Tag: Turks living in Germany

  • German Turks ‘send a billion euros to Turkey’

    German Turks ‘send a billion euros to Turkey’

    The majority of Germans with a Turkish background – 57 percent – have their own income, revealed the study, carried out by Berlin-based research institute Info and published in the Handelsblatt newspaper. Seventeen percent receive social support.

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    Info director Holger Liljeberg attributed the transactions to Turks’ “very strong” connection to their homeland. The study also found that some 18 percent of German Turks send goods and food to their friends and relatives – at an average value of €250 a year.

    Altogether that amounts to around €90 million in goods and a billion euros in money.

    Around half of the 1,000 German Turks asked in the survey said they owned property either in Germany or Turkey, while a third had property in Turkey.

    “These figures also underscore the desire of many Turks to make provisions should they move back to Turkey one day,” said Liljeberg.

    The study also found that the strong connection to Turkey led many to travel there on a regular basis. “On average the Turks in Germany travel to Turkey 1.9 times a year,” said Liljeberg, adding that one in four Turks travel to Turkey three or four times a year.

    “The strong family connections guarantee lively traffic between the two countries, and ensure that contacts don’t break,” he said.

    The Local/bk

    via German Turks ‘send a billion euros to Turkey’ – The Local.

  • Turks in Germany feel far from home

    Turks in Germany feel far from home

    Just how satisfied are Turks with their life in Germany? A recent poll shows that many want to go Turkey, and some are toying with radical interpretations of religion.

    turks

    “We were surprised about the results,” said Holger Liljeberg from the INFO polling institute.

    The institute conducted a representative survey on the satisfaction with life amongst Turks in Germany and found that an increasing number of Turks intend to leave Germany and go back to Turkey.

    Liljeberg said he found it surprising that this intention was particularly widespread in the group of 30 to 49-year-olds, with every second participant voicing this plan. The researchers concluded that Turks in Germany still consider Turkey their real home – a tendency that seems to be on the rise again, in comparison to answers given in past surveys. The most recent study polled 1,000 Turks living in Germany.

    In the youngest group surveyed, those between the ages of 15 and 24, some 20 percent of participants said they wanted to find a job in Turkey. “We are risking a brain drain of skilled Turks,” Liljeberg said. But he said their motivation was understandable. On the one hand, the pressure on the Turkish community in Germany is growing, while at the same time Turkey has become more attractive. German media have come to call the country the “powerhouse on the Bosporus.”

    “With a good level of education, they can easily earn 10,000 euros a month or more in Istanbul,” said Liljeberg.

    Barbara John: “Don’t blow study results out of proportion”

    Roughly 53 percent of all participants said they expected better job opportunities in Turkey. This development is worrying for the German economy, which is already experiencing a lack of skilled labor. But Barbara John, former commissioner for foreigners in Berlin, warned of jumping to conclusions. If you asked young Germans the same question, she said, an equally high share would probably say they were planning to go abroad.

    Radical opinions among young people

    A second area of study also triggered mixed interpretations. The share of young people who consider themselves “strictly religious” or “rather religious” has risen to two thirds in comparison to the last study conducted in 2010. Liljeberg pointed out that this doesn’t mean praying or attendance at religious services was on the rise.

    “But Islam is gaining in significance as a means of identification amongst young people who feel like they’re living between two worlds,” Liljeberg said, adding that the difficult situation arises from the fact that young people born in Germany are seen as Turks in Germany and as Germans in Turkey.

     

    Young Turks approve of free Koran distribution campaigns

    “Young people risk being religiously politicized,” the researcher said summarizing the survey’s results. The participants were asked about their opinion regarding the free distribution of copies of the Koran in pedestrian by Salafists, who have the status of extreme Islamists in Germany. The campaign launched a big debate this year, but among young Turkish survey participants, there was a high degree of approval, with 63 percent of 15 to 29-year-olds saying it was a good campaign. The vast majority of over 50 said they disapproved of the campaign.

    Danger of radicalization?

