethnic identity in order to see whether the
interviewees focus on their ethnicity, when they think about their image in the eyes of others. In
most cases, answering the question of “What do you think others would say about you?”, people
focused on personal traits of their character, such as funny, honest, clever. These descriptions
aimed at portraying person as an individual, regardless of their social identity. Some informants
touched upon the ideas of being tolerant and respectful to all religions, ethnicities and
nationalities, which approached the issues of ethnicity, but focused on individual’s values and
beliefs. In both of these cases the public, people referred to, was unified, no certain groups were
mentioned. Yet, when the issue of ethnic identity is discussed, the assumption may depend on a
56
certain group individual think about. This distinction of various attitudes was mentioned by one
of the SGIs of Russian origin:
“For example those, who know me at the university, those whom I’m not really friend with,
they would say at first he’s Russian. And my friends, they would say I’m German.”128
This example illustrates that there are variations in the perception of an individual by
different ethnic groups. It is also possible that none of the groups person associates with views an
individual as a part of their group. Simultaneously, the representative of one ethnicity supports
the idea of individual’s belonging to the opposite group. In such a manner, a second-generation
immigrant is positioned by others to the in-between zone among ethnic groups.
Another very important indicator of legal inclusion of the second-generation immigrants is
granting citizenship. This symbolic act of becoming a freeman of the German state may be
differently perceived by the second-generation immigrants: “It is very important to have German
citizenship”; “No, I don’t feel anything, it’s just only that I can freely travel around Europe,
that’s it. But otherwise it’s just a paper” 129 “I have both, I think it’s pretty cool. But I actually
never went to Turkey with my Turkish ID, but always with my German passport. I never use my
Turkish ID.”
The most important right granted with the citizenship is the right to vote. This may be the
only reason to become legal citizen both for Turkish and for Russian SGIs respectively: “ I have
a Turkish one. But I will get now the German one. I can get it without problems and I will do it.
Because then I can vote in Germany and now it’s getting more and more important…”;
“Because you have the rights and you need… You have the vote and you should, should take it” ;
“I actually can go voting in Turkey but it’s a lot of…. I think I should first register myself, I don’t
really know stuff I have to do to vote. But I probably vote though”
There is a tendency among some interviewees to objectify the importance of having dual
citizenship: both of their parents’ homeland and current place of residence:
“I have the Turkish and the German citizenship, it’s very important. 2 sides are very
important”; “I would like to have dual citizenship. Russian and German. But my mother did not
Например те, какие в университете меня знают, какие как не сильно так дружу, просто
встречаюсь, они скажут что на первом месте он русский. А мои друзья, они бы сказали что я
немец.
128
нет, я ничего не чувствую, только что могу по Европе свободно путешествовать, все. А так, это
бумажка только.
129
57
think about that. That’s actually… For me this is an important topic. If it was easy, I would make
dual citizenship. Because of identity. Yes, that I feel that a part is Russian, that I also have a
mentality”130
By this means SGIs might want to legitimize their dual identity and not to be constrained
to only one citizenship. It seems important to have an opportunity not to choose between the two
states, because this is inaccurate to ask a person with multiple identity to choose one of its parts.
Ethnic affiliations of the SGIs may contradict the ideas and identities of their parents, the
way they were brought up. Being raised in a “soviet family” with “Russian mentality” the person
may still sticks to German identity. They also may not to notice or pay attention to the cases,
which an outsider would interpret as contradictory or even mutually exclusive: “They feel like
Germans, but they feel like they’re Russians”. This is an example of multiple identity, which
does not provoke a conflict, but entail both identities, which a person refers to in various settings
individually or simultaneously. No conflicts of ethnic identification were evidenced in the
interviews. Although speaking about the people tend to change their opinion and constantly
switch from one country/culture/communities to the other, evaluating their meanings and
importance, this process does not imply clashes between two or more affiliations. For example, a
person with Turkish roots elaborated on the question of “Where is your homeland?” in the
following way:
“I think Turkey, because my family comes from Turkey, yes. But here in Germany, I’m more
experienced here in Germany, than in Turkey, but sure, I like Turkish country too. Sure, more I
think Turkey and Germany, both.”
It seems logical to conclude that individual’s ethnic identity does not have borders and is
not threshold. In other words, there is enough space in our minds for multiple identification.
An important stance in social identity formation is the feeling of comfort and security in a
certain community and on a particular territory (when we speak about ethnicity). Despite the
fact, that shared soil is a part of the primordial view on ethnicity, we take into consideration
people’s life experience on the territory of the country, to see how willing a person is to be a part
Я бы хотела иметь двойное гражданство. Русское и немецкое. Но моя мама не думала об этом…
это вообще-то… для меня это важная тема. Если это было легко я бы сделала двойное
гражданство. Из за идентичности. Да что я чувствую что часть русская, что у меня тоже
менталитет
130
58
of a major community of the state. For this reason we asked interviewees what do they feel and
think about the country of origin and the host country, and where they would like to live.
Both Russian and Turkish SGIs expressed their satisfaction and pleasure about living in
Germany and marked out the high living standards, facilities and comfort comparing to their
parents’ country of origin. The reflections of the second-generation Russians are the following:
“it’s a very secure life here, because you have insurance for everything, and you have save
jobs. Life is not hard here, it’s not hard to survive here.”, “I enjoy living here, we have a lot of
chances, a lot of opportunities”
while the interviewee with Turkish roots notes:
“I think Germany
is actually on a really high level, how they do a lot of stuff. Like
housing, treat, human rights, or women rights. Also freedom of press, freedom of speaking,
freedom of arts. So, I guess that Germany is doing a good job in this cases. And I really can say
that we are quite lucky to be able to live here, or to live here, not able. Yes.”
Both Russian and Turkish SGIs stated, that “Germany is a good country to live.”, and
several (3 Russian and 3 Turkish SGIs) confessed, that Germany is their “home”, where they
feel “the most comfortable”.
Speaking about the country of origin, interviewees expressed their interest depending on
how related and interested they are to the state:
“This is a very interesting country, there are also some local problems. I wouldn’t say that
it is somehow worse than Germany”131; “I really like beautiful nature, people are different there.
I really like being there and come there with joy every year.”; “Russia was for me, like the
freedom when you are as a kid, you do everything what you want on the streets and go to the
woods to play, to do what you want. In this part I loved the memories.”;
“I feel… say, connected to Turkey and the Turkish mentality somehow. But yes, politics is
getting worse and worse in Turkey right now. It’s really frustrating for me.”; “Turkey is very
good, the sea is very good, And the people are very friendly, they smile a lot. And the streets are
very big. And the tea in Turkey is very good. And the culture, you can, you can feel it, the culture
in Turkey. They celebrate the holidays very-very good.”
Это очень интересная страна, тоже есть свои какие-то проблемы, но я не сказал бы что она
чем-то хуже, чем Германия.
131
59
When the place of settlement is discussed, SGIs might have very differentiated attitude to
the settings and to the surrounding community. They might enjoy the benefits of living in a
welfare state, but to be at odds with the local population. As for the origin country there might be
an opposite situation, when a person feels strong attachment to the culture and mentality of the
major ethnic group of the country, but evidence the deficiencies of domestic and foreign policies
and expresses dissatisfaction with the living conditions. Based on the importance of any given
factors, an individual constructs their stance on a country and choose their course of life: “When
I have to make a decision like where I want to live, then it would be Germany. For me no other
country would be opportunity”; “ I can imagine moving to Russia. I’m not sure yet whether I
want it or not, but I can imagine that I might move.”132
“I think I wouldn’t like to live in Turkey for a longer time… I think it’s still kind of
developing, yes.”
Yet, for a person with multiple identity even the question of settlement may provoke a split
in desires:
“I thought about it. But I couldn’t go there forever, because then I will miss Germany a lot.
I think that it would be good if I could live a little bit in Germany, a little bit in Moscow, and
always go back and forth. For some time, not forever, but bit by bit. Because I’m German, but
also Russian, I need both countries” 133
This example leads to the conclusion, that multiple ethnic identity may cause the
multiplicity of aspirations in various spheres of life, starting with the language, and ending up
with the place of settlement.
The main reason of a strong connection to the country of origin among interviewees are the
family ties. Based on the interviewees’ stories, if a person has close relatives in the origin
country, they are more likely to visit them on a regular basis, maintain contact via phone and
internet and be more interested in the political and social life of the citizens:
132
Z могу себе представить, если честно... переехать в Россию. Хочу ли я этого пока или нет не
знаю, но могу себе представить, что перееду может быть.
133
я об этом думала, но на всегда я не могла потому что я тогда по германии скучать буду очень.
Я думаю, что хорошо было бы если я могла бы чуть-чуть жить в германии, чуть-чуть в москве, и
всегда переехать туда сюда. На время, чтобы не на всегда а по чуть чуть такю потому что я как бы
немка и тоже русская, мне обе страны надо
60
“I have a lot of relatives there, my mother’s parents and siblings. We have relatives all
over Russia, a lot of them. Every year I’m there” 134
“The brothers of my grandmother and their children and grandchildren live in Turkey. We
visit them every summer”
“Always in summer they went by car to Turkey, it’s about 35 hours just in a car. And they
always tell super funny stories about this road trip.”
“The parents of my mother decided to live in Turkey. We’re telephoning together in
Turkish. For summer holidays we’re going to Turkey.”
It is also more likely for people with strong transnational ties to express positive
sentiments about the country of origin. Moreover, this attitude may be accounted by the mere
fact of presence of relatives in that country: “ I like Russia, I have a lot of relatives and friends
there, that’s why I’m positive about Russia”135
This way of justification the positive reflections about the country also works for Germany.
Yet, in this case family ties are supplemented by friends and acquaintances: “I like being here. I
have my friends, my people, those who help me, my mother and brother live here”136
On the other hand, when there are no or weak relation ties, it is less favorable for a person
to visit the country, know or express interest in the home country of their parents:
“I have an uncle and a cousin in Ukraine. Uncle comes couple times a year. He sells
flowers, that’s why goes to Holland. My cousin is studying in Russia, maybe in Moscow, I don’t
know, that’s why I don’t see him. I’ve been there 2 times, when I was small. About 6-7 years old,
when my granddad died, for the funeral, and the last time was about 14, 13 years old.” 137
много родственников. Мамины родители, братья, сестры, все там. Почти по всей России есть
родственники там, много очень. Я каждый год там.
134
России я хорошо отношусь, у меня там много родственников и друзей, так что положительно
отношусь к России.
135
Мне нравится здесь. У меня мои друзья, у меня мои люди, которые мне помогают, мама брат
здесь живут
136
У меня там дядя и двоюродный брат в Украине. Дядя бывает приезжает пару раз в году. Он
цветам торгует, он потому и приезжает, в голландию ездит. А двоюродный брат в России учится, в
университете, В москве может быть, я не знаю. Поэтому я его не вижу. Нет. Мама вообще не
была, как они сюда приехали, она даже не возвратилась в Украину. Я был 2 раза там. Когда я
совсем маленький был, где-то в 6-7 лет, когда дедушка умер, помню, я там был. И в 14, 13 лет,
это я последний раз там был.
137
61
“I think it’s interesting to visit Russia or Kazakhstan. I think mainly not because I want to
see where my parents lived, I think just to travel.”
“I don’t really hear much about politics or something, because I don’t have relatives any
more there. So, all my relatives are in Germany. And so, I don’t have a real connection to, to that
country. I hear sometimes, but not more than other German people”
In the case of ethnically mixed family, it is possible that with the loss of the immigrant
parent, the connection to the country of his/her origin will be also lost:
“We used to go there every year, like once a year with my whole family. I think it was
mostly because we wanted some vacation as kids, and father wanted to visit his cousins. But now
we… I think last time I was in Turkey is 2 years ago I think… My dad passed away in 2013 and
it’s always a little... weird to go there without my father. I don’t know where I’ll be there next
time”
It is also arguable, that if individual has strong family ties in the country of origin and goes
there annually, they might extend the circle of acquaintances from their relatives to the unrelated
individuals:
“Because we spend like one month of the year in Turkey, so, I have friends there.”
