Turkish migrant life in Germany - Access denied

 Government agreements facilitate exploitation by business interests and provide a source of income to the country exporting its workers. Religion, racism and language problems are useful tools to stop migrants demanding their rights, with echoes of colonialism. Historical events in both countries can have unexpected impacts.

Graham Douglas

The story of the Turkish immigrant community in Germany offers many insights into how migrant communities survive and resist racism and economic exploitation. Cultural activities  can be suppressed to facilitate economic exploitation, and yet they also provide innovative solutions for the migrant community: in this case through music production.

There are about 3 million people of Turkish descent in Germany: it is the biggest immigrant group, and of Turkish people outside Turkey.

The German government first invited so-called guest workers (Gastarbeiter) in 1955, and this was followed by an agreement between the two countries in 1961 – which suited the two governments very well.

Turkish immigrants in Germany quickly discovered that they were living in a parallel universe as hidden workers, excluded from the rest of German society. As someone in Cem Kaya’s film says, at the time of the Ford worker strikes, and referring to the writer Max Frisch - “They wanted workers, but they got human beings”.

This story is told through the fortunes of music production, in a film Love, Deutschmarks and Death, by Cem Kaya, which was shown at the Indielisboa film festival. I was not able to interview the film director, but I did have fascinating conversations with Professor Holger Lund, whose article on the hidden history of Turkish music also referenced Cem Kaya’s valuable assistance.

This interview was first published in The Prisma online multicultural newspaper on June 6th 2022, where you can read the full piece with its photos:

https://theprisma.co.uk/2022/06/06/turkish-migrant-life-in-germany-access-denied/