Abstract
The author of Turks in Europe, Nermin Abadan-Unat, is a highly accomplished scholar who has been investigating the topic of Turkish emigration since the early 1960s. The list of her works on this subject, as well as on the position of women in the society, on mass communication or education, is truly impressive. At the advanced age of 90, she remains an active researcher and professor of political science and international relations. Born in Vienna into a Turkish family, and thus fluent in Turkish and German, she was virtually predestined to deal with the topic of Turkish migration, whose main destinations were the German-speaking countries, and especially Germany (with 80% of all Turks who live in Europe).
Related to an excessive population growth in Turkey, the emigration of a Turkish labour force was planned by the Turkish government; at the beginning of the 1960s a decision was made to implement a surplus labour export policy, aimed at slackening the pace of population growth, reducing the unemployment rate and ameliorating social tensions. In order to do that, Turkey concluded intergovernmental agreements, e.g. with the Federal Republic of Germany, Austria, Belgium and the Netherlands. At present, there are about 4.5 million Turkish citizens living outside their country (5.5% of the whole Turkish population), including more than 4 million in Europe. These numbers prove that research in this particular field is of considerable importance for the study of migration in general, and also as far as the socioeconomic problems of Turkey itself are concerned.
The book opens with a summary description of the emigration of Turkish citizens, characterizing the routes and modes of migration. The author divides the period of the most intense migration, i.e. the years 1950–2000, into five phases (decades), discussing the main characteristic problems of each given phase. The first chapter presents also the political and economic situation in both Turkey and Europe which led to such extensive migrations. What deserves particular attention is the discussion of the influence on Turkey’s socioeconomic conditions of, on the one hand, such a huge decline in labour force, including qualified workers (17% between 1961 and 1973), and, on the other hand, an inflow of financial resources sent over by the emigrants. This aspect, that is the influence of migration on the country of origin, is often neglected in the western discourse on immigrants and guest workers, which rather focuses on the effects of migration for European countries.
The second chapter is devoted to a problem rarely mentioned in the discussion of Turkish migrations, namely the labour emigration to the Middle East (approx. 800,000 Turks in 1961–2005) and to Russia (90,000 in 2001–2005). Especially valuable in this part of the book is the discussion of the differences between the employment of foreign labour force in Europe and in MENA (Middle East and North Africa) countries. Although the MENA countries, and especially the wealthy states of the Persian Gulf area, employ many foreign workers, they do so on a rotational basis: the workers, who are mostly men, do not settle there but return home with the money they have earned. What is interesting is the comparison of the nature of the relations with the country of origin, as maintained by the Turkish emigrants in the West and in the Middle East. It turns out that the latter do not feel the separation as acutely (due to the smaller distance, but also greater cultural and religious similarities) and maintain closer contacts with Turkey. Labour emigration to Russia took place later, as a result of the Gulf War, and the Turkish emigrants do not wish to settle there either.
Having sketched the broad background, the author explores specific problems concerning the presence of Turkish emigrants in Europe. Chapter 3 contains the results of her field research on various aspects of the Turkish immigrants’ life in Germany. The further part of the book is devoted to women’s issues: they occupy a whole separate chapter, as the history of women’s immigration differs from that of men’s. Interestingly, the presented research results concerning socioeconomic problems among female immigrants disprove stereotypes. As it turns out, generation after generation, female Turkish immigrants are better educated than their male peers, even though many of them, working, are employed in family businesses.
The author does not avoid difficult issues such as arranged marriages or domestic violence. Neither does she omit to mention the problem of honour killings. She explains these phenomena and their roots, subjecting them to a justified criticism. She identifies the main cause of these practices: for some immigrants, clinging tight to the traditions which they brought along is a form of self-defence against a modernity which terrifies them.
Professor Abadan-Unat discusses also marriages with partners brought in from the countries of origin, explaining their reasons and consequences, for example the complete dependence of women brought from Turkey on their husbands living in Germany. (What is perhaps missing here is a note of the fact that similar practices can be encountered among immigrants in the UK, for instance the Pakistanis, who also bring their European-born children spouses from the country of origin, so as to preserve their identity and maintain the native traditions.)
The subsequent chapter presents the important issue of education of the second and third generation of Turkish immigrants. According to research, what is to be blamed for the poorer results of students with a Turkish background is not their culture or religion, but their belonging to a lower social class, the way in which they have been incorporated into the education system (special schools for Turkish children), and also the discriminating way in which they are assessed by teachers. The author emphasizes the significance of the development of language skills for improving the students’ results.
A presentation of various aspects of the Turks’ presence in Europe could not disregard their religion, Islam, whose role among the immigrants began to increase since the family reunions. Chapter 6 describes the way in which Islam functions in European societies. Using the example of Germany, the author discusses the major Muslim associations organizing the religious life of Turkish Muslims. She also addresses the question of the place of Islam as a religion in the legal systems of Germany, France, Belgium and the Netherlands, and discusses specific problems such as the headscarf issue, secularization or Islamophobia.
The seventh chapter is devoted to problems related to the ethnicity of Turkish immigrants, the formation of ethnic communities, the role of chain migration and the emergence of small family or ethnic enterprises which change the economic landscape of European countries. A work of this kind would not be complete also without the discussion of citizenship and its relation to political participation. In Chapter 8, again on the example of Germany, France, Belgium and the Netherlands, the models of citizenship acquisition for Turkish immigrants have been analysed, as well as the problem of double citizenship and other political issues.
Turkish immigrants in Europe are also political refugees. In Chapter 9, the author analyses the reasons which lead them to seek asylum, and discusses organizations of refugees, mainly Kurds, etc. She does not omit the issue of hostility towards asylum seekers in Germany or attacks on their centres.
One of the more recent and politically interesting topics discussed in the book is the question of the Turks’ attitude towards the European Union, presented in the next chapter. The prospect of Turkey being admitted to the EU constitutes a topic which recurs quite often in the context of the Turkish diaspora’s presence in Europe.
Highly valuable is also the concluding chapter of the book, which analyses for example the changes in the character of the diaspora itself and its relations with the country of origin, changes connected with the latest social and political tendencies in the world, including globalization, the development of means of transport and communication and the related phenomenon of the emergence of transnational communities. The author examines also their influence on the European nation-states in which there appeared culturally different communities. These considerations also include references to the theoretical foundations of the topics under discussion.
The only complaint one could have about this book is that the author does not offer any comparisons with other European Muslim immigrant communities with similar problems. This deficiency, however, can be explained by the deeply ethnic character of the Turkish Muslim communities, their religious organizations and educational problems, as well as by the fact that they still remain to a large extent under the care of Turkish authorities, also as far as religion is concerned.
Since the book sums up 45 years of the author’s research on Turkish migrations, it is no wonder that it is exceptionally rich in content. It also includes a remarkably extensive bibliography (24 pages!) of publications in many languages, including a very broad selection of Turkish reference works. The bibliography does not list works published after 2005; this, however, is due to the fact that it was in 2005 that the book was published in German (in Turkish in 2002), and the bibliography takes into account references published up to that moment. Another advantage of the book is the presence of many tables with numerical data.
Due to the very broad spectrum of the discussed problems concerning Turkish immigrants in Europe, including the presentation of the wide socioeconomic background of these issues, Turks in Europe will prove exceedingly useful to scholars researching migration, multiculturalism or Islam in Europe, and not only to those interested exclusively in the problems of the Turkish diaspora.