190 Turkish and European Migration Experiences Then and Now: Evolving Narratives of Reciprocity, Belonging, Hospitality, and Vulnerability

Friday, March 30, 2018: 2:00 PM-3:45 PM
Avenue East Ballroom (InterContinental Chicago Magnificent Mile)
In this panel, we bring together research on Turkish and Bosnian return migrants, Turkish migrants to France and Germany and Syrian migrants to Turkey to explore narratives of reciprocity, belonging, hospitality and vulnerability that are animating public debates about integration and security in Europe and Turkey. Drawing inspiration from research that has highlighted the immense power of narratives to make sense of displacement, violence and cultural identity, the papers highlight how these narratives are shaping migrant inclusion and exclusion and notions of home and belonging. Using ethnographic and historical methodologies, we explore narratives related by migrants as well as those propelled by governments, the media and humanitarian activists to examine the following issues: how narratives of reciprocity play out in the (re-)integration struggles of Turkish return migrants from Germany, Turkish migrants to France and Syrian migrants to Turkey; how the deployment of notions of vulnerability results in the differentiated distribution of vulnerability within the same refugee community leading to the exclusion of some refugees as 'invulnerable' and the inclusion of others in humanitarian actors' contradictory political projects; how the concepts of home and belonging create the emotional dimension of citizenship for Bosnian return migrants; and how German and Turkish government policies towards German-Turks employ divergent narratives of identity and belonging. Together, these papers demonstrate striking historical continuities as well as inter-linkages between narratives mobilized by diverse migrant groups. More broadly, they delineate the key challenges and opportunities for the constitution of accommodating communities and multicultural citizenship within and beyond Europe.
Chair:
Susan Beth Rottmann
Discussant :
Alexia Bloch
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