Both Turkey and Germany can look back on a long history of all types of migration. On many occasions, their migration history has been directly and intimately connected with one other, and there are also parallels when they are being considered as receiving countries for immigrants. A large number of immigrants that generally fall out of the statistics are the people who claim restoration of citizenship. Where do these people come from respectively and what were the historical reasons for that? How familiar are they with the culture and language of their new home countries and what problems – if any – do they face on their arrival and during the course of integration? What is the situation like for those who have stayed and what role do the governments in these citizenship restoration processes play? These are questions that this article will address, with a focus on a comparison between the case of Turkey and Germany.

Historical background

If we take a closer look at the population map of Europe and Asia we can still observe considerable Turkish and German minorities in many of the countries, mainly due to the extension of their territories during history. During the largest extension at the end of the 17^th century, the Ottoman Empire stretched across three continents: from the North African coast, Rhodes, Crete and Cyprus, Asia Minor, almost all of the Region of the Black Sea, parts of the Caucasus and the Balkan including the states which are nowadays Serbia and Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania, Macedonia, Greece, Romania, and Bulgaria. Likewise, the German Empire covered territory that nowadays belongs to Poland. Also, in Germany’s case, the Medieval Age saw Germans settling in Eastern Europe in search of work and a new home, which resulted in German minorities in Eastern Europe.

Turkish and German populations living in these territories faced discrimination, were forced to assimilate, or were expelled either further away or back to the country where supposedly their roots lay. During the course of nation-state building, Balkan countries did not wish to include a Muslim minority in their societies, and thus, large groups of Turks and other Non-Turkish Muslims were persecuted. As a result, they were either forced to assimilate by adapting Slavic names or to (re)settle in Turkey. A number of joint agreements led to an exchange of population with the respective countries. After the Greek War when the frontiers were settled, the Lausanne Peace Treaty included an exchange of 1.3 million Greeks and some 400000 to 500000 Turks[1]. During this incident, people were classified by their religion rather than by their ethnic group as either Greek or Turkish. Likewise, treaties of friendship led to several waves of Balkan immigration to Turkey. After 1988, a large number of immigrants from Bulgaria made their way to Turkey; however, at the present, with Bulgaria on the doorstep of the EU, some Turkish people claim their right to go back to Bulgaria.

Nowadays, there are still Turkish minorities in various countries. The largest can be found in Bulgaria (9,5%), while smaller Turkish populations live in Cyprus (11,1%), Greece (especially Western Thrace), Macedonia (3,85%), Romania (0,2%) and Kosovo. In the case of Germans, people were not only sent to Germany, but for several reasons even furthered more to the East as far as Central Asia. From the middle of the 19^th century, with the upsurge of nationalist ideas, Germans in Eastern Europe became restricted in their rights and were forced to assimilate or sent to Germany. During World War II, they faced severe difficulties as they were seen as “the enemy” and therefore faced strong discriminations. They were deprived of their rights, their property, and many Germans who still lived in these countries were deported to work camps in Siberia or to Central Asia. Prior to World War II, 8.6 million Germans were living outside of German territory. An additional 9.5 million were living in the territory that, after the war, belonged to Poland. The German population was reduced to 4 million people (1960) living in the East of Europe, mostly in the Soviet Union, Romania, Poland, and Czechoslovakia. This population and their descendants have the right to become German citizens and the right to financial support as stated in the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany (Art. 116 GG[2]). Until 2000, about 4 Million people have made use of this right and have come to Germany. Despite the migration waves to Germany, there are still many ethnic Germans living in several Eastern European and Central Asian countries. The number of Germans in Russia is estimated to be 800000, in Kazakhstan there are still 353400, in Poland approximately 300000-600000, in Romania 50000-100000, and in Hungary about 220000. German minorities can also be found in the Czech Republic, the Slovak Republic, former Yugoslavia, Baltic States and in the former Soviet Union (Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan)[3].

Integration problems

Generally speaking, the Turkish immigrants did not face any severe problems on their arrival since they were all Muslim and mostly Turkish speaking, and thus, not very different from the Turkish population. Most of the Balkan migrants settled in the areas of the Aegean (e.g. Izmir and Manisa), Marmara (e.g. Bursa) and Black Sea (e.g. Samsun). Nowadays, most are able to relate or convey migration stories either from their own family or from someone they know. One can say that the integration process has been relatively smooth and without larger troubles.

