Inter-migrant dynamics and cumulative experiences of racism in Germany

This research project deals with power and hierarchy relations both within migrant groups and in relation to the dominant society. Using intergenerational and intersectional approaches, the aim is to make the ethnic, religious and ideological heterogeneity of migrant communities visible using the example of people of Turkish origin in Germany, as well as to identify related experiences of discrimination, racist entanglements and relevant intersectional factors.

While migrant groups in activist and civil society spaces are increasingly raising awareness of and drawing attention to inter-migrant dynamics and transnational racisms, using key concepts such as anti-Kurdish, anti-evitist or anti-Zidic racism, there are still major conceptual and empirical gaps in the academic community. Previous studies have largely focused on the inequality ideologies of specific 'ultranationalist' groups (e.g. Bozay 2017; Küpeli 2020) and have dealt with interethnic (e.g. Østergaard-Nielsen 2003; Baser 2015) or interreligious conflicts (e.g. Jikeli 2012; Kiefer 2007; Stender 2008). However, much less research has been done on how this affects the everyday lives of less visible groups, particularly from an intersectional and intergenerational perspective. One exception here is the current study by Prof. Dr. Çinur Ghaderi entitled "Diversity and racism in the migration society with a focus on (anti-)Kurdish racism", whose initial research findings were made available in October 2023 in the form of an expertise dossier by the Mediendienst Integration (Ghaderi & Almstadt 2023).In order to address this need for research, this project focuses on the conceptual development of a transnational concept of racism and on an empirical analysis of the perspectives of those affected by previously marginalized groups within communities of Turkish origin in Germany.

The research project aims to take a differentiated look at power and domination relations in post-migrant society and wants to empirically record how these are perceived by the affected communities. In addition to the perspective of those affected, the research project also focuses on the relational level in order to investigate how racisms and ideologies of inequality are accumulated, reproduced, adapted and/or overcome in inter-migrant contexts using the example of heterogeneous communities of Turkish origin. With the conceptual development of a transnational concept of racism, which considers the effectiveness of historically traced racisms and ideologies of inequality from different national contexts and empirically processes their various articulations in Germany, it is our aim to make a significant empirical and theoretical contribution to racism research in Germany. This research project pursues a high scientific and socio-political interest in understanding racism in Germany in its various manifestations and transnational interconnections - a prerequisite for being able to counteract racism in all its forms.

The research project develops a cross-generational and intersectional perspective that is methodologically based on guided interviews with people of Turkish origin in Germany, workshop discussions with representatives of civil society organizations and focus groups. The interviewees are roughly stratified according to so-called migration generations and gender composition. The focus groups are set up in such a way that intergenerational and intergroup dynamics can be examined. In addition, field notes from participatory observation will be used to record non-verbal communication in particular when analyzing the data.

The theoretical framework is based on the body of knowledge of critical racism research, migration and integration research and critical Turkey research. Beyond the testing of discrimination, this research project is located in the theories of racism-critical literature. Based on the assumption that racism can be distinguished from discrimination on the basis of the repertoire with which it is analyzed (Foroutan 2020), this research project focuses primarily on identifying historical and transnational continuities, emotional-identificatory processes and relational relationships.

In the sense of an accompanying academic and civil society process, additional talks and group discussions will take place with experts and representatives of migrant organizations, which will contribute to networking and serve to reflect on the interim results of the ongoing study in a continuous exchange.

Initial qualitative data confirm the initial hypotheses that common dichotomous categories and a simplified understanding of the impact of racism fall short of the mark. The data collected so far indicates that experiences of racism and discrimination within communities of Turkish origin are not only to be classified as individual experiences of people, but must be understood in the context of political and historical continuities that can also be located in Germany and have the potential to become effective in interaction with other salient racisms and ideologies of inequality.

The research project began in May 2023 and will initially run until the end of 2024.

The community of people of Turkish origin in Germany is very diverse and their migration biographies are just as varied. The terminological change from "of Turkish origin" to "of Turkish origin" in academic and public spaces aims to linguistically recognize the ethnic, religious and ideological heterogeneity of people of Turkish origin living in Germany.

On the one hand, cumulative experiences of racism are "a form of exercising power that interacts with other dimensions of social relations, for example sexism or classism" (Foroutan 2020, p. 15). On the other hand, this project assumes that racisms can be located both in national contexts and in the transnational space, can be integrated into new social contexts and have the potential to become effective through interaction with other salient racisms and ideologies of inequality. We speak of cumulative experiences of racism when individuals and/or groups not only experience multiple discrimination on the basis of characteristics such as ethnicity, class or gender, but are also exposed to the interaction of different racisms that can occur together or separately.