Transnational political practices and the receiving state: Turks and Kurds in Germany and the Netherlands

Abstract

This article examines how the social and political contexts in receiving countries affect the transnational political practices of migrants and refugees, such as their mobilization around political events in their homeland. The case study explores the political participation of Turks and Kurds in Germany and the Netherlands in its full complexity, that is in both the immigration country and in homeland politics. The findings suggest that transnational political practices should not be reduced to a function of the political opportunity structures of particular receiving countries for two main reasons: (a) more inclusive political structures, which provide for more participation and co-operation on immigrant political issues, may at the same time, and for that very reason, serve to exclude dialogue on homeland politics; (b) homeland political movements may draw on a different range of resources than their immigrant political counterparts, including those outside the local political institutional context.

Türkiye’den Avrupa’ya İşçi Göçünü Neler Etkilemektedir? Olayın Kapsamı ve Sonuçları

“…These efforts incorporate the development of ancient mosques and Muslim graveyards, the act of Muslim internment customs, dress codes, the custom butchering of creatures or the presentation of Islamic religious guidelines in public schools. According to Østergard-Nielsen (2003), the development of mosques and burial grounds in particular results in obvious changes to German cityscapes. By virtue of their architecture, size, and symbolic importance, such building arrangements have in all cases activated contention inside of neighboring groups.…”

Three Women in a City. Crossing Borders and Negotiating National Belonging

“…Amina El Asri originated from a country which has experienced a long history of colonisation and has also been marked by ethnic and political conflicts between Berbers, the original inhabitants of the country, and the Arabs, who conquered the country in the 8 th century (Vermeren 2010, p. 106). Gule Yildiz, the Kurdish woman on the other hand referred to a "nation" -the Kurdish one, which doesn't have its own State at the moment and is being shaped and practiced in transnational spaces (Østergaard-Nielsen 2003). Zuzana Svitá finally originated from a country where the nation, in a common discourse, is seen as a natural unit, closely linked to its state (Holy 1997) and which, since the fall of the iron curtain, has experienced new migration flows.…”

Diaspora and Transnationalism : Concepts, Theories and Methods

“…To the contrary, they are constituted by these agents. This move opens up venues for analysing different realms, such as the political one, and questions relating to the architecture of transnational political engagement (Østergaard-Nielsen 2003c), as well as an often neglected question about the relationship between political institutions and migrant transnational practices in crucial fields such as citizenship (Bauböck 2003).…”

“…One is by situating research in one geographical location, usually migrant-receiving areas, 3 but focusing on people's discourses about home and their feelings of belonging. Many transnational studies follow this line of questioning (Charles 1992;Østergaard-Nielsen 2001;Poros 2001;Salih 2002;Smith 1998). They are fundamental to the point that in order to understand migrant realities, it is not sufficient to study how migrants take on cultural forms of the countries in which they reside, or whether they participate in local labour markets.…”