| This dissertation examines the development of Germany's Turkish organizations from 1961 to 1998 and compares them to ex-Yugoslavian, Greek, Italian, and Spanish associations. It is based on 12 months of fieldwork, extensive elite interviews, and survey data. My chief empirical findings are that Turkish associational life in Germany has become more rather than less fragmented over time and that preoccupation with homeland conflicts has grown rather than being supplanted by absorption with issues emerging from the host country. In these respects, Turkish associations differ from those of other immigrant groups in the Federal Republic. I argue that ethno-cultural and institutional factors best explain these developments. Germany's Turkish inhabitants share a strong sense of ethno-cultural discontent vis-a-vis the host society that provides a basis for group cohesion. My central thesis is that the community has failed to become a cohesive force despite this discontent because a "transnational political opportunity structure" entices its associations' leaders to focus on homeland differences at the expense of common causes. While by definition all immigrant-origin peoples potentially operate within a transnational political space, the characteristics of the opportunity structure within which Germany's Turkish residents live are distinct. Organizational activists direct discontent as described because the homeland focus provides an alternative to cultural and linguistic domination from either the host society or from other Turkish factions. |
