Emergence and aftermath of proactive transnational politics in Turkey: A case study on ethnoreligious diasporic communities

Bayad A, Sandal-Önal E, Düzen NE. Emergence and aftermath of proactive transnational politics in Turkey: A case study on ethnoreligious diasporic communities. OSF Preprints. 2023.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

Bildiğimiz Akademinin Sonu:: Travma Politikasına Karşı Kollektif Hafıza İnşası

This article intends to open up a discussion over the assertion that a calculated trauma policy is among the chief factors preparing the end of academia as we know it. We exemplify the impacts of a guided trauma policy in reference to devastating social incidents and academic purges of the recent past; namely the dismissals of Academics for Peace, failed coup of 15 July and the experiences of students whose universities were shut down by a statutory decree. We hold that defining trauma by relying only on individuals’ experiential reflections ends in a deficient and flawed definition of the phenomenon. We posit that it is hardly possible to develop effective intervention approaches without taking into account the collective projections of trauma. We maintain that trauma-generating catastrophic social incidents are meant to be experienced collectively on one hand, yet the same experience is besieged to hinder its transformation into a collective memory on the other. We emphasize that controllability rather than predictability is the main tenet in understanding the collectively experienced trauma. We emphasize the need for expanding the scope of the definition of the phenomenon by referring to the studies concerning collective traumas experienced during the recent academic purge. We propose that a functional intervention strategy to develop restorative approaches against the detrimental effects of a guided trauma policy calls for building a collective memory. We envisage that the intervention processes which are not developed collectively would limit ameliorating and improving impacts and make it difficult to transfer acquisitions into real life settings. We posit that setting up the academia anew or carrying it beyond what we have known of it may be realized through building up and maintaining the collective memory of collectively experienced traumas

Transnational Influences on Migrant Identities and Social Cohesion: A Study Protocol

Sandal-Önal E, Bayad A, Zick A, Düzen NE. Transnational Influences on Migrant Identities and Social Cohesion: A Study Protocol. Genealogy. 2022;6(1): 9.This project examines how Turkish postmigrants in Germany position themselves against the influences of the German state’s integration and the Turkish government’s diasporic policies. We argue that the double influx of host and home states lures Turkish postmigrants into an identity trap subjecting their in-between position to exploitation in transnational negotiations. As their own perspective is poorly addressed in literature, this study fills this gap by reference to postmigrants’ standpoint. We hypothesize that the positioning of Turkish postmigrants in Germany is reflected through identity expressions and priority of belongings. We will carry out an exploratory assessment with three work packages. Study 1 will decode the Turkish postmigrant figure addressed by both states. Major media outlets most attended by postmigrants will be analyzed to display the imagined figure. Study 2 will inform the trajectory of the Turkish national identity narrative across important milestones over the migration chronology. A structured archival study will unearth the discursive mutations through political leaders’ speeches. Finally, Study 3 will exclusively confer postmigrants’ viewpoints against both influences. The project consults a conceptual framework in terms of diaspora generating, diaspora shaping, collective nostalgia, and social cohesion to expand on understanding how Turkish postmigrants express their identities and prioritize their belongings across their in-between existence

Transnational Influences on Migrant Identities and Social Cohesion: A Study Protocol

This project examines how Turkish postmigrants in Germany position themselves against the influences of the German state’s integration and the Turkish government’s diasporic policies. We argue that the double influx of host and home states lures Turkish postmigrants into an identity trap subjecting their in-between position to exploitation in transnational negotiations. As their own perspective is poorly addressed in literature, this study fills this gap by reference to postmigrants’ standpoint. We hypothesize that the positioning of Turkish postmigrants in Germany is reflected through identity expressions and priority of belongings. We will carry out an exploratory assessment with three work packages. Study 1 will decode the Turkish postmigrant figure addressed by both states. Major media outlets most attended by postmigrants will be analyzed to display the imagined figure. Study 2 will inform the trajectory of the Turkish national identity narrative across important milestones over the migration chronology. A structured archival study will unearth the discursive mutations through political leaders’ speeches. Finally, Study 3 will exclusively confer postmigrants’ viewpoints against both influences. The project consults a conceptual framework in terms of diaspora generating, diaspora shaping, collective nostalgia, and social cohesion to expand on understanding how Turkish postmigrants express their identities and prioritize their belongings across their in-between existence

Transnational Influences on Migrant Identities and Social Cohesion: A Study Protocol

This project examines how Turkish postmigrants in Germany position themselves against the influences of the German state’s integration and the Turkish government’s diasporic policies. We argue that the double influx of host and home states lures Turkish postmigrants into an identity trap subjecting their in-between position to exploitation in transnational negotiations. As their own perspective is poorly addressed in literature, this study fills this gap by reference to postmigrants’ standpoint. We hypothesize that the positioning of Turkish postmigrants in Germany is reflected through identity expressions and priority of belongings. We will carry out an exploratory assessment with three work packages. Study 1 will decode the Turkish postmigrant figure addressed by both states. Major media outlets most attended by postmigrants will be analyzed to display the imagined figure. Study 2 will inform the trajectory of the Turkish national identity narrative across important milestones over the migration chronology. A structured archival study will unearth the discursive mutations through political leaders’ speeches. Finally, Study 3 will exclusively confer postmigrants’ viewpoints against both influences. The project consults a conceptual framework in terms of diaspora generating, diaspora shaping, collective nostalgia, and social cohesion to expand on understanding how Turkish postmigrants express their identities and prioritize their belongings across their in-between existence

Don’t they want to, or can’t they? Political Participation and Engagement by Turkish postmigrant Youth in Germany

Demir Z, Bayad A, Uysal MS, Düzen NE, Zick A. Don’t they want to, or can’t they? Political Participation and Engagement by Turkish postmigrant Youth in Germany. In: Politisierung von Jugend. 1st ed. Weinheim: Beltz Juventa ; 2024: 204-221.This chapter rounded up reflects the converging arguments presented by the authors in a panel held at the Annual Conference of the Centre for Childhood and Youth Studies (ZKJF) in cooperation with the Institute for Interdisciplinary Research on Conflict and Violence (IKG) at Bielefeld University. The theme of the conference was politicization of youth bearing a split focus on two questions: How is youth politicized? & How do youth politicize

Feeling at home: an explorative field study of seasonal agricultural workers with different (dis)location backgrounds

The sense of feeling at home by people ‘on the move’ was inquired through an adaptation of the homemaking approach. Two groups of people who make their living by working in agricultural sites (internally mobile seasonal agricultural workers and internationally displaced migrant workers) were reached out to examine associations between feeling at home, social interactions, perceived degradation, and subjective well-being. Results showed that both worker groups (seasonal and displaced workers) felt at home despite precarious working and living conditions. Expectedly, feeling at home was predicted significantly by social interactions with others; however, the type of interactions also determined the direction of the effects. While within-group interaction (binding ties) predicted feeling at home positively, across-groups interaction (bridging ties) predicted it negatively for both groups. Additionally, perceived degradation and subjective well-being moderated the effect of feeling at home partially: the effect emerged for across-groups but not for within-group interactions. In conclusion, the notion of binding and bridging ties could help to attain an increased explanatory power rather than contact theory alone in understanding the patterns of feeling at home.</p