Voting Patterns of Grandchildren of “Guest Workers” in Turkish Elections (2014-2018)
a Case Study on Political (Non-)Participation of Turkish Youth of Germany
The political integration of immigrants into the political systems of the settlement societies show that they accept to contribute to the political/civic life and going to polls of the host country appears consequently as the last stage of a successful integration for those who have been naturalized (Bilodeau 2008; Esser 2015). So, how should we interpret the fact that immigrants or people with foreign origin participate exclusively in the elections of their country of origin? Would it be considered as a failed process of adaptation or integration? Rather than the issue of voting in the settlement country, my paper examines the issue of external vote through the specific case of young Turkish citizens living in German.
In my PhD,thanks to semi-structured interviews I did with 57 young Turkish citizens living in the land North Rhine Westphalia of Germany, in this paper, I try to answer my research questions: to what extent the German context of life of young Turkish citizens living in Germany incite them to vote or not to vote in Turkish elections? Is there in Germany a group of politicized Turkish transmigrants/immigrants who participate in Turkey's politics while others would remain away from political engagement in Turkish general elections? It focuses on answers given by interviewees who have dual citizenship when questions concern voting activities in German elections while questions about integration and visibility in the German space include all the interviewees. Thus, I first investigate the way young people with Turkish background experience their everyday life in Germany and are or are not involved into and interested in German politics and social debates. Secondly, I scrutinize to what extent discrimination and islamophobia experienced in the German context can be roots for reactive ethnicity and religiosity and can consequently strengthen the interest for Turkish rather than German politics.