50 Years and Beyond: The ‘Mirror’ of Migration - German Citizens in Turkey

Abstract

There are an estimated 90,000 – 120,000 German citizens living in Turkey. While laws and regulations pertaining to Turkey’s immigration regime mainly stem from the early years of the Republic, they have increasingly come under scrutiny. In an effort to keep up with the transformation of Turkey from a country of emigration into a country of immigration and at the same time, to align Turkish laws with the EU’s acquis communautaire, a reform process started in the late 1990s and is still going on today. This paper provides an overview of the heterogeneity of German citizens in Turkey, the general parameters shaping their transnational life-worlds and participation strategies, as well as citizenship issues and networking activities. The main conclusion is that there are heterogeneous groups of German citizens in Turkey with respect to their length of stay, civil and employment status etc., who have developed unique patterns of integration corresponding to their particular transnational life-worlds

Keywords

• German citizens, Turkey, participation strategies, citizenship, European integration.

References

1. Bianca Kaiser et als., “The Concept of Free Movement of Persons and Turkey’s Full Membership in the European Union”, in Final Project Report for the Research Fund of Marmara University, Marmara University, Istanbul, Project No. 2000/SOB-5., 2001.
2. Bianca Kaiser, “Social Life-Worlds of German Migrants in Turkey: The ‘Other Side’ of the Turkish-German Transnational Space”, in Thomas Faist and Eyüp Özveren (eds.), Transnational Social Spaces: Agents, Networks and Institutions, Avebury, London, Ashgate, 2004, pp. 91-110.
3. See also, Bianca Kaiser and Ahmet İçduygu, “EU-StaatsbürgerInnen in der Türkei”, in Barbara Pusch and Uğur Tekin (eds.), Migration und Türkei: Neue Bewegungen am Rande der Europäischen Union, Würzburg, Ergon Verlag, 2011, pp. 171-88.
4. See for instance: Marcel Erlinhagen et als., “Deutschland ein Auswanderungsland?”, in Wochenbericht des DIW Berlin Nr. 39/2009, at http://www.diw.de/documents/ publikationen/73/diw_01.c.340726.de/09-39-3.pdf [last visited on 11 November 2011].
5. “Turkish-German Marriages on the Rise”, Turkish Daily News, 28 February 2002; It must be taken into account, however, that this figure does not even yet include Turkish- German marriages made outside Germany.
6. Daniel Bax, “Schweigen ist Gold”, at http://www.taz.de/1/archiv/archiv/?dig=2007/03/19/ a0119 [last visited on 21 May 2012].
7. See Anne Dietrich, Deutschsein in Istanbul, Berlin, Leske und Buderich, 1987; Nedret Kuran- Burçoğlu, “Historischer Überblick über die kulturellen Beziehungen zwichen der Türkei und Deutschland”, in Hagen Lichtenberg, Muzaffer Dartan and Ali Eliş (eds.), Das Deutsch- Türkische Verhältnis: Auswirkungen auf den Beitrittsprozeß der Türkei zur Europäischen Union, Jean Monnet Lehrstuhl für Europarecht, University of Bremen, 2002, pp. 239-88.
8. USAK (International Strategic Research Organization), Yerleşik Yabancıların Türk Toplumuna Entegrasyonu), USAK Report No. 08-04 (with the support of TÜBİTAK), September 2008.

