Double Standards: Contrasting German and Turkish Government Policies on Turkish Migrants in Germany

“We invited workers, but people came,” Max Frisch famously wrote about the Gastarbeiter program. Since a significant number of Turkish workers began moving to Germany to work in the 1960s, the migrants and their descendants have felt pressure from the German and Turkish governments about their rights and responsibilities. This paper examines both governments’ policy regarding the German-Turks in the light of the recent diplomatic disagreements, in particular German reaction to Turkish politicians campaigning in Germany before the 2017 Turkish constitutional referendum and Turkish statements about German general elections the same year. Beginning with the German government’s slow moves to accept these residents legally as citizens, I look at the German government’s efforts to “integrate” these newcomers by analysing regulatory reforms and primary documents issued by the federal and regional governments. Especially the government of North Rhine-Westphalia, one of the main population centres for German-Turks, has released publications both aimed at migrants themselves and at educators and others working with the population, particularly aimed at understanding Islam and combating Islamic extremism. The Turkish government’s programs such as the Office for Turks Living Abroad, the “blue card” for non-citizen ethnic Turks and the policy of employing religious leaders to serve Turkish Muslim communities abroad will also be examined. This analysis, contrasting the narratives of belonging and identity employed by both governments through their demands/expectations from German-Turks and concurrent efforts to integrate/retain them, will explore the state’s role in the conflicting identities of a transnational population.