    John said this was not proof that young Turks were heading towards radicalization, but it simply highlighted young people’s search for identity.

    “Dissociating yourself from the majority is normal, and strict religious lifestyles often look like the best possible way to do so,” she said.

    But Liljeberg considered it a “gateway to a politization which could lead to group building.” In the survey, 36 percent of young people said they were willing to support the Salafist campaign financially with donations.

    A vast majority of Turks say German language skills are crucial

    Another finding of the survey was the growing tendency amongst citizens of Turkish origin to dissociate from German society. About 62 percent of study participants said they preferred the company of other Turks only – up from the 40 percent who gave the answer in 2010. Almost half the participants said they hoped there would be more Muslims than Christians in Germany in the future. Two years ago, this number was lower, too, with only one third voicing this view. Worryingly, the study also found that religious resentment was growing, towards atheists and Jews in particular.

     

    dw.de

    Hamburg to guarantee more rights to Muslims

    Hamburg wants to make an agreement with Muslims and Alevi cementing their rights and responsibilities. It would be the first such pact to be undertaken by a German state. (16.08.2012)

    My first day in ‘Almanya’

    “Recognize Islam”

    John said these were normal results. She said what was emerging in Germany was not a counter-culture, but a pluralist society. No one should expect Turkish immigrants to have assimilated completely after only a few decades, she added. But it was important that Germany officially recognize Islam.

    “If that were the case many Turks wouldn’t feel pushed aside because their religion would be considered normal,” she said.

    Hamburg, this week, became the first federal state to launch such an initiative. It plans to sign an agreement with Muslim communities.

    Another finding of the study showed that integration efforts have to be continued. While many Turks leave or plan to leave Germany, the number of those moving to Germany is also still high – albeit no longer for economic reasons as in previous decades. About 56 percent of women are coming to Germany because their husbands live here. This shows that there is no such thing as “the Turks in Germany” – even if many Germans still see people of Turkish descent as a homogenous group.

    But some of the efforts of integration policy of the last few years seem to have paid off. The study noticed progress in some areas, such as language skills and participation in social life. All in all, 91 percent of participants thought it was important for children to learn German straight away. When it came to the role of women, participants’ opinions were also more moderate.

    • Date 18.08.2012
    • Author Kay-Alexander Scholz / nh
    • Editor Sean Sinico
  • Turkey’s FM visits Orthodox and Syriac churches in Germany

    Turkey’s FM visits Orthodox and Syriac churches in Germany

    Turkey’s FM visits Orthodox and Syriac churches in Germany

    davut germanyAhmet Davutoglu met Christian Turkish citizens at the Saint Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church and St Petrus and Paulus Church in Cologne.

    Turkey’s foreign minister visited on Sunday Orthodox and Syriac churches in Cologne, Germany.

    Ahmet Davutoglu met Christian Turkish citizens at the Saint Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church and St Petrus and Paulus Church in Cologne.

    “Nobody should seek any mala fide regarding Monastery of Mor (St.) Gabriel as the problem is only legal,” Davutoglu said during the meeting.

    Davutoglu said forested areas were under constitutional protection in Turkey, and what had happened at the Mor Gabriel Monastery was totally within that framework.

    Turkey would act the same way if it was a mosque, Davutoglu said.

    Davutoglu said the monastery could be used, and hoped that it would be used till eternity.

    AA

  • Turkey and Germany remember days of immigration in 50th year

    Turkey and Germany remember days of immigration in 50th year

    26 October 2011, Wednesday / HATİCE AHSEN UTKU, İSTANBUL

    art1

    It was 50 years ago when thousands of Turkish workers, all filled with hope and expectations, waved at their families and loved ones from trains headed for Germany.

    It was the year 1961 when the bittersweet story that was to connect Turkey and Germany started. It was when the word “immigration” would gain new meanings and dimensions for Turks. It was when Turkey and Germany signed the Gastarbeiter protocol — the Worker Recruitment Agreement. During the 50 years that have passed since, many things have irreversibly changed.

    The 50th anniversary of such a seminal event is now being commemorated via a host of art events by the Goethe-Institut İstanbul, from stage plays to films, and from conferences to concerts, workshops and exhibitions from Oct. 20 through Dec. 10.

    One of the main events of the project, an exhibition titled “Fiktion Okzident” (Fiction Occident), features the works of 18 artists at the Tophane-i Amire Cultural Center. Another event on the lineup, a film program titled “Karşıdan Bakış — Göç ve Sinema” (A Look from Across: Migration and Cinema), provides a selection of films exploring the perspective of “the other.” Other events include concerts and workshops by Turkish-German hip hop artist Sultan Tunç at Babylon; the project “Gidenlerin Öyküsü” (The Story of Those who Left), which will be detailed in an upcoming documentary that follows a train headed for Munich from İstanbul’s Sirkeci Railway Station on Oct. 26; and the conferences “Ulusaşırı Göç” (Supranational Migration) and “Göç ve Edebiyat” (Migration and Literature) at Bilgi University’s Dolapdere Campus. Finally, a musical titled “Yaşamayı Beklerken” (Waiting to Live), written by Anja Tuckermann and Haluk Yüce, will be staged at the Beyoğlu Kumbaracı50 as the closing event.

    “In order to focus Turkish attention on the positive developments of the migrants in Germany and to bring the two cultures closer together, the Goethe-Institut is organizing a wide-ranging program with exhibitions, readings, lectures, concerts, workshops, theatrical performances and a film series,” explains Claudia Hahn-Raabe, the director of the Goethe-Institut İstanbul in an interview with Today’s Zaman.

    “… German-Turkish cultural history is characterized by mutual projections, romantic fantasies and prejudices. These imaginary worlds exist on both sides. They are part of the mental foundations of the social, cultural and political German-Turkish reality. When on Oct. 10, 1961, a recruitment contract with Turkey was signed and millions of workers from Turkey were recruited, these notions were put on an entirely new and much broader social and cultural footing. A large percentage of the 2.4 million people of Turkish origin now were born in Germany. They know Turkey only from travels and from what they were told. While many are successfully integrated, there are still strong feelings of alienation on both sides, in large part caused by cultural differences and ignorance. These feelings result in rejection by some groups of the native population and partial withdrawal into the oft quoted ‘ethnic niches’ by some of the Turks. So this program will reflect the cultural, political and social effects of a shared history,” she explained.

    For Hahn-Raabe, there are many lessons to be learned — for both the Turkish and the German sides — from this long-term experience. “The cultures of both countries need to be aware that an appropriate manner of dealing with the history of migration is overdue,” she notes. “Germany needs to come to terms with the fact that it is an immigrant country. It must expand its integrative efforts and take care to avoid negatively biased press coverage. Above all, it needs to oppose the negative connotation of the terms ‘Turkish immigrants’ and ‘Germans of Turkish origin.’ The same is true of the Turkish side,” she notes. “‘Against each other’ needs to become ‘with each other,’ but this can only happen when both sides know and respect one another. Exchange between the two countries therefore needs to intensify, especially in the cultural sector.”

    In this context, the Goethe-Institut felt committed to undertake a project that would cover the issue in the broadest way possible. “We have decided on a wide-ranging program with an exhibition, readings, lectures, concerts, workshops, a theater performance and a film series in order to present our mutual history in as many facets as possible,” says Hahn-Raabe. “And as a matter of principle, all of the events are organized together with Turkish partners,” she adds.

    Shift in time, shift in perspective

    This is definitely not the first time that Turkish workers’ migration to Germany has been the subject of art and literature; on the contrary, there has been quite a large number of works on the issue. However, was there no shift in perspective since 50 years ago? According to Hahn-Raabe, is answer is affirmative. “At the beginning of the ’70s, the problems of the guest workers were primarily dealt with. The term ‘guest workers’ in itself is telling,” she explains, and continues: “In the ’80s, the so-called second generation became the focus. These people were either already born in Germany or had moved there at an early age. They differed from the first generation in the importance they gave to questions of identity and their existence between two cultures. The term ‘guest worker’ was now changed to ‘migrant’.”

    For Hahn-Raabe, the following decade and the following generations were destined to be more promising in terms of coexistence. “Since the ’90s, the differentiation between the generations has faded,” she says. “Now, artists of Turkish background are individually noticed, known by name and accepted as part of the German cultural landscape.”

    This evolution has its reflections on productions as well. While films and stories about the adaptation and identity problems of the Turkish immigrants were very popular in the earlier decades, the focus of the artwork has shifted to a different point of view as well. “By now the image of the erstwhile guest worker has changed considerably,” indicates Hahn-Raabe. “The artists and their works are increasingly perceived as detached from possible historical or problematic connotations. Eminent examples are the film director Fatih Akın, the writer Zafer Şenocak and the music group Microphone Mafia.”

    Given this shift in time and perspective, the project is expected to reflect this variety. “We would like to show as diverse a picture of our common history as possible and underscore the changes that have happened,” notes Hahn-Raabe. “Therefore, we have invited artists of the first, second and third generations, and have organized cooperation opportunities between German artists, artists of Turkish descent living in Germany and Turkish artists. For the central exhibition project “Fiction Occident” 18 contemporary artists whose work deals with these imaginary worlds and their clash with reality were invited. Among them are artists who were born in Turkey and today work in Germany, artists who were born in Germany and commute between the two countries and artists in Turkey who reflect the consequences of internationalization.”

    Happily, the project is not confined to İstanbul, as it also incorporates Germany. “Parts of the program series will also be seen in Germany,” explains Hahn-Raabe, adding: “For instance, the exhibition ‘Fiction Occident’ will go to Berlin in the spring of 2012, and the concert with Microphone Mafia and Ayben may go to Munich in cooperation with TRT Türk. All German migrants in Turkey are invited to the events and politicians such as Cem Özdemir, Dr. Anna Prinz from the German Foreign Office and North Rhine-Westphalia Minister of Labor Guntram Schneider will participate. Moreover, many events will be organized by German cities.”

  • New train to Germany will refresh memories after 50 years

    New train to Germany will refresh memories after 50 years

    New train to Germany will refresh memories after 50 years

    This Wednesday the state-run Turkish Radio and Television Corporation will host a remembrance event at the Sirkeci railway station.

    germany train

    It was a long ride; it took more than three days. Muharrem Mirlihay entered the train in the Sirkeci station in İstanbul, and left it in an alien country far to the north: Germany.

    This happened in 1961, and the young man from İstanbul took the train because Germany needed a workforce for its booming industries — and he needed an income after his own company, a copperplate printing business in İstanbul, had gone bankrupt. Mirlihay, now 85 years old, was one of the first guest workers to move from Turkey to Germany.

    This Wednesday the state-run Turkish Radio and Television Corporation (TRT) will host a remembrance event at the Sirkeci railway station. A “Germany train” will leave on a symbolic trip to Munich in southern Germany. This project will bring to life the memories of many guest workers from those first years.

    Mirlihay started to work at the construction company Züblin in Berlin in 1962. He stayed there until 1988, when he retired. He is still partly living in Berlin: He has an apartment there as well as one in his old hometown, the İstanbul suburb of Şile on the Black Sea. His daughter and son live in Berlin, but the grave of his wife, who followed him to Germany in 1963, is in Şile.

    “I like the climate and the food in Şile,” he told Cihan news agency, sitting in a cafe in the town center, “It keeps me healthy.” He prefers to speak Turkish; his knowledge of German has remained rather limited, although he belonged to the very first wave of “guest workers.” The agreement between the Turkish and the German state governing the transfer of laborers was signed on Oct. 30, 1961.

    The 50th anniversary will be celebrated by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and German chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin, and for the occasion many cultural events are taking place or have already occurred in both Turkey and Germany.

