PUB - Publikationen an der Universität Bielefeld

In the past decade, the idea of social integration has been challenged in Europe by the rise of populist movements and politics across the continent. On the one hand, immigrants are homogenised and alleged to constitute 'parallel societies' based on an assumptive 'failed integration' hypothesis within academia and society at large. On the other hand, people of Turkish descent in Europe are torn between cultural assimilation and inculcated Turkish nationalism targeting their ethnonational identification in their country of residence. In this paper, by taking historical, political, and social psychological perspectives into account, we focus on ethnonational identifications of Turkish-Germans across religious and nationalist communities to examine proximities and overlaps between their identity expressions along with their reactions to Germany and Turkey. Our findings, based on ethnographic observations and thematic analysis of interviews, fall in line with Kaya's (2019) hypothesis on the essentialisation of culture and identity in transnational spaces. Yet, we expand the idea basically into two directions. First, essentialisation intensifies by the involvement with the home state's diaspora policies. Secondly, communities without political recognition and support tend to homogenise socially which may indicate a brand of national and religious isolationism.