The Turkish Migration to Germany & Their Integration (Essay Sample)

The Turkish Migration to Germany & Their Integration Introduction Moving from one’s native land to a new and wholly different nation is not easy. This is especially so when the host nation does not practice the same culture, the same religious and political beliefs, nor do they hold life in the same perspective as one’s native land. A migrant is often lonely, faces opposition, rejection as well as discrimination when they try to make the best of a new living situation (Bartsch, et al, 2010). Integration is also not easy and may even be far more difficult than the simple moving from one nation to another. A migrant must learn how to be flexible and know when to make compromises with their own closely held cultural and religious practices. Not to mention their normal daily life routines as well as any political and legal views they may hold. What integration boils down to is simple choice. Does one decide to filter through their original values and only keep he important ones or do they stubbornly hold on to their old-world ways and try to make the hosts adapt to their lifestyles? It is a tough question to answer as there are mitigating circumstances and influences which help turn this from a black and white issue to something that is full of grey situations and emotions that cloud every transition (Onay, 2017). This is the issue that is most important when it comes to examining the Turkish migration and eventual integration to Germany. That migration was not done out of the goodness of the German people. They had a lot of difficulty in accepting cultures and political or religious thought that was in contrast to their own closely held nationalistic values. The migration was enacted out of necessity. Germany needed more workers. This attitude was what made integration so difficult. The German people were not opening up their nation to people for permanent residency. These workers were supposed to come, work and then go home (Schnieder-Gossens, 2011). What this paper will do is look at the Turkish migration and their struggle to integrate into a very hard-lined society. But first, it will provide a little history of migration and integration, as well as define the term migration. With the historical background of Turkish migration comes the look at some of the reasons why Turkish citizens migrant to Germany. The most obvious reason is, of course, economic. But there are other reasons why Turks decide to and have decided to move to Germany. A look at these reasons will give an indicator at how successful integration can or cannot be. Then after all that a look at why integration into German society is so difficult. The different topics covered will focus on the issues of religion, marriage, the law and political issues. These elements of normal daily life play a large role in keeping Turkish migrants from fully integrating into German society. Special attention will be given to how crime affects integration. The topic of crime is given its own section because the ramifications of the actions of a few or a minority of Turkish migrants influences how all Turkish migrants are viewed by the German people. Crime is a very solid reason why integration becomes almost impossible to achieve and has as much influence on integration efforts as does religion and other aspects of daily life. Migration, as stated earlier, is not something that is usually done on the spur of the moment. It is usually a difficult decision for adults to make because it means uprooting their family and going to live among strangers. That is, it is difficult if a war does not make that decision for adults. For Turkish citizens these difficulties are the rule, not the exception and the main question to be answered by this paper will be was the Turkish migration to Germany and their eventual integration successful? It should be stated that there are always exceptions to every rule and reason influencing migration to another land. Some people do just up and decide to move because their lifestyle permits quick decision making and their decisions to move does not affect a lot of people or family members. These people can use many of the rules and reasons described in this paper as their justification to move but they are merely excuses to cover up their real intent. Their intent being they are just doing this on a whim, a dare, or youthful ideal that makes adventure very romantic. These reasons will not be looked at here. 1. Migration Defined It goes without saying that some sort of definition must accompany any paper on migration. This allows for all people to fully understand what is meant by certain key terms and be able to follow the narrative of the paper. To put it simply, migration is defined as a group of people moving to a new land to find work and to live in that new land temporarily or permanently. If one wants to split hairs, migration is not essentially the same as immigration for the latter depends upon the following of certain rules. Migration can be done by either following a given set of rules by another nation or it can be done without following those rules. Migration is a move done by a group of people trying to leave one poor economic situation in hopes of finding that the grass is greener on the other side of the fence. For the purpose of this paper, the legal sense of migration will be the main definition used. Although a look at a illegal movement may be necessary. 2 Historical Background 2.1 Historical Integration In the Bible, the Book of Genesis speaks of an interaction between the Hebrew patriarch Abraham with his neighbors. Abraham was trying to buy a cave in order that he may lay his now deceased wife to rest. What makes this account more poignant is that both Abraham and his neighbors were migrants. He from the land of Chaldees and his neighbors came from the Hittite civilization, which was in what is now called Turkey. The account showed how the integration of both sets of migrants seemed to be complete, peaceful and well accepted by all. Each lived peaceably with each other and did not try to take advantage of the other. The showed respect to each other even giving preference to their position in society and life (Genesis, NASB, 1960-95). Proper integration is possible if the parties on all sides are willing to put aside their differences, accept those issues where they conflict with each other and learn to live in peace while not totally agreeing with the religious, philosophical, political and cultural differences. 2.2. Historical Migration Migration is not a new invention. There have always been situations that have driven people from their native land and forced them to seek their fortunes in new civilizations. History is full of evidence that different groups of people have travelled from one part of the world to another. The aforementioned Hittites were one such people. They were not native to Anatolia or modern-day Turkey. They like so many others entered the land in search of a new home. What makes this story a little different from most migrant accounts is that the Hittites were able to take over their new land and rule over it for over 1,000 years (Wasilewska, 1995). Unfortunately, not all migrant movements were as peaceful nor contributed so constructively to a geographical region. The historical Sea Peoples of the 12th century BC is one such group of people. This group of people moved from country to country making a very negative impact on the societies they encountered and disrupting the normal flow of business and daily life. Their destructive ways left an impact that is still felt and told today via historical accounts. These people were not friendly and sought to take what they could to maintain their own survival. Their behavior and treatment of others was so alarming that finally Ramesse III made a last stand against them. He ultimately defeated the Sea Peoples and those multiple group s of people soon disappeared from history (Raban & Stieglitz, 1991). It should be noted that there are differing views of the contribution of the Sea peoples to the lands they entered. Some scholars feel that these groups of people contributed more constructively than accepted opinion has held for decades. There is mention that this group of people brought new technologies to the different civilizations before being defeated. It all depends on your perspective but for the most part, the Sea People and their migration trend did not contribute a lot of new ideas or built up existing cultures. They were more selfish and self-serving than some scholars will admit (Raban & Stieglitz, 1991). 2.3. The Turkish Historical Move to Germany The most public migration efforts made by Turkish citizens was enacted in 1961. Now it is possible that individuals and their families made previous immigration attempts to Germany, but those records are not known nor are they a concern for this paper. In that year, Germany was still divided yet it was experiencing a new industrial resurgence that required more workers. The nation, at that time, did not have enough young Germans to fill the need thus they sent out a call to Turkey and other nations looking for unskilled laborers. Over 700,000 Turks came to Germany during this recruitment period (Local, 2011). This need for unskilled labor lasted in Germany for about 12 years when the oil crisis influenced the businesses and industries of the nation. In 1973, Germany finally stopped this recruitment and sought to change some of their rules. It was at this time that the German government instituted the family reunification law that allowed many of the recruited migrants to bring their families to Germany. It was hoped by German officials that this would stop the incoming flow of migrants while building a foundation for future integration of the now resident Turks in German society (Oner, 2014). This situation led to the difficult task of trying to integra...