“we spend 5 weeks in Turkey every summer. I have a friend in Turkey, he lives in a village.
He call me with messenger, Facebook. We’re talking about what is in Germany, or what is in
Turkey.”
Strong family ties and frequent journeys to the country of origin referred mostly to the
SGIs from Turkey. All of the SGIs with Turkish roots have relatives in the origin country and
keep in touch with them. Moreover, 3 families tend to travel to Turkey every summer to visit
their relatives. In 2 of these cases, they possess their own real-estate in the form of houses and
flats. “Mostly every year we’re going there and we also have a flat there and then we just visit
them” This is an indicator of not only relational connections, but also of economic activity in
Turkey.
All interviewees with strong transnational ties expressed a stronger degree of attachment to
the country of origin, as well as the parents’ ethnic identity, while the informants with little
relations to the country of origin expressed Turkish or Russian identity relatively weaker. Yet,
this conclusion is quire relative and generalized. Another shortcoming of the section lies in
62
insufficient amount of information about the degree of affiliations to a certain part of SGIs’
identity explicitly expressed by the informants. This lack is explained by the slightly different
aim of the paper and very complex and constantly varying structure of the multiple identity. Yet,
this may serve as an objective for further research and development of the study.
6.
Mechanisms of negotiation and adaptation of multiple ethnicities to each other
In this section, the mechanisms employed by the second-generation immigrants to
construct and represent their ethnic identity will be discussed. By mechanisms we mean a
constellation of decisions and activities that are consciously or subconsciously undertaken by the
second-generation immigrants for the purpose of constructing, expressing and amending their
ethnic identity. Thus, we would try to reveal the reasons behind the actions of the secondgeneration immigrants and examine their outcomes and impacts on the ethnicity representation.
All the results presented in this section are based on the information gathered during the
interviews. Hence, it summarizes and describes the possible mechanisms of ethnic identification
and adaptation. Based on the limited number of informants, mechanisms presented below should
not be treated as general and uniform. The labels ascribed to them are also notional.
The mechanisms used by the SGIs to identify and represent themselves as Turkish,
Russians or Germans may be allocated to the deconstruction or reconstruction of linguistic and
cultural specificities of the ethnic groups they refer to. In sake of structure, we will firstly discuss
the mechanisms of Turkish and Russian identity construction, and then will proceed with the
case of German identity of second-generation immigrants.
The first aspect of ethnic identity, which we discuss, is the language. Depending on the
level of a language proficiency, learned in the family, SGIs may decide to improve their
knowledge by taking courses of Russian or Turkish, or consciously use it more often on the
everyday basis: “I’m learning it at the moment because I took a Turkish class. I’m at the very
beginning”
Such actions may indicate the conscious decision of an individual to fill the gap of
knowledge or the deficiency of the skill, which will further enable them to act as a part of the
group they identify with. This mechanism of acquiring specific skills of a certain ethnic group,
in this case, language improvement also helps person to get am expanded access to the cultural
63
and political resources of the parents’ home country. For example, after an individual masters
reading, they may read the literature or the news of their country of origin. With the writing
skills they may communicate with Russian and Turkish people, for example, in the internet as
equal and indistinguishable member of the group. Emotional grounds should also be taken into
account. By this we mean that a person earns not only the practical skills, but also feels moral
satisfaction and additional moral legitimization of their identity aspirations. They also fill the gap
in their identity to a certain extend.
The level to which a person would develop their language skills will depend on the degree
to which they want to be a part of the ethnic group. For some individuals, who completely lack
the language, like for example the interviewee of ethnically mixed German-Turkish parentage,
might feel the need to know at least the basics in order to fill the gap in her Turkish part of
identity. Others might aspire for more proficient level of the language and, like in the case of a
child of Russian and German parents, take the courses of Russian in Moscow and get a bachelor
degree in linguistics. This mechanism may refer not only to the language issues (although this is
the major skill), but also concern certain cultural specificities or the peculiar occupations or
crafts of an ethnic group. These may be the skills of cooking, dancing, playing a musical
instrument, etc. All these skills are more specific and not universal for the whole ethnic group
compared to the language. Yet, they also may serve similar purposes as the language.
Visiting public places such as clubs, restaurants and community centers which are focused
on certain culture, may also be treated as a mechanism of reproduction of the settings among
SGIs. For example, a person may go to Russian disco clubs, cafes and cinema. By these means,
people achieve 2 goals simultaneously. Firstly, reproduce and (financially) support the culture
(be it art, music, food.) of a certain ethnicity, meaning that by going to these places they invest
into them and do not let them go bankrupt. Secondly, they interact and communicate with people
of their ethnic group which also helps to consolidate the group and reconstruct the structure of
the home community in the host society.
The mechanism of ethnicity reproduction is referred to the endogamous partnership
strategies displays the aim to preserve and reproduce certain ethnic identity and may be
evidenced in the preferences when SGIs choose their partners. Despite the possible claims of
being German, some SGIs might favor a person of their parents’ ethnic group. This favoritism to
the in-group relations might be dictated or influenced by the ethnocentric views of (one of) the
parents:
64
“When marriage is concerned, then father says: no, she should be Russian, so that
everything ours was kept. But he doesn’t forbid, it’s just for him… own nation. For him Germans
are some strangers… My girlfriend is from Moscow, they came here in 1995, I guess”138
It is interesting to note, that in some cases the SGIs might opt for a partner, who is not just
came from the country of SGI’s origin (like it happened among the first or 1,5 generation Turks
in Germany, who were bringing a wife or a husband from Turkey), but possesses similar multiple
identity. One of the SGI from the family od Russian-Germans explains:
“I’m not really interested in finding a girl for me, who’s really German, I’m interested in
girl who has the same background like me. I like this German culture with Russian background, I
like the most.”
Expressing interest in the current political situation in the origin country may be one of the
indicators of the mechanism of bounding with the country of origin aiming at strengthening
transnational ties as well as taking part in constructing the future of the country. The examples of
the actions, constituting a part of this mechanism, are maintaining, encouragement and widening
of social ties with relatives and friends which are achieved through distanced communication
(telephoning, texting, Skyping, etc.) and periodical travelling to the country of origin. This
mechanism might be activated in a stronger form, along with the actualization of ethnic
affiliations, by political crises, national tragedies or natural disasters:
“Now there is no way not to follow the news, what’s going on there. It’s pretty interesting
And I have some relatives there”
“Politics is getting worse and worse in Turkey right now. It’s really frustrating for me as a
Turkish person to see that. Actually, I should do more like activist stuff against this autocratic
system of Erdogan, because I feel like I have to do something. So, I don’t know, I don’t have an
idea how to be active against the Turkish state in Germany.”
Although it is closely related to the mechanism of bonding with the origin country, the
consumption of mass media of various forms may be singled out as a distinct mechanism. The
main argument in favor of this distinction is the extensionality of attitudes, strategies and
patterns used by the SGIs in this process.
Если тема подходит к жениться, то папа уже говорит нет, должна быть русская, такое, чтоб все
свое осталось типа. Но он не запрещает типа, просто ему, ну как сказать, это своя нация, у него
сейчас такое чувство, что немцы какие-то чужие. Девушка у меня с Москвы, они тоже переехали
где-то в девяносто не знаю, пятом, где-то так.
138
65
Generally, the initial measures, which an individual might undertake to get an access to the
mass media produced in the country of origin, may consist of buying necessary technical devices
(ex. TV receiver), finding publically available sources in the internet, or ordering published
items. These activities differ by the necessary resources and time constrains. Depending on the
willingness and the necessary amount of sources, individuals might opt for one or several
measures to be able to get the access to the local media. So, some SGIs of both Russian and
Turkish origin, have TV receivers at home, which guarantees constant and relatively unlimited
access to a number of national TV channels.: “My grandparents always have Turkish newspaper,
and they always watch Turkish TV”
Others might limit themselves to the internet sources, which may be either independent
(ex. web sites of a newspaper or a journal), or integrated into other systems (ex. a Facebook
group or a page in Twitter). Yet, some people do not express interest in the local mass media and
are passively absorb the information coming from the environment (mostly from the parents and
relatives who consume such information, or hearing the TV, which is watched by other family
members). It is more common for the first generation of immigrants, or the older family
members to watch the TV and follow Russian or Turkish news in other ways.
«My brother does not watch. Mother watches it all the time. When I’m home, I’m also
watching. When there’s “Field of miracles” or some concerts, I always watch. Also some
cartoons, I like “Eralash””139
The aspect of the consumption of mass media might provoke a particular interest because
of the current complicated and stressed relations between Germany and both of the origin
countries (Russia/Turkey). During such tensed period, this area serves as a ground for very clear
distinction between the two identities. Just like the former mechanism, this one might be
actualized during the periods if crisis:
“There was one night in Turkey when people wanted to throw off the government, I think I
was really shocked, and I was like checking the news all the time to see what’s happening”;
This example is derived from the interview with the second generation Turkish immigrant.
Such respond is provoked by the current unstable political situation in Turkey and may evidence
the mechanism in action. Similar evidence were traced from Russian side, yet there it mostly
Мой брат не смотрит. Мама постоянно смотрит. Когда я дома, я тоже смотрю. Ну когда там
поле чудес или какие-то концерты я всегда смотрю. Тоже мультики какие-то ералаш люблю
139
66
concerned elderly family members who watch Russian TV and follow the news through the
Russian sources.
An important aspect of mass media consumption is the way of treating the information
presented. The difference in identity may have a strong effect on loyalty and trust of individuals:
“I try to avoid Turkish media because it is not free media and if I read this shit I get really
angry. It’s all bought by government. So you can not really trust the Turkish media right now. So,
if German press put something in report about Turkey, then I’m more likely to trust the German
one, than the Turkish one.”
“I’m following not so often the German news, because they tell very… the German
journalists speaking about Turkey bad things, and they make me a little bit angry. I’m not very
sure that what they tell about Turkey is ok. It… makes me a little bit… yes, sad.”
This leads us to the conclusion, that although generally (or in other fields of ethnic identity
construction or representation) SGIs might not feel any obstacles in mixing, merging and
constantly switching between their ethnic affiliations, at the times of the open confrontation
between the two groups, they could face the necessity to choose the side and support the one or
the other side. The situation is additionally complicated by the emotional attachment to both of
the opposing parties, which holds the person against stepping aside or ignoring the problem.
Another thing that might influence the individual’s attitude (maybe to a higher degree than
identity) is education. In the first case, a person is in the last semester of her bachelor in
sociology, while in the second one a person broke up his study in university and is currently
doing an apprentice.
The is also an alternative way of information consumption. Some immigrants and their
children might mix German and Turkish/Russian sources to compare the information presented
there. By these means, they try to analyze the presented issues and either to choose the more
“trustworthy” (in their view) connotations of the facts, or to form their own opinion:
“My uncle watches the Russian news sources and on the other hand he is watching
German news too. So, he mix it. And my mother, she mix it also. But she doesn’t look, she doesn’t
watch the TV, первый канал or Russian television, she just read Russian news. When there are
topics like Ukraine crisis or something, she tries to, to have separate views, then she reads the
Russian news and she reads German news and then she looks what are the differences. But me,
I’m not. I just read the German news.”
67
Most of the actions embedded in everyday life and aimed at reconstruction of ethnic
identity are bounded up with customs, traditions and other cultural elements of ethnic groups. All
of them fall under the mechanism of folkways reconstruction. This mechanism include such
actions as cooking and consuming traditional food, celebrating holidays, following religious
traditions of the ethnic group. In other words, reproducing the activities, which evolved
throughout centuries of the ethnicity existence.
It has been evidenced that there is a tendency of stratified intensity of the reconstruction of
various aspects of ethnic culture. Comparing the practices of holiday celebration with the habit
to cook and consume traditional food, the latter turned out to be of more frequent occurrence. All
immigrant families had a tradition of cooking Russian and Turkish food (which was done mostly
by the mothers and grandmothers of the interviewees). Although these types of meal might be
not the case of everyday consumption, and they are always accompanied by traditional German
or some other dishes: “My mom likes to cook borsh’, plov, pancakes, salad olivje, herring in
coat. Sometimes she makes a mix of German and Russian dishes.” 140
The presence of this ethnical aspect penetrates all families of the interviewees. It is
difficult to estimate the intentionality of the traditional food consumption for reproduction and
preservation of ethnic identity in the family. The reasons for cooking chebureki or borsh’ might
be just the appealing taste. Anyway, this is a part of a mechanism aimed at reconstruction of
ethnic identity, even though they may be unconsciously rendered.