9. amounted to DM 80,- for the first permit, DM 40,- for each renewal, and around DM 100
10. For further information on this issue, see Tekinalp, “Aspekte des Niederlassungs- und Dienstleistungsverkehrs”.
11. See law no. 4817 on the Work Permit for Foreigners (Yabancıların Çalışma İzinleri Hakkında Kanun) of 27 February 2003, at http://www.mevzuat.gov.tr/Metin.Aspx?MevzuatKod=1.5.4 817&MevzuatIliski=0&sourceXmlSearch= [last visited 10 January 2012].
12. Interview with Can Ünver, Director-General, Turkish Labour and Social Affairs Ministry, 6 September 2002.
13. For details, see the draft law by the Labour and Social Security Ministry (T.C. Çalışma ve Sosyal Güvenlik Bakanlığı, 2001, pp. 1-16). For an evaluation of the situation of foreigners in Turkey by the Labour and Social Security Ministry see, T.C. Çalışma ve Sosyal Güvenlik Bakanlığı, 2002, pp. 37-38.
14. See all key documents and progress reports for Turkey on the European Commission’s official website, at http://ec.europa.eu/enlargement/candidate-countries/turkey/key_documents_ en.htm [last visited 20 December 2011].
15. As outlined in an interview by Prof.Dr. Aslan Gündüz, Professor of International Law at Istanbul Kültür University and former Director of the European Union Institute at Marmara University, on 5 October 2003.
16. Dr. Mehmet Köksal, a former long-standing board member and legal advisor of Die Brücke and trusted lawyer of the German Consulate Germany in Istanbul, was the legal representative for this case.
17. Recently, due to health care shortages, there have been reported efforts to liberalize the access to the labour market for foreign doctors, especially those from the Turkic Republics who have obtained their medical degrees in Turkey.
18. See the Regular Progress Reports on Turkey by the European Commission as quoted above.
19. Thomas Hammar, “Democracy and the Nation State: Aliens, Denizens and Citizens in a World of International Migration”, Aldershot, Avebury, 1990.
20. See the reformed Law No. 5543 on Settlement (İskan Kanunu) of 26 September 2006, at http://www.nvi.gov.tr/Files/File/Mevzuat/Nufus_Mevzuati/Kanun/pdf/IskanKanunu.pdf [last visited 17 December 2011].
21. See the reformed Law No. 5901 on Turkish Citizenship (Türk Vatandaşlığı Kanunu) of 29 May 2009, at http://www.nvi.gov.tr/Files/File/Mevzuat/Nufus_Mevzuati/Kanun/pdf/turk_ vatandasligi_kanunu.pdf [last visited on 15 December 2011]; see also Rona Aybay, Yurtaşlık Hukuku, Aybay Hukuk Araştırmaları Vakfı, Istanbul, 1991, pp. 35-48.
22. See also Bianca Kaiser, “German Migrants in Turkey: The ‘Other Side’ of the Turkish-German Transnational Space”, in Thomas Faist and Eyüp Özveren (eds.), Transnational Social Spaces, Aldershot, Ashgate, 2004, pp. 91-110.
23. The former pastor of the Protestant parish in Istanbul, Holger Neumann, has been awarded the German Bundesverdienstkreuz (Federal Cross of Merit) by the German President in October 2011. The parish continues to enjoy high publicity through the German state TV channel ZDF’s decision to broadcast its Sunday service on 15 January 2012, as reported by NA Presseportal, at http://www.presseportal.de/pm/7840/2178772/zdf-uebertraegt- evangelischen-gottesdienst-aus-istanbul-situation-der-christen-in-der-tuerkei-thema [last visited 11 January 2012].
24. For more information see the official website of Die Brücke, at http://www.bruecke-Istanbul. org [last visited 01 December 2011].
25. Dernek means “association” or “eingetragener Verein – e.V.”.
26. See the official website at http://www.netzwerk-tuerkei.org/netzwerk-turkei [last visited 05 January 2012].
27. See the official website, at http://www.alanya.bel.tr/translationen/actual.asp?fID=1949 [last visited 06 January 2012].
28. Detailed information on Die Brücke can be obtained from http://www.bruecke-istanbul.org/ [last visited 9 May 2012].
29. Several interviews were conducted with Uschi Akın during the years 2000 and 2001 in the initial stage of the author’s research on German and EU migrants in Turkey.
30. Kaiser et als., “The Concept of Free Movement of Persons and Turkey’s Full Membership in the European Union”; Ibid.
31. The option of obtaining a special permission for obtaining a second citizenship was available at that time already. Yet, lengthy administrative procedures were discouraging, and results were mostly negative.
32. One indication is the above-mentioned court decision on banning foreign pre-school teachers from Turkish institutions. In its decision, the court has for the first time recognized the European Agreement on Settlement as part of Turkish national law. Turkey had ratified the Agreement in 1989.
33. Notably decision 2/76 of 20 December 1976 (esp. Arts. 2 and 3); decision 1/80 of 19 September 1980 (esp. Art. 6); decision 3/80 of September 1980 (esp. Art. 4). The full text of all is reprinted in Bülent Çiçekli, The Legal Position of Turkish Immigrants in the European Union, Ankara, Karmap, 1998. For further evaluation see also Harun Gümrükçü, “EU-Bürger in der Türkei: Die noch ausstehende Auseinandersetzung um ihren Assoziationsstatus”.
34. An example of the transnational nature of these activities is my own contribution on that subject in a TV program (Çözüme Doğru) on 14 April 2001, with Turkish and German participants of a conference on Turkish-German relations held in Istanbul on 11-13 April 2001. TRT International broadcasted the TV program both in Turkey and Germany. The Goethe Institute in Istanbul provided for simultaneous translation facilities during the course of the program.