Integrating Turks in Germany
Abstract
This paper is divided into three parts. The first section of the paper investigates
the signs as well as the underlying causes for Turks’ separation from “native” German
society by looking at a number of studies and articles. The issue of Turkish integration
is important because Turks are the largest immigrant group in Germany. Social integration
is defined as: “the process of immigrants being accepted into equal membership in
the host society” and the author finds that within this definition Turks are not socially
integrated and remain separated from “native” German society. Turks separation from
“native” German society is apparent in a number of measures of social integration.
“Native” Germans refers to citizens who have German ancestry and have lived in Germany
for the last several generations. A root cause of Turks’ separation is their tendency
to live in isolated ethnic communities. As a result the German language skills of
Turks are lesser to those of “native” Germans and other immigrant groups, which has
a restrictive effect on Turks’ academic achievement and success in the job market.
Furthermore, Turks remain culturally divided from “native” German society, and Turkish
traditions such as wearing headscarves and honor killing create tension and misunderstanding
with “native” Germans. Compared to other immigrants Turks interact little outside
of their ethnic group and identify more with Turkey than other immigrant groups identify
with their respective countries of origin. The German government is also responsible
for Turks’ separation from German society due to its policies on immigration and citizenship.
Because German citizenship policy is based on ius sanguinis the children of immigrants
born in Germany do not automatically receive birthright citizenship and naturalization
remains difficult. The German government has recently formed policy initiatives focused
on integration, but the current institutions to manage integration remain weak and
the “native” German population continues to harbor hostility toward immigrants.
The second part of this paper focuses on the issue of discrimination in the German
labor market. Analysis of the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP) data by two different
studies found that there is evidence of discrimination against foreigners in access
to the German labor market, but no conclusive evidence of nationality based wage discrimination
against foreigners (Constant et al, Lang). With these two studies as a starting point
the author of this paper uses the GSOEP data to investigate whether there is evidence
of wage discrimination against Turks and other foreigners in the most recent wave
of the GSOEP data from 2007. The author ran regressions to compare the effect of nationality
on hourly wage, while controlling for confounding factors such as age, gender and
education. Similarly to previous studies the author found no significant evidence
of wage discrimination against foreigners or Turks specifically. These results carry
important implications for German integration policy.
The third part of the paper focuses on the policy implications of Turk’s separation
from German society and discrimination in the labor market, and recommends policies
the German government should implement to facilitate integration. In order to integrate
Turks into German society the German government has to make a concerted effort to
improve Turks’ educational achievement and reduce economic disparities between Turks
and “native” Germans. The issues of immigrants’ lateral mobility and wealth disparities
between Turk’s and “native” Germans complicate this problem. If lateral mobility and
wealth disparities contribute to Turks’ underachievement in school and low occupational
status, affirmative action policies may be necessary to boost Turkish educational
and occupational success. The German government should create a Ministry for Integration
to handle this issue. Discrimination in access to the German labor market indicates
that there is statistical discrimination against Turks when companies hire. The best
solution to this problem is to implement a German anti-discrimination act.
Type
Honors thesisDepartment
Public Policy StudiesPermalink
https://hdl.handle.net/10161/2315Citation
Karcher, Albert (2010). Integrating Turks in Germany. Honors thesis, Duke University. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/2315.Collections
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