In the case of Holidays celebration, the presence of practices vary among SGIs’ families.
The list of holidays which the SGIs celebrate depend on their country of origin, religion and
religiousness, and the degree to which individuals identifies themselves with these traditions.
Russian SGIs may celebrate both religious and secular holidays, like the New year, the
international women’s day; Orthodox Christmas and Easter. “At the Victory day we always call
our grandfathers, congratulate them. Always celebrate the 8th of March. In Germany it’s not that
big holiday”.141
In the case of Turkish families, the celebrations are mostly religious and include Sacca,
Ramadan, Ramazan Bayrami and Kurban Bayrami. Besides national holidays, there might be a
Она любит готовить борщ плов блинчики салат оливье селедка под шубой. Иногда она делает
такой микс из немецких и русских блюд.
140
На день победы всегда звоним дедам поздравляем. 8 марта всегда отмечаем. Это же в
Германии не очень-то такой праздник.
141
68
strategy of celebrating international, or generally common holidays in a peculiar, ethnically
specified manner. For example, a SGIs of Russian origin said:
“We celebrate birthdays big, with a lot of food. And everybody is invited. And I noticed in
Germany it’s not so typical to, to celebrate a birthday from your uncle with a whole family”
“At the 24th, when Germans have Christmas, they have a tradition to go to the church, then
to have supper and after that open presents. But we always do it the other way. In the morning,
after the breakfast we always open presents and then go to the church. That’s our tradition, in
our family.”142
Mechanisms of self-identification as Germans may be achieved through the deconstruction
of the immigrant ethnic identity among the second generation Russians and Turks. The most
vivid and common example, which was evidenced during the interviews, was silencing or denial
of immigration background and parent’s ethnicity. SGIs might also behave not the way they were
taught by their parents, if this kind of behavior is not practiced by people around them. For
example, in the case of the second-generation immigrant from Turkey, when everybody were
praying in the kindergarten, she did not follow the instructions, given by her father:
“because it was like everyone is doing that, and you’re like… as a little child you have to
do another move, it’s like… like the outsider… So I never did anything then, I was just sitting”.
They also tend not to tell about their parent’s migration background unless they are not
asked: “If I won’t say that my parents are from turkey, everybody will think I’m German.”. This
set of behavior strategies refers to the mechanism of visual assimilation, aimed at concealing
the differences between the individual and the majority group, and simultaneously helping to
look closer to the German identity. Another vivid example of visual assimilation is the choice of
the outfit by the second generation Turkish female immigrants, who may choose either
traditional Muslim or modern European dressing. There are many aspects in individual’s choice
of the dressing, and the strive for visual representation of a certain ethnic group might be one of
them.
In the role of citizens, SGIs might take an active position and take part in certain civil and
political activities aimed at improving living conditions or political system of the host country.
Мы 24 когда у немцев рождество, у немцев такое что у них традиция сначала идти в церковь,
потом ужинать а потом открывать подарки. А мы всегда делаем по другому. Мы всегда утром
после завтрака открываем подарки, а потом идем в церковь. Ну это у нас такая традиция в
фэмили.
142
69
This mechanism of social activism may be launched by the willingness to be a recognized and
respected member of the ethnic group, or simply by individual’s personal active characteristics.
The mechanism of cultural adoption is the example of the reconstruction of German
identity, which may not to deconstruct or infringe the other part of multiple identity (in our case
Turkish or Russian). The most vivid example of this mechanism is taking part in traditional
German festivals rooted in its culture and history:
“once I got, I became Jungschützen Königen, this is super typical German attraction. It’s
about hunters, it’s a really long hunting history. And a friend of mine is in this hunting
community. He invited me there and became a king for 1 year. And I was a queen of this king,
and it’s really German thing, you know.”
By these means an individual not only merged into the German culture, but also might
break the invisible barrier, artificially constructed by the members of Turkish ethnic group:
“And I think I was like the first Turkish ever to do something like that, and everyone was
like, like the Turkish people were really like Wow, that’s super weird, why Turkish person is doing
something like that. But it was fun, it was really cool.”
Friend circle may also be a result of person’s identification mechanism of in-group
shaping. In other words, people might purposefully meet and make friends with the members of
a particular ethnic group. The reasons for this selection may lie in the wish to become a part of a
certain group, but it may also be seen by the children of immigrants as an access to the culture
codes of German identity. The parents of SGIs might not possess necessary knowledge and skills
to teach their children how to become Germans. The only first-hand experience they may get
only from the native population. Yet, this assumption might seem too instrumentalist. In order to
compliment it we should also note, that the relations may form based on personal sympathy and,
what is important concerning ethnic identity, with those, whom people feel comfortable with and
mark down as similar:
“Even though there were a lot of Turkish, I think I mostly had German friends, I have 1
friend who is from China, just one.”
“With her I can develop my Russian part, because she also has this Russian part. And
when we meet, we always speak differently, our language changes”.143
С ней я могу свою русскую часть развивать, потому что у нее тоже такая русская часть, и когда
мы встречаемся мы тоже всегда так разговариваем, по-другому, у нас язык меняется.
143
70
As it was discussed in the previous section, in the case of the second-generation
immigrants, the combination of ethnically mixed members of the interviewees’ friend circle
might aim at blurring ethnic boundaries and constructing a group of people with multiple
identities. In this case, they do not aim at assimilating with the German population, but try to
construct and become a constituent part of the group which would meet their own expectations
and reflect their identity. Hence, this mechanism might also serve for the maintenance of
multiple identity.
Code-switching is the most evident mechanism of maintaining multiple ethnic identity
among SGIs. It is evident that one identity can prevail over the other in different settings. For
example, speaking about Turkish policy, the interviewee says: “It’s really frustrating for me as a
Turkish person to see that”,
and speaking about Germany, says “And I also really feel
German”, while in other parts of the conversation she identifies herself as Turkish and German
at the same time. Similar rhetoric was used by the second-generation immigrants of Russian
origin. The difference in behavior and habits may also be evidenced depending on the location.
For example, a person might perform certain actions (ex. performing certain aspects of a
particular ethnicity) on the permanent basis being in one place (ex. in the country of origin), but
stop doing that in the other (ex. in Germany): “While I’m in Germany, I don’t go to the church.
But I’m in Moscow very often, last time I spend there half a year, had a semester abroad, and
there I went to the church once a month”144
The mechanism of blending may refer to any aspect of ethnicity, which can be subjected
to merging with similar aspect of the other ethnicity. This mechanism may be evidenced in
language, when a person speaks both languages simultaneously – using the words from both,
changing accent or pronunciation and by that forming a unique language. The limitation of this
strategy is that people can speak in inly with those who possess similar identity, or at least,
bilinguals. Another example may be found in blending folkways of the two ethnicities, like
holidays, food consumption and everyday habits. We suggest the mechanism of blending
ethnicities may be an extreme example of multiple identity maintenance. The strategies involved
in this process are aimed at, if it is possible to say so, the creation of the new, original aspects of
ethnicity, although they are based on the two or more existing cultures.
Пока я в Германии я не хожу, но я очень часто в Москве, была пол года в Mоскве на семестре
по обмену и там я ходила. Один раз в месяц или как-то
144
71
In conclusion it seems important to note, that mechanisms of maintaining of certain
ethnicity may simultaneously serve as stimulus for ethnic identification. This process seems very
similar to the structure-agency relations. By reproducing traditions, language, behavior, sharing
certain values (agency), individuals form ethnic structure around them, which further motivates
them to evaluate their position as a part of this structure, or to identify themselves as belonging
to this group.
Conclusion
Current research aimed at investigation of the process of ethnic identification of second
generation Russian and Turkish immigrants in Germany. The main aim of this research was to
study the variations of their ethnic self-identification, as well as examine the mechanisms,
strategies, and motivations, involved in this process. In order to accomplish the task, the
following steps were undertaken: a theoretical and methodological approach to the study of
ethnic identity of SGIs was developed based on a critical analysis of identity theories; the history
of migration from the former USSR and Turkey was explored both on the macro (history and
tendencies of mass migration) and micro (family biographies of the interviewees) levels; various
types of self-identification among SGIs were studied; the strategies of language practice of SGIs
in various settings were identified; the forms of identification and representation themselves in
different settings; the processes of social categorization and comparison performed by the SGIs
72
were examined; the mechanisms of negotiation and adaptation of multiple ethnicities to each
other were described. The results of present study are presented according to the structure of the
research.
This paper acknowledges the whole complexity of individual’s ethnic identity, and
following the cognitive perspective to ethnicity, explores the concept in the framework of 3
cognitive processes of identification, which are: social categorization, social identification and
social comparison. The aspect of self-representation as the member of particular ethnic group is
studied through the individual practices of deconstruction and reconstruction of ethnicity among
second-generation immigrants.
The differences in German migration policy as well as contrasting relations with the two
countries of origin had a direct impact on the migration patterns and the life courses of the
interviewees. The economic necessity of the productive postwar period caused the arrival of the
major part of Turkish immigrants. Hence, Turkish family migration has more lasting and
complex history, which started with SGI’s grandfathers’ temporary labor migration. Meanwhile,
the German political strategy aimed at the reunion of the German nation caused a big influx of
Russian Germans from the former USSR at the late 1980-s – 1990-s. Due to the fact, that
migration from Russia and the countries of the communist block boomed right after German
reunification and peaked following the collapse of the USSR. Yet, the children of Russian
Germans acknowledge the beginning of their family’s migration with the period of Catherine the
Great, when their ancestors moved from Germany to Kazakhstan or Volga region.
In the families in everyday interaction, there are different strategies of language usage,
which mostly depends on the proficiency of the family members in a certain language. A certain
variation in communication strategies with every family member is also evidenced in the
families under study. Second-generation immigrants tend to adjust to the communication
practices of their parents and relatives. SGIs’ parents may also follow the strategies aimed to
bring up a child in a monolingual family, which causes the deficit of skills viewed by SGIs as
necessary for association with the parental ethnic identity. The young people mostly refer to the
German language as their mother tongue. Yet, for the SGIs with a stronger natal ethnic identity,
the native language of the parents is viewed as native.
Social categorization and comparison represent the ways the SGIs recognize and evaluate
the in- and out-groups. The feeling of being “different” is traced in all interviews and is
73
irrelevant to the label that an individual ascribes to themselves. Even the person, who claims to
have one ethnic identity of German may have a certain level of attachment to the other ethnicity.
There is a tendency among SGIs to explicitly associate themselves with a relatively small group
of friends and relatives, or people with similar family history, while after some considerations
they find differences of their ethnic identity and their parents’ ethnicity or German ethnicity. The
in-group of the SGIs is composed of people of migration background, no matter where they
come from. SGIs tend to extend their multiple identity to other members of the shaped group and
generalize their life experience. The comparison of the behavior, communication and actions
gains momentum among children of immigrants earlier than among native population. Having
markedly different strategies of behavior, children of immigrants start noticing and comparing
their actions with the others at the early stages of socialization with the native population.
The affiliations of the second-generation immigrants take the form of multiple identity,
which does not provoke a conflict, but entail both identities, which a person refers to in various
settings individually or simultaneously. It is also possible that second-generation immigrant
would claim one ethnic identity. It can be either German or the one of their parents’. Yet, the
presence of secondary, more latent identity may be evidenced in certain settings. To justify their
belonging to a certain ethnic group, individuals may refer to personal characteristics and sources,
which were both inherited and achieved in the process of socialization. The predetermined
characteristics, which a second-generation immigrant may articulate with, are: their or their
parents’ place of birth and/or settlement; parents’ ethnicity; relatives living in the country of
origin or settlement; appearance, whereas language proficiency, shared values and beliefs,
religion, and friend circle may be marked as achieved instruments and characteristics. There is a
tendency among interviewees to objectify the importance of having dual citizenship: both of
their parents’ homeland and current place of residence. By this means they might want to
legitimize their dual identity and not to be constrained to only one citizenship. It seems important
to have an opportunity not to choose between the two states, because this is inaccurate to ask a
person with multiple identity to choose one of its parts.
