PERCEPTIONS, CONTESTATIONS AND NEGOTIATIONS ON RACE, ETHNICITY AND GENDER: THE CASE OF SUB-SAHARAN AFRICAN MIGRANTS IN İSTANBUL

Yıl 2013, Cilt: 68 Sayı: 01, 59 - 81, 01.01.2013

Brigitte Suter

https://doi.org/10.1501/SBFder_0000002273

Cited By: 1

Öz

Drawing from ethnographic material collected during fieldwork in İstanbul between 2007 and 2009, this article departs from the increased presence of nationals from Sub-Saharan African countries in Turkey, and in three sections looks at how ethnic relations, conceptualised as processes of boundary-making, play out between these migrants and the Turkish majority population. Grounded in a constructivist paradigm and applying an intersectional perspective, the first section looks at how the discourse of the Other in the mainstream is perceived, internalised, made sense of and to some part resisted. The second section ‘returns the gaze’ and gives room for my interlocutor’s’ perception of the mainstream’s ethnicity, while the last section looks at how whiteness is perceived when it becomes gendered. Apart from race, ethnicity and gender, research participants also regarded religion and legal status as dominant markers of identity and difference in the Turkish context.

Anahtar Kelimeler

Ethnicity, race, gender, African migrants, Turkey

Irk, Etnisite ve Toplumsal Cinsiyet Üzerine Algılar, Çekişmeler ve Müzakereler: İstanbul’da Sahra Altı Afrikalı Göçmenler Örneği

Öz

Bu çalışmada 2007-2009 arasında İstanbul’da yapılan saha araştırmaları sonucu elde edilen verilere dayanılarak, Sahra altı Afrika ülkelerinden gelen göçmenlerin Türkiye’de artan varlıkları incelenmektedir. Makalede üç bölüm halinde etnik ilişkilerin bağlılık kurma sürecinde nasıl rol oynadığı ve göçmenlerle yerel halk arasındaki ilişkilerin nasıl kurulduğu analiz edilmiştir. Konstrüktivist paradigmadan temel alan makale ‘öteki’ kavramının nasıl kurulduğu, içselleştirildiği ve bazı durumlarda nasıl karşı çıkıldığı anlatılmıştır.

Anahtar Kelimeler

Etnisite, ırk, toplumsal cinsiyet, Afrikalı göçmenler, Türkiye

Kaynakça

• Anthias, Floya and Nira Yuval-Davis (1983), "Contextualizing Feminism: Gender, Ethnic and Class Divisions." Feminist Review, 15: 62-75.
• Barth, Fredrik (1969), "Introduction", ed. Barth, Fredrik, Ethnic Groups and Boundaries, (Oslo: Universitetsförlaget).
• Brewer, Kelly T. and Deniz H. Yükseker, A Survey on African Migrants and Asylum Seekers in İstanbul, MiReKoç Research Projects 2005-2006, İstanbul, MiReKoç, 2006.
• Butler, Judith (1986), "Sex and Gender in Simone De Beauvoir's Second Sex", Yale French Studies, 72: 35-49.
• Cornell, Stephen and Douglas Hartmann (2007), Ethnicity and Race. Making Identities in a Changing World, Thousand Oaks, (London: Sage Publications).
• Doğan, Erhan (2007), "Locating Xenophobia in Turkey", Berggren, Erik, Branka Likić-Brborić,
• Gülay Toksöz and Nicos Trimikliniotis (eds.), Irregular Migration, Informal Labour and Community: A Challenge for Europe, (Maastricht: Shaker Publishing): 430-445.
• Ergin, Murat (2008), "'Is the Turk a White Man?' Towards a Theoretical Framework for Race in the Making of Turkishness" Middle Eastern Studies, 44 (6): 827-850.
• Eriksen, Thomas Hylland (1993), Etnicitet och Nationalism, (Dora: Nya Doxa).
• Helsinki Citizens' Assembly Turkey (2007). "We will be Pursuing the Case of Nigerian Asylum Seeker, Festus Okey, who has been killed at the Beyoğlu Police Department", Helsinki Citizen's Assembly Turkey, (İstanbul).
• Hughes, Everett (1945), "Dilemmas and Contradictions of Status", The American Journal of Sociology: 353-359.
• Içduygu, Ahmet and Kristen Biehl (2008), Living Together Programme, Migrant Cities Research: İstanbul, (İstanbul: British Council).
• Koser, Khalid (2003), "New African Diasporas: An Introduction" Koser, Khalid (ed.), New African Diasporas, (London; New York: Routledge): 111-124.
• Lange, Anders and Charles Westin (1981), Forskningsöversikt och teoretisk analys. Etnisk diskriminering och social identitet. En rapport från Diskrimineringsutredningen, (Stockholm: Liber Förlag).
• Listerborn, Carina (2012), "Suburban Women and the ‘Glocalisation’ of the Everyday Lives: Gender and Glocalities in Underprivileged Areas in Sweden." Gender, Place & Culture: 1-23.
• Osanami Törngren, Sayaka (2011)., "Love Ain't Got no Color? - Attitude Toward Interracial Marriage in Sweden", Doctoral thesis, Migration and Ethnic Studies, Linköping University and Malmö University, (Linköping and Malmö).
• Özkan, Mehmet and Birol Akgün (2010), "Turkey’s Opening to Africa", Journal of Modern African Studies, 48 (4): 525-546.
• Piper, Nicola and Mina Roces (2003), Wife Or Worker? Asian Women and Migration, Lanham, (Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield)
• Sager, Tore (2008)., "Freedom as Mobility: Implications of the Distinction between Actual and Potential Travelling", eds. Bergmann, Sigurd and Tore Sager, Spaces of Mobility. The Planning, Ethics, Engineering and Religion of Human Motion, (London: Equinox)
• Schapendonk, Joris (2011), "Turbulent Trajectories. Sub-Saharan African Migrants Heading North", Doctoral thesis, Radboud University Nijmegen, (Nijmegen).
• Suter, Brigitte (2012a), "Social Networks in Transit: Experiences of Nigerians Migrants in İstanbul", Journal of Immigrant and Refugee Studies, 10 (4).
• Suter, Brigitte (2012b), "Tales of Transit: Sub-Saharan African Migrants' Experiences in İstanbul", Doctoral thesis, Migration and Ethnic Studies, Linköping University and Malmö University, (Linköping and Malmö).
• Suter, Brigitte and Theodore Baird, "‘If You Want to Climb a Tree, You have to start from the Bottom’: Patterns of Establishing Livelihoods among Sub-Saharan African Migrants in İstanbul." (submitted).
• Timmerman, Christine (2006), "Gender Dynamics in the Context of Turkish Marriage Migration: The Case of Belgium." Turkish Studies, 7 (1): 125-143.
• Yuval-Davis, Nira (2011), The Politics of Belonging. Intersectional Contestations, (London: Sage Publications Ltd)