    It was not Germany’s first guest worker agreement — similar agreements with Italy, Spain and Greece were already in place — but it was the one with the deepest impact. However, at the time when the contract was signed no one could imagine how profoundly this piece of paper, bearing German government file number 505-83 SZV 3-92.42, would change German society. Thanks to this, Europe’s biggest state developed willy-nilly into an immigration country.

    TRT’s Germany train will follow the historic path of the guest workers: They also travelled from Sirkeci to Munich before they were allocated from there to different cities. The train will arrive on Oct. 30 in Bavaria, on the actual anniversary date. In a press conference on Friday, TRT General Manager İbrahim Şahin gave information regarding the project.

    According to him, Turkish workers who immigrated to Germany from Sirkeci, journalists, artists, and politicians will join the ride.

    “Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arınç, who is responsible for TRT, and Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdağ, who is responsible for Turkish citizens abroad, are likely to join this train tour. The parliament speaker will also be with us until we reach Belgrade. Ten deputies from different political parties will also join the Germany Train. This train journey will allow us to produce a documentary on our people’s immigration to Germany in the 60s. There will be live music shows aboard the train, which will be shown live on TV,” said Şahin.

    Fifty years ago, Muharrem Mirlihay felt very sad after the train from Sirkeci arrived in Germany. When he got off the train he “deeply regretted” his decision to leave Turkey, his wife and his two children, he said, “I knew no one, I didn’t understand the language.” The first months he worked at different factories in the southwestern State of Baden-Württemberg before he moved to Berlin. His son and his daughter were born in Turkey, but started primary school in Germany after they and their mother had followed Mirlihay to Berlin. Mirlihay’s job at the construction company Züblin was to repair and operate cranes. He liked his job and his colleagues; his boss helped him to find a good apprenticeship for his son.

    After 12 years, in 1973, Germany stopped recruiting Turkish workers because of the economic downturn due to the oil crisis. By that time, 2,659,512 Turks had applied to be guest workers, and 648,029 of them had been placed in Germany. About half of them returned to Turkey, the other guest workers decided to stay with their families in Germany. Today more than 2.5 million inhabitants of Germany have Turkish roots, like Mirlihay and his children’s families.

    He said that now his homeland is half in Turkey and half in Germany. One of the things Mirlihay liked most about Germany was that thanks to his rather good income he did not have to work evenings and weekends, and therefore had more time for his family. Difficult to cope with were the prejudices and the rejection he sometimes felt in Germany. “On the other hand, we also had contacts with some German neighbors, and we visited each other.” Cihan news agency asked Mirlihay: If he passes away in the remote future, does he want to be buried in Berlin or Şile? “I think when I am dead I will not care,” he says.

    Cihan

  • Turkey to grant identification card for German Turks who lost citizenship

    Turkey to grant identification card for German Turks who lost citizenship

    Turkey to grant identification card for German Turks who lost citizenship

    turkey germany

    Turkish government is poised to make legal arrangements that would allow Turks living abroad to vote in their country of residence, Turkish Deputy Premier Bekir Bozdag has said.

    Turkish government is poised to make legal arrangements that would allow Turks living abroad to vote in their country of residence, Turkish Deputy Premier Bekir Bozdag has said.

    The government’s move is aimed at securing expat voting for as many as two million Turkish voters who were unable to go to polls in last June’s general elections because of a veto from Turkey’s elections supervision authority.

    “Our initial efforts for expatriate Turks in the June 12 elections were taken aback by the Supreme Board of Elections, which I believe made a mistake in making that decision. We have prepared a bill which is now circulated. And we will submit the bill to the parliament in the shortest possible time,” Bozdag told the Anadolu Agency.

    Bozdag said separate voter registers would be prepared for expat Turks to cast their votes in Turkish diplomatic missions, adding that new consulates could be opened to that end.

    Bozdag also said the Turkish government was working on a separate bill to issue a special identification card which would preserve rights of those who gave up Turkish citizenship to win German nationality in their formal procedures in Turkey.

    AA