The 50^th Anniversary of Migration from Turkey to Germany

“(Re)Considering the Last 50 Years of Migration and Current Immigration Policies in Germany”

October 26^th-28^th, 2011

Goethe Institute and Carnegie Endowment for International Peace,

Washington, DC

About the conference 

October 2011 marks the 50th anniversary of the signing of the bilateral recruitment agreement between the Federal Republic of Germany and Turkey. Today, the original wave of Turkish guest workers and their offspring constitute the second largest non-native group after ethnic German immigrants ("resettlers") in the Federal Republic. Given that current immigration debates in Germany focus for the most part on Turks living in Germany who possess German and/or Turkish citizenship, this academic conference will utilize the occasion of this anniversary to illuminate the broader issues relating to immigration in Germany.

The conference brings scholars, policy experts, and practitioners together to articulate the contemporary debates on migration and immigration policy in Germany, and to compare the German case to other European countries as well as North America from interdisciplinary and international perspectives. The focus on immigration from Turkey to Germany over an extended period (1961-2011) will permit a close examination of the dynamics of discourse on immigration, and how these discourses have shaped public attitudes and political debate, which in turn have influenced the course of migration policies in Germany.

Against this background, the following specific questions will be addressed at various conference panels:

• What makes migration in/to Germany different from other countries of immigration?
• In comparison to other European countries, is immigration an exceptional issue in the sociopolitical and historical context of Germany and, if so, what makes it exceptional?
• Historically, how has German society dealt with diversity?  What roles do race, ethnicity, and religion play in the incorporation and acceptance of immigrants?
• The 1961 agreement with Turkey was the first signed by Germany with a country considered to be both non-European and Islamic.  What significance has this had over the course of the past 50 years, and especially in the years since 9/11?
• What kinds of images of immigrants are created and conveyed by the German mass media? What links can be found between these media representations -- especially those relating to gender-related topics such as violence, oppression, integration and education -- and acceptance of immigrants in the society as a whole?
• Considering the impact of the global economic crisis, have immigrants come to be regarded as economicallysuperfluousand even as obstaclesby native Germans?
• How important are the public policies and overarching legal framework that promote political diversity, equal treatment, and anti-discrimination for immigrant rights and political participation, both in a formal sense and in terms of practical experiences? 

Bringing together a wide variety of experts, the conference will further the discussion on the above-mentioned questions and on immigration policies. It aims to add impulses for novel approaches to these issues in which current academic analysis is considered in policy making. 

Conference Program:

Wednesday, October 26^th, 2011

Goethe-Institut

812 7^th Street, NW

Washington, DC 20001

6:00pm: Welcome

Asiye Kaya: Opening Talk [BMW Center for German and European Studies, Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University]

6:30pm: Film Screening: “Almanya - Welcome in Germany” (2010) 

Reception to follow the film

Thursday, October 27^th, 2011

Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

1779 Massachusetts Ave, NW

Washington, DC 20036

10:00am: Welcome

10:15-12:15pm:    Germany as an Immigration Country and its Others

Cornelia Wilhelm: Diversity in Germany: A Historical Perspective [Tam Institute for Jewish Studies, Emory University]

Deniz Göktürk: Sites of Migration: Moving Containers, Transient Archives [Department of German, University of California Berkley]

Ruth Mandel: Fifty Years of Migration, Fifty Years of Waiting: Turkey, Germany and the EU [Anthropology, University College London]

Moderator: Lily Gardner-Feldman [American Institute for Contemporary German Studies, Washington, DC]

12:15-1:15pm:      Lunch will be served

1:15-2:45pm:         Media – Representations and/of Immigrants

Zeynep Kilic and Jennifer Petzen: Give Me Your Educated, Your Artists, Your Creative Masses: Commodification of Immigrant Art and Artists in the Migration Context [Sociology, University of Alaska Anchorage and Diversity Studies and Alice Salomon University of Applied Sciences in Berlin]

Katrin Sieg: Ordinary Cosmopolitans: Postmigrant Documentary Theater in Berlin [BMW Center for German and European Studies, Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University]

Moderator: TBD

2:45-3:00pm:         Coffee Break

3:00-5:00pm:         Identity – Belonging and Transnationality

Czarina Wilpert: Identities and Ethnicity in the Migration from Turkey to Germany: A Historical View [Sociology, Technical University in Berlin]

Daniel Williams: Being a Citizen and Being a German: Second Generation Migrants and Belonging in Germany [Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Sociology, University of Maryland College Park]

Halil Can: Alevi Belongings Beyond Borders – Transnational and Multigenerational Identities and Politizations Between Turkey and Diaspora [Ph.D. Candidate, Institute for European Ethnology, Humboldt University in Berlin]

Moderator: Yvonne Haddad [Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University]

Friday, October 28^th, 2011

Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

1779 Massachusetts Ave, NW

Washington, DC 20036

9:15am: Welcome

9:30-11:30am:      Social Justice – Integration-Participation

Paul Mecheril: ‘Integration’ as Dispositive: A Critique [Intercultural Education, Department of Pedagogy, University of Oldenburg, Germany]

Esra Erdem: Social Milieus and Integration Policies: A Critique from a Social Justice Perspective [Research Unit Gender & Globalization, Humboldt University in Berlin]

Cengiz Barskanmaz: “Eternal Migrants” Seeking Racial Justice [Law and Society Institute in Berlin]

                         Moderator: Eric Langenbacher [Government Department, Georgetown University]

11:30-11:40am:    Coffee Break

11:40-1:00pm:      Race, Gender and Intersections

Jin Haritaworn: Regenerating Degenerate Bodies and Spaces: Transatlantic Travels of ‘The Ghetto’ from Moynihan to Pfeiffer [Sociology, University of Helsinki]

Maureen Maisha Eggers: Negotiating Intersections of Racialization and Gender Framing in Berlin Schools – Diversity as a New Term of Address? [Childhood and Diversity, Magdeburg-Stendal University of Applied Sciences]

                                    Moderator: TBD

1:00-2:00pm:         Lunch will be served

2:00-4:00pm:         Roundtable Discussion with Politicians and Scholars: Immigration Policies and Immigrants

                                    With: Susan Martin [Institute for the Study of International Migration (ISM), Georgetown University]

                                             Michael Werz [Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress, Washington, DC]

                                             Sebastian Edathy [Member of the German Parliament SPD]

                                             Özcan Mutlu [MP Berlin State Parliament]

Moderator: Asiye Kaya [BMW Center for German and European Studies, Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University]

4:00pm:                   Closing Remarks

Made possible with support from the following organizations: