German Nation and Its Strange Other: Turkish Migrants: the Constitutive Role of German National Identity in Turkish Migrants' Perception of Self and Other

The main aim of this study is to examine the constitutive role of German national identity in the identity construction of Turkish migrants. It tries to understand how and to what extent the constitution of migrants? identity is intermingled with German national identity. It is an attempt to demonstrate Turkish migrants? perception of ?Turkishness? and ?Otherness? in relation to the experience of migration and the host country?s national identity discourse. This study is based on the assumption that ?migrant position? is peculiar, as it constitutes a site of resistance to the national desire for coherence and integrity. The in- between position of the migrant does not allow the host nation for easy ?us? versus ?them? configuration. Turkish migrants introduce a disturbing indeterminacy into the German attempt of creating homogeneous and unitary national identity. Therefore, German nation either pushes Turkish migrants to the margins of society or erases their difference, thus melting them within the national identity and culture. These two methods both have crucial repercussions on the identity of the Turkish migrants.