In Germany, the first wave of immigrants, the so-called Aussiedler[4], likewise did not face any real difficulties. Similar to the Turkish, they had the advantage of speaking German and were also familiar with the German culture. The chapter for this group is practically closed, but with the fall of the Iron curtain Germany was confronted with a new, much larger and also very different, group of immigrants. Migrating from beyond Eastern Europe, the population came from regions as far away from Germany as Kazakhstan and Tajikistan. Mostly, they had strongly adapted to the culture of their countries, and their German is often very poor or non-existent and many of them live in mixed families. These people are not called Aussiedler but Spätaussiedler[5] or even Russian-Germans, which hints at their social status in Germany. Though being Ethnic Germans, they form a group that is very distinct from the other Germans because of their integration difficulties.

While the Ethnic Turks are generally accepted and were absorbed easily by the Turkish society, the Spätaussiedler are facing the same problems that other non-German immigrants faced, such as language difficulties, which may lead to social exclusion or even “Russian” quarters in some cities. Especially young people have difficulties, being taken out of their schools and forced to adapt to another language and to another system of education. On average, their educational level is estimated to be lower than that of their German classmates[6]. A statistic of the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia states that 28,1% of the Spätaussiedler children visit Hauptschule, the lowest form of education in Germany (compared to 11,9% of the German children), and only 8,3% visit Gymnasium, the highest form of education, which also serves as a preparation for higher university education (compared to 23,2%of the Germans)[7]. The way these young people spend their free time differs from that of German youth: for instance, they prefer to just hang around rather than go to sport clubs. Due to their language problems and also because they do not feel accepted, they are often afraid to approach German youth. A real problem is the perceived higher criminality amongst male Spätaussiedler youth. In a survey which asks the question, whether some personal conflicts justify the use of violence[8], 42,7% of the male Spätaussiedler respond with yes, compared to 23,2% of the Germans.

Those people who have already finished their education, but who still have language difficulties, will find it hard to get a high qualified job. In addition to that, their qualifications are often not recognized in Germany and they have to start from the scratch. Even those who do not have any language problems, and are living in a decent social position, will hardly ever feel like “real” Germans. Feeling neither Russian nor German can be the reason of what can be called an identity dilemma.

The role of the governments

Despite the large migration streams, there is still a very large population of Germans and Turks spread over Europe and Central Asia. Being a minority, they are often subject to discrimination, as is the case for the Turks in Greece and for the Germans in Central Asia. However, the situation is improving as the EU has insisted that Greece abolish discriminating laws and Germany pushed the Central Asian countries to establish cultural programs for Ethnic Germans. Turkish Cypriots who were not allowed the right to Turkish citizenship until 2004 now may opt for dual citizenship. When the number of immigrants was thought to be unbearably high after the fall of the Iron Curtain, the German government imposed restrictions. At first, those people from the transforming countries in Eastern Europe were not given the right to German citizenship anymore, because it was argued that due to transformation processes these countries now offered a stable situation. People from the former Soviet Union may still come to Germany, but with a restricted number of 220.000 people annually. The German government helps immigrants by providing integration programs that are based mainly on language teaching and also with financial aid and job consulting. In a similar way, the Turkish government helped Turkish immigrants from Bulgaria by providing them housing opportunities on their arrival.

Summary

Regarding their respective experiences with the migration of Ethnic people, the extent to which integration has been successful in Turkey and Germany differs. While the first group migrating to Germany had similar preconditions as the Turkish and integrated easily, in the second case, integration has not been overall satisfying. Most probably the reason for this can be found in the strong alienation of Ethnic Germans from German culture and language. The migration, though now restricted in numbers, is still continuing in Germany, while in Turkey the process came to a halt at the end of the last century.

Henrike Hochmuth, Researcher at ISRO, European Studies Expert

henrike.hochmuth@hotmail.de

Literature:

Hamburgisches WeltWirtschaftsInstitut – HWWI (2006). Focus Migration, Country Profile Turkey No. 5, April 2006. http://www.hwwi.hwwi.net/typo3_upload/groups/3/focus_Migration_Publikationen/Laenderprofile/CP_05_Turkey.pdf.

Hamburgisches WeltWirtschaftsInstitut – HWWI (2006). Focus Migration, Länderprofil Deutschland No. 1, April 2005. http://www.focus-migration.de/typo3_upload/groups/3/focus_Migration_Publikationen/Laenderprofile/LP01_Deutschland.pdf.

Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung – BPB (2000): Heft 267, Aussiedler. http://www.bpb.de/publikationen/09920097607434969424015569020083,0,0,Aussiedler.html.