The mechanisms used by the SGIs to identify and represent themselves as Turkish,
Russians or Germans may be allocated to the deconstruction or reconstruction of linguistic and
cultural specificities of the ethnic groups they refer to. They differ depending on the ethnicity
concerned. The mechanisms of Turkish or Russian identity construction are the following:
74
•
The mechanism of acquiring specific skills refers to a conscious decision of an
individual to fill the gap of knowledge or the deficiency of the skill, which will further
enable them to act as a part of the group they identify with.
•
The mechanism of reproduction of the settings aimed at supporting the culture (be it
art, music, food.) of a certain ethnicity, and strive for interaction and communication with
people of the ethnic group. Latter helps to consolidate the group and reconstruct the
structure of the home community in the host society.
•
The mechanism of ethnicity reproduction is referred to the endogamous partnership
strategies, which display the aim to preserve and reproduce certain ethnic identity and may
be evidenced in the preferences when SGIs choose their partners.
•
The mechanism of bonding with the country of origin aims at strengthening
transnational ties as well as taking part in constructing the future of the country. This
mechanism might be activated in a stronger form, along with the actualization of ethnic
affiliations, by political crises, national tragedies or natural disasters.
•
The mechanism of folkways reconstruction is bounded up with customs, traditions
and other cultural elements of ethnic groups. In other words, it involves reproduction of the
activities, which evolved throughout centuries of the ethnicity existence. It has been
evidenced that there is a tendency of stratified intensity of the reconstruction of various
aspects of ethnic culture.
•
The mechanism of consumption of mass media refers to the measures, which an
individual might undertake to get an access to the mass media produced in the country of
origin. Depending on the willingness and the necessary amount of sources, individuals
might opt for one or several measures to be able to get the access to the local media.
Mechanisms of self-identification as Germans may be achieved through the deconstruction
of the immigrant ethnic identity among the second generation Russians and Turks, as well as
reconstruction of particular elements of German identity.
•
The mechanism of visual assimilation, aimed at concealing the differences between
the individual and the majority group, and simultaneously helping to look closer to the
German identity.
75
•
The mechanism of cultural adoption is the example of the reconstruction of German
identity, which may not to deconstruct or infringe the other part of multiple identity (in our
case Turkish or Russian).
•
The mechanism of in-group shaping reflects on the people’s decisions to meet and
make friends with the members of a particular ethnic group. The reasons for this selection
may lie in the wish to become a part of a certain group, but it may also be seen by the
children of immigrants as an access to the culture codes of German identity.
Code-switching is the most evident mechanism of maintaining multiple ethnic identity
among SGIs. It is evident that one identity can prevail over the other in different settings.
The mechanism of blending may refer to any aspect of ethnicity, which can be subjected
to merging with a similar aspect of the other ethnicity. It may be an extreme example of multiple
identity maintenances. The strategies involved in this process are aimed at, if it is possible to say
so, the creation of the new, original aspects of ethnicity, although they are based on the two or
more existing cultures.
All mechanisms of maintaining of certain ethnicity presented in this paper may
simultaneously serve as a stimulus for ethnic identification. This process seems very similar to
the structure-agency relations. By reproducing traditions, language, behavior, sharing certain
values (agency), individuals construct an ethnic structure around them, which further motivates
them to evaluate their position as a part of this structure or to identify themselves as belonging to
this group.
Limitations and further research
One of the main limitations of this study lies in the dispersed ethnic origins of the secondgeneration Russian immigrants, which contrasted the case of the second generation Turkish
immigrants. The investigation concerned mostly the three identities, which are Russian, Turkish
and German. Consequently, the exploration of say, Jewish and ethnic German identities, was left
underdeveloped, which is a big omission in the study. This is why it would be more reasonable
for this study to select the interviewees with a singular identity of the SGI’s parents, be it
Russian-Germans; Russians; or Jews from the former USSR. It would make the data more
organic and steady. Yet, the variations in ethnic origins of the second-generation Russian
immigrants introduced the original multiplicity in ethnic identities of these immigrants. Due to
the fact, that the empirical research was conducted based on the limited sample, the results
76
presented in the paper are of limited conclusiveness and may serve as suggested ways of ethnic
identification and representation of the SGIs. Yet, the mechanisms developed in this study may
serve as a ground for its further exploration and development on a bigger sample. The research,
in general, may also serve as a ground for the further study of the ways of influencing or
amending identity construction among second-generation immigrants.
77
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Appendix I
Interview guide in Russian
1.
Общие вопросы
Пол
Возраст
Профеcсия
Город проживания
Город рождения (родителей)
Национальность
Гражданство
2.
История семьи
Где учился? Садик, школа, университет
Ты когда-нибудь сталкивался с тем, что к тебе относились не так, как к другим (в школе,
на работе, универ)
Когда и почему ваша семья переехала в Германию?
Почему именно в этот город?
Когда и как твои родители начали учить немецкий? (до переезда или после)
Какое у них образование? Кто по профессии?
Расскажи о переезде. С какими проблемами столкнулись твои родители, как они
отзываются о том времени, какие воспоминания-хорошие или плохие?
3.
Семья
Какие у тебя отношения с родителями?
Расскажи как тебя воспитывали, чему учили? Каким ценностям, принципам, возможно
стереотипам. Что они больше всего от тебя требовали?
Как родители отзываются о немцах? О турках?
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Расскажи о традициях в твоей семье. Какие праздники вы отмечаете, какую еду едите, есть
ли какие-нибудь типично Русские (Турецкие) привычки?
А что пришло из немецкой культуры, быта?
На каком языке вы разговариваете дома, с родителями?
Ты религиозный человек? Какая религия? В чем это проявляется?
4.
Семейные связи в России (Турции)
У тебя есть родственники за границей?(в Турции/России и других странах)
Ты с ними общаешься? Как часто, каким образом?
Они приезжают к вам в гости, или вы к ним? Как часто? Что обычно служит причиной
визита?
У тебя есть друзья в России (др)? Много? Как часто вы видитесь, насколько хорошо
общаетесь?
Что ты думаешь о России (Турции)? Культура, политика, люди. Чувствуешь какую-то связь
или привязанность?
Ты следишь за новостями в России (Турции)?
5.
Окружающая культура
Что тебе нравится/не нравится в Германии?
У тебя есть немецкое гражданство? Это что-то меняет в твоей жизни? Что ты думаешь по
этому поводу?
Ты когда-нибудь слышал или видел что-то в СМИ относительно турецких или мигрантов в
целом, что задело тебя? Порадовало или огорчило, или разозлило
Ты участвуешь в каких-нибудь политических или общественных проектах, мероприятиях?
6.
Друзья и личная жизнь
Ты чувствуешь какие-нибудь барьеры при общении с людьми? (Непонимание, культурные
различия)
Расскажи о своих друзьях. Откуда они, чем они занимаются
Чем вы обычно занимаетесь с друзьями?
Можно ли сказать что ты больше общаешься с турками чем с немцами (или наоборот)
У тебя есть девушка/парень? Расскажи о нем/ней
Может религия или национальность стать для тебя барьером при выборе партнера?
Чувствуешь ли ты какое-то давление или влияние со стороны родителей при выборе
друзей, партнера?
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7.
Самоидентификация
Какое место ты бы назвал Родиной?
Опиши себя
Как ты думаешь, как бы тебя описали окружающие?
Appendix II
Interview guide in English
1.
Introduction
Sex
Age
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Nationality
Country of origin
Occupation
Ethnicity
2.
Origins and history of the family
Where were you born?
Where did you study (school, university)?
When and why did your family moved to Germany?
When did your parents started learning German? (before they moved to the country or in
Germany)
What kind of experience do they have regarding resettlement (what problems they faced, what
did they gain, what feelings they had)
3.
Family
What kind of relations do you have with your parents?
Could you please describe how were you brought up? (values, stereotypes…)
Do your parents keep on maintaining their homeland culture (in clothing, feasts, everyday
activities) Provide some examples
Did they introduce some elements of German culture?
What language do you speak at home?
Which holidays do you usually celebrate with your family?
4.
Family relations with the country of origin
Do you have relatives abroad? (in the country of origin and other countries0
Do you keep in touch with them? (expand on this point: in what way, to what extend)
Do you visit them or they visit you? (How often, when, reason of coming - just visiting or some
business)
Do you have friends in Russia/Turkey? (How many, how often do you communicate, visit each
other…)
What do you feel about your country of origin? (close to its culture, want to live there,
indifferent, more related to parents, interested only in relatives)
5.
Surrounding culture
What do you like/dislike about living in Germany?
Do you have German citizenship? How do you feel about it?
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Did you see/read/hear something from German mass media regarding migration that caused
emotional response (anger, disappointment, joy, approval, disgust…)
Do you take part in some political/civil activities (interest groups, celebrations, meetings,
ralleys…)
Have you ever faced some special treatment at the hands of your peers, teachers or elders
(discrimination, treated as special, other)
6.
Friends and relationships
Do you feel any obstacles in communication with some people because of your background
(misunderstanding, cultural differences)
Describe your friend circle ( age, occupation, nationality, how long do you know each other)
Do you feel that you communicate more with Germans or Turks/Russians?
What do you usually do with your friends? (Activities)
Do you have a partner? Describe him/her.
Can religion or ethnicity be a problem for being friends or for marriage?
Do you feel any pressure from your family in choosing friends/ partner?
7.
Self-description
Where is your homeland
Say several statements about yourself ( I am…)
What do you think others would say about you
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Appendix III
List of interviewees
Russian case
1.
Male, 20, Osnabrück, born in Germany
Parents: Jewish
Migrants from: Ukraine, Dnepropetrovsk
2.
Male, 20, Bielefeld, born in Germany
Parents: father – Russian-German; mother – Russian
Migrated from: Russia, Omsk oblast’
3.
Male, 28, Bielefeld, immigrated at the age of 6
Parents: Russian-Germans
Migrated from: Kazakhstan, Kustonai
4.
Female, 23, Bielefeld, born in Germany
Parents: Russian-Germans
Migrated from: Kazakhstan
5.
Female, 23, Osnabrück, born in Germany
Parents: father – German, mother – Russian
Migrated from:
Turkish case
1.
Male, 22, Bielefeld, born in Germany
Parents: Turkish
Migrated from: Turkey
2.
Male, 23, Bielefeld, born in Germany
Parents: Turkish; labor migrant grandparents
Migrated from: Turkey
3.
Male, 27, Osnabrück, born in Germany
Parents: Turkish
Migrated from: Turkey
4.
Female, 23, Bielefeld, born in Germany
Parents: Turkish; labor migrant grandparents
Migrated from: Turkey
5.
Female, 20, Osnabrück, born in Germany
Parents: father – Turkish, mother – German; labor migrant grandparents
Migrated from: Turkey
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Appendix IV
Interview transcript with a Russian SGI
16. February, Male, 20. Russian Jew from Ukraine
-Расскажите о себе. Пол, возраст, город рождения…
Ну я вот в Оснабрюке и родился, это
мой родин… мне 20 лет, и мои родители
приехали в 91-м году в Германию. У меня есть старший брат, он приехал сюда, ему было
уже 16, это уже теперь… 39 лет. И я типа, я здесь как родился и вырос и типа совсем подругому, как вырос и отностися к этой стране мой брат, например. И да, типа немецкие
друзья, но тоже есть друзья, которые по-русски разговаривают, типа то и то, не только…
Тоже есть типа мигранты, например русского языка какие, только между своих, людьми
там находятся, не только там, только друзья есть, какие по-русски разговаривают, и есть
наоборот. А у меня как раз и то и то.
- Скажи пожалуйста, где ты учился, что за школа?
