Having migrated from their native country with the encouragement of the German authorities for the purpose of finding work, Turkish residents in the Federal Republic have long been regarded, and are occasionally pitied, as an underclass with lower educational or vocational qualifications than Germans of their age group and fewer opportunities for socio-economic participation. In today's “risk society,” their place appears to be “ganz unten,” that is, at the bottom. Some observers even view Islam, and values or political orientations associated with it, as lacking modernity and believe that Turks would do better to abandon them. Does not present-day Germany offer integration to those who wish to make use of it? Does it not allow, and indeed encourage acculturation to the practices and practicalities of daily living in Germany, making “otherness” quasi voluntary and ultimately obsolete?

This essay does not share these assumptions about social or cultural boundaries between Turks and Germans and the intrinsically negative meaning of difference. Rather, it starts out from the notion that the only feature common to the population designated as “Turks” in Germany is their country of origin. Even here, region, religion, customs, class, family and social status, to name just a few indicators, determine what being Turkish means to individuals. People of Turkish extraction living in Germany share the fact that somewhere in their biography, or the biography of their family, the experience of migration and arrival features — no more, and no less.