German Turks in Berlin: Social Exclusion and Strategies for Social Mobility
German Turks in Berlin: Social Exclusion and Strategies for Social Mobility
The literature on Turkish migrants in Germany predominantly focuses on German Turks’ cultural manifestations and on their encounters with the majority society. It does so within a framework of reified ethnicity and/or a mystified ‘Turkish culture’. The present article concentrates on the anomalies of the social space occupied by German Turks in German society and will discuss life‐styles, practices and emergent cultural forms in the context of hindered social mobility rather than in ethnic and cultural terms. The emphasis is on their social exclusion in terms of social mobility. This emphasis introduces a new dimension into discussions on the presence of Turkey in German Turks’ lives and on their relationship with Turkey.