Я учился в гимназии, здесь в Оснабрюке, Graf Schtauf Gymnasium называется, и
теперь я в университете учусь не в Оснабрюке, а в Дортмунде, где-то 150 км отсюда.
-На кого учишься?
Экономист.
-А как вообще, было такое, что отношение чувствовал не такое, как к остальным во
время учебы?
Типа потому что иностранец?
-Ну да, что-то…
Ну бывало такое, но по-разному… Например у моего брата, я знаю, что у него типа
как мигрант, ему надо было язык выучить, он здесь не родился. У него такое было, что к
нему по-другому относились и… а у меня такого в принципе не было, такое… я всегда, у
меня немецкие друзья были, и с ними нормально общался… такого, что мне типа
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говорили нет, ты не наш, ты не немец, такого не было. Но все равно, так, если немцев
знаешь, они все равно между своими, они…всегда так улыбаются, и все спрашивают, но в
конце концов все равно только немцы между немцев, так они к ним относятся в принципе.
-А расскажи, как твоя семья, почему переехала и вообще историю переезда?
Ну честно говоря, так я даже не знаю.. но я знаю, папа рассказывал в принципе, что
как раз в это время же Советский Союз распался, и они типа хотели, чтобы жизнь, ну,
тогда еще меня не было, даже не думали за меня. Ну в принципе, хотели чтобы мой брат
как-то, жизнь лучше бы была чем у них, как чтобы мог нормально выучиться, чтобы
школу мог закончить нормально, чтобы кем-то стать.
-А почему именно в Германию?
Ну в эти времена, ну как, у нас многие знакомые были, какие тоже вместе сюда
приехали, и все туда, типа как евреи в Германию тикали, потому что Германия…там такой
закон был, немецкий, не знаю как на русский, Kontingent Fluchtlinge Stur, что именно
евреи Советского Союза они, их брали. Можно было без проблем сразу в Германию
переезжать и гражданство быстро получали. И так они… ожидали для себя лучшей жизни.
Для, для моего брата. К сожалению, очень тяжело было. В начале. Вот я помню, папа
рассказывал, типа язык надо было учить, совсем другой язык. Мента… и самое
интересное, что менталитет совсем другой. Это ни как… немцы же по-другому относятся
чем, как русскоязычные люди между … как… с ними. И да, работали. Там, я не знаю,
мама, как уборщика…уборщицей работала, папа в какой-то фабрике мясной работал, там
пахал.
- А родители язык знали до того, как переехали? Или как?
У нас так было,ч то папа первым сюда переехал, и хотел типа как все приготовить,
чтобы мама и мой брат могли приехать сюда. И он здесь прожил где-то год, тогда мама и
Женя переехали, мой брат, сюда. И как, мой папа до сих пор так немецкий и не выучил,
то…Они уже сколько здесь живут, больше 20 лет, и все равно он так, такой у него
немецкий язык, что… вроде как за 2 года можно свободно выучить намного лучше. А моя
мама как раз тоже вот здесь выучила, в перфекте говорит немецкий, пишет и все.
-Расскажи еще вот про переезд сам. Какие там трудности были, что хорошее. Какие
воспоминания вообще, что родители рассказывают?
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У нас там такие очень смешные, очень смешные как истории были, но в принципе
это очень тяжело было у них, потому что… Именно для моего брата, родители
рассказывали, потому что он как приехал в эту страну, ему надо было в школу идти. Он
язык не умел. Он дураком не был, но просто Германия, они так делали тогда, что были 3
разных вида школ. В Украине тогда была только одна школа для всех. А типа у нас есть
гимназия, это для как, типа, умных, realschule, это для средних, каких, не знаю, какую-то
работу механика можно было делать. И hauptschule, это типа как для тупых. И они его
послали в hauptschule. Потому что он… как бы немецкий язык не умел говорить, и ему
пришлось… это очень трудно было, ему пришлось язык, немецкий язык выучить, плюс то,
что они в школе делали, надо было ему повторять. Ну он типа как целеустремленным был
и быстро выучил язык, и перепрыгнул один класс. И в конце концов в Гимназию поступил
и это все так сделал. Это вот тяжело было. И что еще очень тяжело было, папа именно
рассказывал, это после гимназии, после двух года, он пошел в Венгрию на врача учиться.
Это же большие деньги стоило. Потому что с Германии чтобы на врача учиться, надо как,
элитный балл иметь. Если ты заканчиваешь гимназию, то надо не знаю, оценки должны
быть самыми лучшими. И у него такие оценки не были, потому что тяжело было в школе
учиться. И он поступил в Венгрию, очень дорого тогда еще было. Намного до… теперь
еще намного дороже, чем тогда, но тогда тоже очень дорого было. Не знаю, как 500, ну 50
тысяч долларов за год минимум. Где-то так. И это вот самое тяжелое время было, потому
что папа и мама пахали, и как… Ну папа всегда такой был, он говорил если ты хочешь на
врача идти, или на все равно какую профессию, иди, я тебе это все как-то все зарезирую
(?), сделаю возможным. И они похали, да. Так, туалеты мыли и все такое. Любую работу
делали, тяжело им было, это я помню. Тогда, когда он уже 3 года проучился и вернулся в
Германию, дальше учился, то намного легче стало, папа когда… я уже родился, это в 96-м
году, папа уже ресторан свой открыл, как типа свой бы… бизнес начал раскручивать, и
мама нормальную работу нашла. Так все начало легче становиться.
- Скажи, в семье какие у вас отношения с родителями?
Ну у нас … думаю нормально, как советская семья какая-то, ну не как у немцев. Но
папа все с таким всегда настроем был, и мама типа как намного… добрая всегда была. У
нас такое отношение всегда было, и до сих пор такое отношение, что папа всегда… как,
мама воспитала, папа работал. Это всегда так было. Но папа всегда говорил, так говорил,
например, вот такие у тебя должны оценки быть. У жени и у меня то же самое было. И
91
если ты как бы такие оценки получишь, то я тебе все куплю что хочешь. И типа за заслугу
все мы так делали. И так тогда было…Строго воспитал, но я думаю наоборот, это не
сильно плохо в эти времена.
- То есть в основном требовали, чтобы учились хорошо?
Да, конечно. Потому что здесь в германии…. Наоборот, если ты как иностранец
выучился, и какую-то профессию выучил хорошую, то в Германии как на врача, это
просто элита. Это всех они, это просто как боги, они ходят в больницах, такие деньги
зарабатывают. И он всегда говорил, что нам… мы должны нормальную профессию какуюто выучить. Не, не как это… машины ремонтировать или… А в университет пойти и
реально хорошую профессию выучить, чтобы у нас здесь была хоть какая-то перспектива,
чтоб будущее какое-то было. Это он нас давил, конечно. Это всегда так было. Потому
что… для этого же они сюда приехали. Для этого их это наоборот папу… у папы был
большой магазин в Украине, он там мясо продавал и наоборот даже дефицитом торговал,
ему всегда там привозили… У нихтам была жизнь классная, просто.. не типа, как они
приехали сюда, они все потеряли. Они с ноля опять начали, и все они… должны были
опять как типа заработать, это очень тяжело было, очень трудно.
- А на каком языке вы разговариваете дома?
Дома? По-русски. Папа с… я с папой по-русски в принципе, и с мамой по-русски.
Бывает я как типа… если какие-то тяжелые темы, где я слова не знаю, с мамой по-немецки
разговариваю, с папой всегда по-русски. С братом в принципе… по-немецки. По-разному
- Понятно. И расскажи, дома какие у вас традиции, русские какие-то есть?
Традиции… у нас так [смеется] да, у нас одна традиция есть, это как на новый год
мы смотрим телевизор и ждем путина всегда. Каждое вот… это самое, мы русский новый
год празднуем, украинский новый год, немецкий. Кошмар просто. Это вот у нас… одна
традиция, а так у нас таких традиций нету… мы как, праздники празднываем, но
например, есть семьи, там где они там собираются все каждый праздник, и все вместе
сидят… то у нас так толькр новый год. Все должны как приехать и собраться, это у нас
единственная традиция, а так… такого ничего нет
- А дома просто какие-то, не знаю, типичные привычки, какие-то есть? Может быть
в кухне например, еду мама какую готовит?
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Да не, еду… мама русскую еду готовит, как бывает… есть такие фазы. Бывает она
немецкую еду готовит, потому что она в кухне работает в… в детдоме там, таком. И
бывает она рус… Она наоборот любит печь, она русские торты там разные печет, и
русскую… Ну она любит готовить, просто она как бы в возрасте, ей уже почти 60 лет.
Тяжело становится. Но если у нас какие-то например, новый год, она любые блюда
приготовит, у нас просто все на столе есть. Вот это вот… да. Такое, что вообще типичное,
чтобы я сказал такое советское, папа телевизор смотрит такое, и отморозился. Что-то
спрашиваешь, а он даже не слушает, такое.
- А каналы у вас русские?
Да, у него есть ресивер. Я помню еще… не знаю сколько лет мне было, 9 лет было,
мы только немецкий телевизор смотрели, потому что русского не было. Ресивер, такого не
было. И тогда папа купил себе ресивер, эту антенну. И с этого дня только русский
телевизор… С немецкого телевидения только я смотрю. И я даже может быть один раз в
месяц телевизор включу.
- А что пришло из немецкой культуры, есть что-то, праздники или традиции какието немецкие?
У нас дома лично? Нет. У нас как бы типа… Немцы празднуют как бы Christmas
evening, у нас такого… мы такое не празднываем. Наоборот в этом году как бы в первый
раз елку поставили, просто для красоты. И.. это ихнее… ну ихние праздники так дома
никто не празднует. Папа наоборот, он это не понимает. Он зовет это все дурное, это нам
не надо, такого у нас нет. Футбол смотреть, вот это, это у нас… Это немецкое он взял.
Каждую субботу.
- А с религией как, религиозная вообдще семья, ходите…
Ну нет, это только… у нас мои родители… моя мама еврейка, мой папа нет. Как, от
папы отец был еврей, он уже не считается евреем. Они поэтому вот сюда и переехали.
Религиозными они никогда не были, папа говорит, верит в бога, но типа как простые люди.
Такая вера, что помолился, все будет хорошо, и на этом тема вся закрыта. И мой брат то же
самое… мой брат тоже никуда не ходит, я вот как единственный из семьи, кто в синагогу
ходит и с детями занимается, здесь работаю по выходным и… только я так.
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- а скажи, у тебя есть родственники какие-то за границей, в России, украине, еще
где-то
Вот дядя и двоюродный брат.
- Вы общаетесь?
Ну да, дядя бывает приезжает пару раз в году. Он цветам торгует, он потому и
приезжает, в голландию ездит, такое все. А двоюродного брата я так пару, может в 2-3 года
вижу, потому то он в России учится, в университете. В каком я не знаю… В москве может
быть, я не знаю. Он там где-то учится, поэтому я его не вижу. Вот в последнем году
первый раз видел за 6 или за 5 лет.
- А скажи, вы вообще ездите туда?
Нет. Мама вообще не была, как они сюда приехали, она даже не возвратилась в
Украину. Папа много раз ездил по, по работе типа. И я был 2 раза там. Последний раз
когда я совсем маленький был, где-то в 6-7 лет, когда дедушка умер, помню, я там был. И
хотя мне уже было не знаю, 14, 13 лет, это я последний раз там был. В Днепропетровске
именно, в Украине.
-А друзья какие-то есть там?
Которые там живут? Нет. Вот у брата моего есть там, потому что он там как вырос,
например, у него есть друг, с которым типа… с первых дних, где он это…[Нарасегал] его
зовут, он пере… они вместе в школу ходили, в детский сад… И он переехал в израиль, и
там другие друзья… у них там, у моего брата там много друзей, просто я как типа там не
родился, я не вырос, я никого не знаю. У меня их там…. Друзей никаких нет.
- А что ты в целом думаешь о России? О культуре, политике… вообще отношение
твое?
Отношение?... Я….
-Может быть к Украине? К какой стране больше?
