A History of Turkish Migrant Workers in Germany
In the 1960s, Germany invited a widespread foreign labor recruitment, leading to many Turkish workers moving to Germany with work visas. These migrant workers became known as Gastarbeiter (guest workers). Most accounts of this Turkish migration speak of how the work opportunities in Germany could provide Turks with the means to provide for their families back home.
A common theme among migrant narratives was the impact of the language barrier upon their feelings of belonging, self-confidence, and freedom. One man stated that “When you don’t have enough words to express yourself, you lose self-respect” (Çakmak and Alı Sevgı 2019, 225). The establishment of Turkish businesses allowed Turkish immigrants spaces to gather and speak their own language.
The second wave of migrants came when the initial workers’ families came to join them in Germany. As children arrived, many of them learned German to fluency, breaking past the language barrier but experiencing a new type of detachment from both Germans and Turks as they sometimes felt alienated even from their own parents (Çakmak and Alı Sevgı 2019, 232). Later generations focused less on work and more on individual goals and expression (White 1997, 758). Despite the evolution of a German-Turk’s role in society, feelings of conflicted identity and Othering remained.