У на… Я больше к России, потому что как-то… у нас… как дома я считаю, что у
нас русский менталитет. У нас нету такого, у нас украинский папа и мама понимают, они
учили в школе, но у нас никто дома на украинском никогда не разговаривал. И наоборот
папа всегда на них прет, тут когда началось…. И сам я, когда думаю, политику слушаю в
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Германии, как-то не знаю, конечно там есть в России такие… проблемы там я не знаю, с
гомосекс… с геями, все такое. Но это просто наоборот, в Германии так сильно мягко к
этому все относятся, и все разрешают, делайте что хотите. А в России просто другой
менталитет, к этому совсем по-другому относятся. И в Германии это не понимают. И если
ты говоришь как немец, я для россии, они на тебя так смотрят, говорят ты….Как бы ну,
наоборот. Это очень интересная страна, тоже есть свои какие-то проблемы, но я не сказал
бы что она чем-то хуже, чем Германия.
- А за новостями российскими следишь?
In facebookе так, новости так, телевизор не смотрю, но в facebookе если что как бы
попадается, то включу, посмотрю там такое. Не сильно, не каждый день. Просто бывает,
что я вижу там, поллушал и понял…
- А к Германии как относишься?
К Германии? Ну это типа как моя страна, я здесь вырос, я здесь выучился. У меня
друзья здесь все живут, и… не знаю. Я больше считаю себя немцем чем как типа
украинцем, потому что там все понимают, что у меня какой-то акцент, что я не оттуда, я не
понимаю ка… у них там ихний менталитет… они так, они там подведут, такое все. Ну это,
дела, каких в Германии нету. Я к этому привык, как немцы относятся, такое все. Я здесь
вот как типа дома.
- А немецкое гражданство у вас у всей семьи есть?
У всех, да.
- А как они получали, знаешь эту процедуру?
Они подавали документы, не знаю, сразу через не знаю, 2 года, 3 года получили, без
проблем.
-Ну ты уже родился, у тебя сразу…
Да У меня сразу, да. Я через… когда мне 18 лет стало я еще взял израильское
гражданство, у меня типа 2. У моего брата и папы и мамы только немецкое гражданство.
-А ты вот рассказывал про новости, можешь привести пример новостей про россию
или мигрантов, может про русских, то, что твое внимание привлекло?
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Ну например, вот война между Украиной и Россией. В Германии это так
растоптали, что… каждый день показывали, фотографии в новостях. И это вот самое
интересное, что в германии совсем другое рассказывали, в России совсем другое, тоже
совсем другое рассказывали. Типа что Украинцы говно и они во всем виноваты, а в
Германии сказали, что это Россия как-то, какие-то не знаю, дьяволы какие-то напали и
Крым забрали, такое все. Просто в Германии все знат, даже немцы знают, что новости в
Германии, они, ну это вранье. Все знают, но просто как немец ты не будешь смотреть
русские новости, ты же русский
не понимаешь. А я наоборот, типа понимал русские
новости, и больше как русским новостям поверил. Но кронечно тоже зная, что там много
пропаганды, такое все. Путин молодец, он самый… красавец такой. Но все равно, типа…
там что такое например рассказывали… там такое было что… я помню, кстати, в новостях
там немецкие, саттелитное фото какие-то попали в газеты, и где написано было, что типа
путин завозит танки в Крым. Через 2 недели выяснилось, что это даже не сат… это даже
не крыс, и это даже не танки были. Вот потому… потому что я что-то больше верю
российским новостям, чем немецким. Но это все, даже немцы не верят в эту историю с
крымом. Это типа как истории, газеты типа, все новости в телевидении такое
рассказывали.
-Скажи, а ты участвуешь в каких-нибудь политических, общественных
мероприятиях?
Ну я, я тоже в партии, но это, она считается в германии как коммунистическая
партия, типа как socialism. Я с 18 лет там в этой партии. Но активно я там не присутствую,
просто если какие-то конференции, какие-то там они собираются и что-то рассказывают,
какие-то люди приходят, тоже туда приду послушаю. Но так активно я там в политике
именно не занимаюсь. Потому что времени нету… интерес есть в принципе, но реально
времени нет. И сил нету то есть этим заниматься. Потому что надо много-много времени
туда вложить, чтобы что-то какую-то… это политика эта коммунальная, в одном этом
маленьком городе куда-то двинулась. Поэтому вот не хочется типа.
- А вот то, что группа у тебя?
Ну это я типа, это даже случайно попал. У нас, как, друзья у нас тоже из
Днепропетровска, интересная история, и у них есть дочка Нэля. Я с ней, с ней в принципе
вырос. Она на 5 лет старше сеня, но я с ней как, мы как маленькие, маленькие, мы с
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неими, с ней вырос. И я когда спросил, мам, я хочу в синагогу пойти, просто посмотреть
для интереса, потому что вот… не знаю, церкви в германии, их просто… в каждом городе,
все равно какой город, даже нсли он маленький, их все равно 100 штук есть. И я вот
пришел в синагогу, я с ней хорошо общался, не знаю, как там, на день рождения встречал
ее, и вот как-то… Она занималась именно детями, у нас как типа youth club здесь, и в както в это попал. Она вот переехала теперь в Майнц, она будет жениться, и я как типа на ее
место теперь попал и этим занимаюсь всем. Но я занимаюсь, потому что я считаю, что это,
это очень как, типа важная работа для молодежи в этих временах, потому что… например
вот у нас теперь банд (band) есть, они на инструментах играют. И в этих временах, в
принципе, это раньше все… дети уже учили как инструмент, гитары там, я не знаю,
саксофон, что-то они учили. А в этих временах они как учат пару лет, и это бросают и
забывают на всю жизнь. И как раз это например, для них есть какой-то шанс… реально
выучить инструмент, потому что если ты вместе в ансамбле играешь, это реально надо
уметь играть хорошо гитару. Это не просто бринькать для себя, а это выступаешь, это
должно какой-то звук иметь. И вот этим мы занимаемся, потому что мы…Им это наоборот
нравится, они выбирают какие-то как типа траки, какие им нравятся, какие там
популярные, и они пот… я им ноты пишу под это, и они это играют. Такое вот. Или мы
какие-то, мы едем в какие-то парки, такое все. Ну у нас разные вещи есть, но я думаю это
важно, заниматься там или показывать, или что-то еще, что еще еврейство есть, такое, что
даже не надо религиозным быть, просто чтобы они поняли, что они евреи, что есть какието традиции, что их надо держать, и чтобы они не терялись это. Я думаю молодежь можно
только так научить, если им сам это можешь показать. Самим это не научатся.
- Еще забыла спросить про школу, у тебя в классе еще были какие-то русские или
дети мигрантов?
С первого до четвертого класса не было, нет, не было… и даже да, не, тоже был
один, но он как не… они были как немцыв россию когда переехали и потом опять в
Германию вернулись, вот такие они были. Один, но я уже его не знаю, 100 лет не видел. И
позже, когда я вот школу заканчивал, в последних классах тоже я как единственный
русский был. У нас больше мусульманов, намного. Вот это из всегда было, и даже в
университете их море. А русских поменьше. Вот с 7 до 10 класса там было 2, но они тоже,
я пошел в гимназию, они пошли работать, я их тоже уже 100 лет не видел. Так, больше
мусульманов и турков, чем русских или украинцев.
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- А расскажи о друзьях своих, кто они, чем занимаются.
Ну вот один, тоже сюда приходит, тоже может быть придет, Гоша, он с Одессы, с
Украины. Намного старше меня, 28 лет уже, мы здесь вот в синагоге познакомились, мы
вот встречаемся каждую неделю, кальян курим или в шахматы играем, такое у нас, это у
нас традиция, мы идем кальян курить и в шахматы играть. Я каждый раз проигрываю,
может 100 раз мы играли, я 2 раза выиграл. Я не знаю. Ну он тоже экономист, но он давно,
он уже закончил давно, он работает. У нас есть еще другая, яна, она тоже у нас, вместе с
нами встречается. Она закончила на… учитела, учителя. И она уже снова поступила в
университет и она теперь тоже на экономиста, потому что как-то не понравилась эта
профессия, и эта работа не понравилась. Она снова захотелось учиться. И да, у нас есть
еще па…ну у меня есть еще другие друзья есть, но они не живут здесь, я их редко вижу.
Ну например один, который тоже здесь с нами встречался, но переехал в Берлин, он типа
как (Георзил), у него папа еврей был, мама не еврейка, и потому он не считался евреем, он
принял еврейство и теперь переехал в Берлин. Религиозным даже стал, и там занимается,
типа как тору учит, это все, это еврейская, как, библия еврейская. И, да. Очень хорошо с
ним общался, жалко что переехал. Так до сих пор. Я на следующей неделе поеду, его
увижу. Ну просто у меня много друзей по всей германии с какими я редко вижусь, потому
что если я в Дортмунде, занимаюсь университетом, у меня каждый день в университете, у
меня даже времени для другого нету. А в выходные или в каникулах я типа с ними
встречаюсь, с ними общаюсь.
- ну общаетесь по социальным сетям?
Ну what’s app, facebook? What’s app у нас типа. Скайп, например, я в принципе не
пользуюсь. Просто через телефон даже выхожу, просто звякнуть, поговорить такое все.
- а вот с этими ребятами, которые здесь, вы общаетесь на каком языке?
На том и том, на русском и на немецком, по-разному.
- А у тебя есть девушка?
Да, она с Москвы, сколько ей 18 лет, или 19… запутался. !9 лет. Она с москвы, они
тоже переехали… я даже не знаю когда они сюда переехали, ну вот они тоже, мы как евреи
переехали вГерманию, тоже где-то в девяносто не знаю, пятом, где-то так, в те времена…
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Но она тоже не же… она живет в Любеке, это типа отсюдова даже не знаю, 150 км вверх, в
сторону моря типа.
-Скажи, может религия или национальность стать причиной того, что ты не
захочешь общаться с кем-то?
Для меня нет, но для других да. На 100%. Например… да не для каждого, я думаю,
это проблема в том, что если как, типа не интеллектуальные люди, какие не учились в
университете, они, к ним это не доходит, что религия или национальность, что это все
равно. Важно что какой человек. Например, вот самый лучший пример, когда я еще учился
в гимназии, какие у нас там такие и были. Они просто говорю вот еврей, все, они
мусульмане, турки были, это знаешь, и они сразу это все начали перекручивать, что
Израиль, и эта Палестина, что мы их убиваем, такое все. Даже я сам тогда еще
израильское гражданство не имел, они просто, ты еврей, и ты сазу израильтян. Вот это, это
все перекручивали. А наоборот в университете они это, к этому нормально относятся. Мы
даже, у нас квартира есть, мы четверо живем, и один даже иранец. Он знает, что я еврей, я
знаю, что он мусульманин. Но мы не трогаемся друг друга, наоборот, мы нормально
общаемся. И конечно, есть проблема не между национальностями, а между религиями.
Потому что именно если муслимы не толарантсные, вот как именно в германии, и они
начинают оскорблять и вот такое за дискри… как типа ненавидеть как именно евреев, и
даже христьянцев. Это вот становится проблемой, это у нас в германии как типа больше и
больше и больше становится. И все боятся именно… и вот например, французы все
переезжают в израиль, потому что их всех там унижают, их убивают даже. Такое все
вот…. В европе это с м… именоон вот с мусульманами большая проблема становится.
Потому что их впустили много, и теперь их как, миллионы в германии, не знаю сколько, 6
миллионов впустили… в последних двух годах. И они просто не знают, как с… как им
быть, куда они… и немецкий до сих пор не выучили. Это совсем по-другому, чем тогда
когда мои родители приехали, потому что евреев тоже где-то миллион… миллионов 2-3
приехало, но просто они, их заставляли работу найти, их заставляли немецкий выучить,
там тесты были, они должны были выучить, потому что если они не выучат немецкий, им
деньги не будут платить. За квартиру, все. А вот с это… в это время совсем по-другому.
Они, им все плотят, они до сих пор немецкий не выучили, они между с… ними, они не с
кем не встречаются, они наоборот. И работу себе не ищут. А вот… это много
документации есть, если работу они получают, она тяжелая, типа как на…. Ну, телом
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работать. И о… там это, показывают, и они просто го… они не приходят второй раз, или
третий раз на второй день, и просто говорят, что им очень тядело. И они, к ним не доходит,
что это, у них выбора нету. А как раз, когда мои родители, в своих временах, они вс…
любую работу брали, либо просто деньги какие-нибудь заработать. А с… в этих временах
такого нету. И вот это проблема становится, потому что они… так сильно в ихнюю
религию верят, что… например, вот женщина [] они не одеваются как там, волосы не
закрывают. Это для них такая страшная проблема… И немцы просто боятся что-то
сказать, потому что как вторая мировая война, это такое все… они к этому так, они не
хотят к этому так относиться, сказать, что нет, вы должны теперь то делать, что мы
говорим, потому что они сразу опять фашистами становятся. Так все говорят. Потому с
этим и проблема, и для них это как…. Сделали возможным, что это, германия так
поменялась. Например, у нас есть в грорде, есть район в городе, где не можно как типа
еврей, все равно нельзя пойти туда, потому что тебя увидят с ермолкой, они там зарежут.
Ну есть такое, в каждом городе. Где просто все мусульмане и турки и я зе знаю, такие все
собираются и там они может… даже если нормально, как нормальный человек в костюме
там пройдешь, они тебе могут просто как, типа как, дать по морде и ограбить тебя, дать по
морде. Есть такое
- Это со стороны мусульман, да, все?
Есть и немцы, которые такое делают, не только мусульмане. Но больше всего
мусульман, да. Но не все, есть и нормальные мусульмане, какие учатся, какие в
университет поступают, да. Это именно те, какие дурные, просто какие тупорылые. И те,
которые сюда приехали и становятся криминальными, это вот именно та группа.
- Расскажи пожалуйста о районе, где ты, когда вы приехали, где ты вырос, вообще
какие соседи были? И сейчас
Сейчас я в студенческом общежитии живу, где там даже сту… я не знаю, даже кто
там живет, мои соседи, не знаю, потому что они меняются каждые 2 месяца
-А родители?
Родители теперь… мы 2 года назад дом построили, у нас там не знаю… один даже
русский там живет, один турок живет. Но там больше всего немцев, скажем так. А до этого
18 лет в том же самом доме жили, в квартире одной, и там у нас я помню, когда был
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маленький, наверху, на первом этаже бабушка жила не…нем… немецкая, и это
вспоминаю, все детство, я всегда к ней бегал, и она мне всегда такие конфетки такие мне
всегда давала, истории рассказывала, такая. Ну тогда еще немцы к иностранцам совсем
по-другому относились, потому что они понимали, что они, им надо показать культуру
немецкую как, как чтобы они тоже стали немцами. И она очень хорошо ко мне относилась.
Она когда умерла, или старая, старая была, тогда другие туда вселились. И у нас все
соседи немцы были, все. В этой улице вообще иностранцев не было. Проблем никогда не
было, я наоборот с ними дружил, общался и так, типо они как с первого дня знали,
радовались, когда узнали, что я типа иду в университет, такое. Такого типа зла никакого не
было, или такого, что кого-то ненавидеть, у нас такого не было.
- А есть такое, что родители как-то влияют или говорят с кем общаться?
Да но это… зависит от человека. Если какой-то, не знаю, дурные парни, какие не
учатся и дурака валяют, тогда папа скажет зачем тебе с ними общаться? Вот я думаю у
всех так. А типа независимо от религии, национальности, такого нет. Но типа если тема
подходит к жениться, то папа уже говорит нет, должна быть русская, такое, чтоб все свое
осталось типа. Но они не… он не запрещает типа, просто ему…. Маме все равно, просто
папа так… ну как сказать, это своя национа… все равно для него, у него сейчас такое
чувство, что немцы какие-то чужие. Для него. А вот для мамы нет, мама же с немцами
работает…
- Какое место ты бы назвал родиной?
Немец я бы сказал, первое.
- Можешь описать себя парой предложений?
Меня? Описать? Ну я как…. Я я еврей иностранец еще в германии, и типа чувствую
си… чувствую немцем, культурой как типа, да, чувствую немцем. Я тут вырос, вся
культура на меня влиевала. Я так сказал бы. Но у меня еще есть другие, типа не
классический немец, как у кого своя культура есть, у меня еще как еврейство культура,
какие-то традиции есть, и еще советское такое, русское все… такая страшная микстура
между еврейством, немцем быть и еще какие-то там русским быть. Вот это я.
- А как ты думаешь, как бы тебя описали другие?
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Это зависит кого я спрошу.. Например те, какие в университете меня знают, какие
как не сильно так дружу, просто встречаюсь, они скажут что на первом месте он еврей. А
мои друзья, они бы не знаю… они бы вот… именно у нас же как группа, и я самый немец,
потому что гоша там еще роди… родился еще в Украине, но он маленький-маленький
сюда приехал. Ну и как, русским остался еще. Яна то же самое. Я как уже немец. Другая
генерация для них. Вот они бы, они бы сказали что я немец. Сто процентов, да.
Мне, я считаю, это как бы каждый должен так быть, потому что если ты здесь
родился и здесь вырос, и здесь в школу ходил, даже если себя русским чувствуешь, надо
как-то уже адаптироваться
Да, по-другому не получается, так везде. Напри… как… если это рус… и из
советские переехали в Америку, до сих пор они по-русски говорят, но на первом месте
американцы, все они так.
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Appendix V
Interview transcript with a Turkish SGI
18. February, Female, 23, both parents Turkish
I: So, tell about yourself. Who are you, where are you from, what do you do?
S: My name is S.G, I’m 23 years old and I was born in Germany, in [Wittersnuf].
Originally my parents are from Turkey, so my grandfather came to Germany when he… no, he
came as a guest worker and then he just stayed. First he came alone, and then his family came
afterwards. My grandmom with their children, and my father was about 6-7 years old. So, yes.
And then he was grown up here and afterwards I was born in Germany, so. And I’m studying
here in Bielefeld, living here in Bielefeld, studying sociology, doing my bachelor thesis right
now.
I: And so, were did you study? School and university
S: I went to kindergarden here, in Germany, at my home town at Rintberg, and afterwards
I went to the elementary and the primary… every kind of school in Germany in the same city.
And then I started to study in Bielefeld, my bachelor, yes.
I: So what kind of school did you study in? There are 3 kinds…
S: Both real- realschule, both of us. So you do till the 10th grade, you do thr realschule,
and afterwards I did Abitur, it’s like 3 years of gymnasium. And you did like….
I: The next question is…. What do you remember about the attitude of… during your
study, school and university, did you have some special treatment or feeling something….
S: Oh my gosh…Ok. Oh yes, I have one story, I was at catholic kindergarten, they were
really catholic, like really-really catholic. And they were praying every morning before we had
our kindergarten breakfast. We were praying, and everybody were praying like that [joining
hands] and my dad did know that they are praying, because it’s a catholic kindergarten. And then
he… I was the only Muslim there, and then my dad said: “Ok, they’re doing this [joining hands],
then you just do this [hands to the sides]” And I was feeling that like… embarrassed to do this
because it was like everyone is doing that, and you’re like… as a little child you have to do
another move, it’s like… like the outsider… So I never did anything then, I was just sitting like
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that… and that was like one thing where I saw a difference, like… Do you mean that this is the
correct answer?
I: Yes
S: Ok [laughing] What else? I don’t know… Oh yes, also in primary school all the
Germans had like religion as a class. And when they had it, the Turkishstudents, were also all
Muslims, had Turkishclass. So we were learning Turkishwhen the others went to the religious
classes. Yes
I: Ok, and tell the story about why your parents, you moved. The reasons and stories,
what did your parents say, what do you remember?
S: So, as I said before, my grandfather decided to come to Germany because there were
good working options here and he came as a guest worker. Actually he just wanted to work for
some years and then go back to Turkey. Then he just decided to stay, and my grandmom with her
3 children came to Germany to Rintberg, and I guess it’s about already 45-50 years ago, that my
granddad came here. Yes, my dad came here like at the age of 6 or 7. Then he was going to
school here and he was really struggling, because… he was like… like an outsider because he
couldn’t even speak the language, and he told me that he always was writing everything from
the…
I: Ah, from the left to…
S: No, he was writing everything what a teacher was writing on the wall
I: Uhu
S: But he could not understand it. So he just was copying everything and he was like ok, I
did not know anything, but I just did what everyone else did. But then he learned it, so. Did I
miss anything?
I: And your mom?
S: Oh, she lived in the Turkey and then she was about to study in Turkey as well, but then
she broke up her studies and then came to Germany to marry my dad. Since then she’s here, she
knows German, she is fluent in German. Yes, that’s it, I guess
I: And thell about the process of recettlement, what are the stories, what did your parents
and you experienced& What were the difficulties? What were the bright sides?
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S: So, first of all my granddad got checked like, if he is healthy and after come to
Germany. For example, his own brother also wanted to come to Germany for work, but he was
not allowed because he was… had something like… on his back, so. And when he came here, he
was living with like… I don’t know, 6 other men in one, like room, like in a общежитие. And it
was just like men’s общежитие, or just for workers. And they worked a lot and… when they
started to earn money, they also started to rent flats, stuff like that. I guess it was a struggle at
that point. And also the point why they did not brought their wives, but after they did it, so… I
guess… about struggles… So my… Actually my grandmom is still not speaking really good
German. I don’t know how she managed to do [laughing] just not learn German. Because she
was always thinking we will go back, we will go back. And my granddad was not about to leave
Germany, but she thought ok, we will go back, we will go back one day… and she never learneg
German like… I don’t know, because that’s kind of funny because when she goes somewhere,
someone else goes with her to translate her everything [laughing]. After 50 years in Germany it’s
like come on, now integrate, please…Other struggles… My mom also struggled a bit, because
she had to learn language… And she also had to do her driver license like the second time in
Germany, because the one from Turkey wasn’t accepted. And also it was kind of complicated
because she is a nurse, a learned nurse, and when she came ti Germany, they just said ok, that’s,
we can’t accept this qualification here in Germany. So, it was like super shitty situation for her to
have all this knowledge and abilities and… to can not use it here, in Germany, so… I guess it
was super frustrating for her at that point. I did not have struggles
I: No struggles at all?
S: No struggles about my, my, my background, I don’t know. No discrimination. Yet, I
don’t know… Nothing super horrific
I: Maybe something good, memories that they enjoyed when they came here?
S: There are some funny stories… about their road trips every year. Because always in
summer they went by car to turkey, it’s about 35 hours just in a car. And they always tell super
funny stories about this road trip. For example… ot, it was actually not really funny, but my
granddad is laughing about that they had a car crash. It was like a super dangerous one, but it’s
like everyone is laughing though and it’s like they always speaking about it or… funny stuffs
that happened on the road. Or also they didn’t know what to do, what to think about Jesus
hanging like this [showing crucifix] on the cross and the children were really afraid, they were
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like “oh my god, what is this?” They did not know what to do with it and it was like a culture
shock. Yes, but it’s, that’s realy funny when they tell it like afterwards to you, it’s like, you’re
just laughing.
I: And do you know why your parents and grandparents moved to those places? What
was the reason to go to that city?
S: My granddad moved to Alen first, or Athen, I’m not sure. But it’s in North Rein
Westphalia, and he moved there for work… because they offered him work there. And then they
just moved, then my granddad just moved to the city where his brother was living, working. And
since then he just stayed there.
I: And did your parents, grandparents start learning German before they moved? Or at
least had some knowledge, or when they came here? And how did they start learning it?
S: I don’t think that my grandparents start to learn German before, because my
grandfather was just here for work, so. He didn’t…
I: And your mother?
S: and my mother no, she also didn’t, she did it in Germany
I: And she attended some courses or…
S: Yes, she did some courses. And I guess that my grandfather…. My grandfather learned
language by… just with practicing it in everyday life.
I: Tell about how you were brought up? What wre the general things parents wanted
from you, and maby there were some stereotypes or something your parents taught you?
S: I don’t… so, my mom was super disciplin….
I: disciplined?
S: disciplined, I guess she was… maby because of the system in Turkey, I don’t know, if
they also were wearing uniforns and stuff like that… and always when I was writing my
homework and she didn’t sa… think that I did it like properly, like having a nice handwriting,
she took it and said: “Write it again” Sometimes she got really angry and mad, she throw my
things away and said “Ok, now you have to do in like a real, real good writer, with a good
handwriting. And I think that handwriting in also important in Russia, loke to have a nice
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handwriting… For example, in Germany it’s like… no one cares about how nice your
handwriting is. It was one point, like yes, one difference. Yes and also my parents were always
pushing me like to the limit. Like, they were like ok, you got 3, but the next time you can get 1 if
you learn more. They were like pushing me… not too harsh, but they were like ok, you can
achieve more and… if you trust in yourselve, so. I see the difference between… when parents
don’t do it, the children are not believing in themselves and… they don’t feel the need to get
better… That’s one thing I got from my parents.
I: Which language do you speak at home with your parents and sibngs?
S: I speak, with my mom mostly I speak Turkish, with my dad mostly German. But we
also mix up sometimes. And with my sisters we mostly tend to speak German, but we also speak
sometimes Ger… it’s like… we try to use both. So, I try to push myself to speak more Turkishso
that I don’t forget.
I: And can you write and read in your lan… in Turkish?
S: Yes
I: Tell about your traditions at home… It can be like everyday…cooking, maybe
something which is Turkishor Russian. And also about celebrations, religious….
S: We cook a lot Turkish, but we cook a lot also other stuff, so a mix of everything, so…
[mumbling] Then we also celebrate all there religious days with the family, and have dinner or
breakfant, and we celebrate it… What else? What did I miss now?
I: Maybe some typical behavior or some…
S: Oh yes, for example, Germans mostly don’t put off their shoes when they get into a
flat. And it’s super common in Turkey that they do it. So when my friends came home, they
never put off their shoes. And my mom was like [in a angry and high voice] “tell your friends
that they should put off their shoes” And then I have to say them always like a [apologetically]
“Uh, could you please…” And then they are like “Uh, ok…” It’s like typical Turkishbehavior. I
think it’s also super typical Russian behavior.
I: Ok, and then what is German in your family? Which traditions came?
S: Drinking [laughing] No, once I got, I became jungschützen konigen, this is super
typical German attraction. You have to google it, it’s too hard to explain now…[discussing how
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to explain] It’s about hunters, it’s a really long hunting history. And a friend of mine is in this
hunting community, And they have their traditions since like 400 years or something. And once a
year they have like festival, hunting festival. And then one of the guys is shooting like a…
wooden bird, and when this bird is falling down, he becomes a king for 1 year. And I was a
queen of this king, and it’s really German thing, you know. And I think I was like the first
Turkishever to do something like that, and everyone was like, like the Turkishpeople were really
like Wow, that’s super weird, why Turkishperson is doing something like that. But it was fun, it
was really cool. So it was German… Yes, I don’t know what else.
I: and are you religious people and what are the… what do you do about religion?
S: Uh, I believe in God, and I’m a muslim. But I don’t do all the practices. So, I on
special days I pray and stuff like this, but I’m not a really hard practicer, no.
I: I see… So, do you have relatives in Turkey?
S: Yes, I have. The brothers of my grandmother and their children and grandchildren. So,
and every year we’re going… mostly every year we’re going there and we also have a flat there
and then we just visit them
I: Your flat, it’s like yours?
S: Of my father and my grandfather. So we have a house there, like an apartment and
everyone has a flat inside. Like my uncle, my grandfather and us.
I: And you usually go there for vacation?
S: Yes, for 4 weeks or something
I: And do they come here to Germany to visit you?
S: No. Because they need a visa and stuff like that. Probably they also don’t earn that
good, I don’t know. Maybe they are also not really interested in coming to Germany. Because
they have only vacation [] in Turkey, so…
I: And do you have friends or just people you know in Turkey…
S: No. Oh, yes, I have, I have from my childhood. Because we spend like one month of
the year in Turkey, so, I have friends there.
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I: And what in general do you think about Turkey, about politics, culture, do you maybe
feel some connection with this country or something like that?
S: Yes, I feel… I feel Turkishand German at the same time. I know where my origins are
and I feel… say, connected to Turkey and the Turkishmentality somehow. But yes, how to say,
politics… is getting worse and worse in Turkey right now…. It’s really frustrating for me as a
Turkishperson to see that. Since… my parents taught me or educated me as a secular and liberal
person/ And now it’s just going, the development of Turkey is going the other way back, like it’s
not the development in the right direction and it really frustrates me. So that’s why I also try to
avoid Turkishmedia because if I read this shit I get really angry. And also because media is… is
not free media. It’s all bought by government. And everyone else who says anything else is just
getting arrested. So you can not really trust the Turkishmedia right now… Other things….
I: And what about Germany& What do you like, what you don’t like?
S: I think Germany is actually a really good country. I really need to see it, to say it. And
I also really feel German. I feel German ant Turkishat the same time. And maybe Germany is
do… isn’t doing everything like the best way, but it’s actually like… in a really high level how
they do a lot of stuff. Like housing, treat, human rights, or women rights. Also freedom of press,
freedom of speaking, freedom of arts. So, I guess that Germany is doing a good job in this cases.
And I really can say trhat we are… quite lucky to be able to live here, or to live here, not able.
Yes.
I: And do you have German citizenship?
S: No. I don’t, I have a Turkishone. But I will get now the German one. I can get it
without problems and I will do it. I get it. Because then I can vote in Germany and now it’s
getting more and more important to… be able to vote in Germany since of the AfD, stuff like
this are rising parties… You know AfD? It’s like right-wing opposition party and they are really
extreme and they are rasist, and stuff like that. And actually I could help with my vote to… to be
against them. So, that’s the thinking against… will be more and more important in the future.
I: And did you see or read something on the German news or like in German media about
Turkey, immigrant, something that produced some respond, that you liked or didn’t like?
S: As I said before, the Turkishpress is mostly not independent, so I can not believe
anything… like what they tell. And I can not trust them
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I: And German?
S: Yes, actually there are some sources which are really good. Like the newspaper Die
Zeit is super objective, which is super good. And for example, you should never read, if you
want really qualitative reports, you shouldn’t read Die Bild, like it’s a yellow paper. And so, you
can, you can see which ones are trustfull reports, and which one is not. Because there are also
lists souces and you can see ok, where these sources are from? So, if they put something in
report about Turkey, then I’m more likely to trust the German one, than the Turkishone. Because
independent journalists say there is no freedom of speech in Turkeyany more, and Turkey says
oh yes, of course there is. And there, just like they’re saying just opposite of each others. So then
I just trust the report of the country where you really have freedom of speech.
I: And do you take part in some political or civil activities in Germany? Actually, I saw
that you’ve been to some…. Seminar or something… about Turkey?
S: Yes, I think you saw the picture my mom posted. We went to… Turkishjournalist who
should stay at… in the prison for life… lifetime. Because he had a report about… weapons to
ASIS. And he made a, he putted into the newspaper and then Erdogan said ok, for this you will
go to prison. And then he ran away to Germany, and then I went to his reading. Like he told
about it. And actually I should do more like activist stuff… against this autocratic system of
Erdogan, because I feel like I have to do something, but it’s like… people feel more and more
frustrated because nothing in working against Erdogan. So, I don’t know, I don’t have an idea
how to do it… How to be active against the Turkishstate in Germany… Actually when the Gazic
protests were, in 2013, a lot of Germans also went to the streats and were like… they were
showing solidarity to the protestors in Turkey. So, when everyone was around the Gazi park in
Istambul, also Turkishpeople in Germany came together and were showing solidarity.
I: And something connected with Germany, with German things going on?
S: Hmm…[thinking] not really, no. Probably because there is nothing, really hard to
protest against… I mean there was a protest against gentrification in Frankfurt. That was… like
we were standing there and looked like whar they’re doing there. Anf these are the topics in
Germany like having a good place to live, but in Turkey it’s like, it’s different topic… It’s about
human rights. It’s defferent level… So we. I didn’t feel the need to go on the streets yet.
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I: Do you have or feel some obstacles in communicating with some people… maybe
because of your parent’s, your family background or because of some cultural differences?
S: What exactly do you mean? Like with…
I: Like when communicating with someone do you feel some borders or
misunderstanding?
S: But in language?
I: Maybe in language, maybe in culture
S: Mentality
I: Yes
S: I don’t know… Not really, no.
I: Tell me about your friends. Who are they, what do they do?
S: I mostly have… I don’t have that much, that many Turkishfriends. I mostly, I guess it’s
super-mixed up. Russian…. German, Russian, from Congo, from Croatia. I don’t know, it’s like,
I like said it before, it’s super mixed-up here. So you never know where the people are from, it’s
super mixed-up. I don’t put a difference in where people are coming from, it is like a lot… if if
you are on the same wave.
I: And do you have German-German friends?
S: Any. Any… Any is a friend of mine, but yes… by the is more mixed up like a GermanGerman. Because he grown up with all the other guys…Kalina. I have some. I don’t know them
by now, it’s…I mean there are some, like…
I: But not the closest
S: No, no. Not the closest. So I know a lot, but not the closest friends.
I: And what do you usually do during your free time with friends?
S: Meeting and drinking vine and beer. And tee and coffe. Cooking together. What else?
Doing sports, watching movies together. Having conversation
I: And you mostly speak German with all of them? Or there are some…
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S: Yes. German
I: Do you think that some religious or ethnic identities or people’s history can be a reason
not to…communicate with them, keep in touch or just not to be closer to these people?
S: I don’t think so. I actually think that what matters is the character of the person. But
still if I see, for example, people have like, for me weird behavior, I can not really be
comfortable with it. So I wouldn’t have anything against a person as a person, but I wouldn’t
really like or accept their behavior. For example, yes, for example, nowadays a lot of Muslims
don’t give their hands for a handshake to men. So when I see something like that I feel
uncomfortable because I don’t like this behavior. Because… You know what I mean?
I: When they do not respond for the greeting?
S: Yes, yes. So it’s for me, it’s for me somehow… also a discrimination against men to
not give them the hand, but to a woman. It’s religious, they say it’s religious, but… So I can
speak with person totally normally, and I can also be friends with one of them. But I… I would
feel like… I’m not ok with this behavior , I can not understand that. Probably I would also tell it
and then… I don’t know what will happen.
I: And do you feel some pressure or some influence from your parents on what you’re
doing in life and who are your friends and who is your partner?
S: No. So they leave me to do what I want. Actually has, had some identity crisis, like… I
guess he was in between being Turkishand German. And… there was a time when he was like
“Oh, ok, but if you have a boyfriend, the other people shouldn’t know it… and like because
Turkishpeople are a bit weird about this topic. But after he got to know Alex, he just loved him.
And then since then everything is just like Oh, ok, do whatever you want, he’s a good guy. So
every problem solved.
I: So what, which place you call your homeland?
S: Which wat? [I repeat the question] Germany
I: and could you describe yourself in a couple of sentances
S: I don’t know. It’s such a big question to do that….[thinking] Ahhhh… So… I would
say that I feel that there’s bond between me and Turkey and also Germany. But Germany is
definitely my, my home, where I feel the most comfortable. And so I also love all these values of
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being a part of Germany. Like all these freedom you have. And this proper way. And yes I can
also say as Alex did, like to respect against every minority and every different culture. Yes and
what to add more?
I: And what do you think how would others describe you?
S: Oh… Oh my god, that’s hard. Yes, I would say honest, I think that people might think
I’m may be… how to say.. if people see me for the first time, I don’t know why, they think that
I’m mostly arrogant. But then they get to know me and then they just feel the opposite side. And
I heard this so often, so it’s funny. So I have this always in mind to not… look like arrogant, like
an arrogant bitch or something, I don’t know. What else? I don’t know, I’m… I guess I’m funny
[laughing] My boyfriend is sayoig this all the time like ‘Oh, you’re so funny’, so I guess I’m
funny….I’m clumsy. But I guess it’s funny to be clumsy. What else? Maybe thoughtful and
respectful. And also…. I don’t know. It’s like the main things that come to my mind.
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